Accessible Design Course by Intopia February 2018 Looking after your family’s future - accessibility for an ageing population Andrew Arch  @amja andrew@intopia.digital Senior Digital Accessibility Consultant creating an inclusive digital world intopia.digital  @Intopia http://intopia.digital

Some facts

Fact: Australia’s population is ageing Year 65+ years 80+ years 2010 14% 1.8% 2020 16% 2.1% 2030 19% 2.4% 2040 21% 3.5% 2050 22% 4.4% In fact an 8yo is now estimated to have a 50% chance of living to 105 Source: ABS 3222.0 - Population Projections, Australia, 2012 (base) to 2101 For a dynamic view see the ABS Population Pyramid 

Fact: other countries are ageing faster In fact an 8yo is now estimated to have a 50% chance of living to 105 Source: Population Pyramids of the World from 1950 to 2100 https://www.populationpyramid.net/world/2016/ 

Fact: older people increasingly online Source: ACMA - Digital lives of older Australians (Aug 2016 )

Fact: older people do similar things online, just not as frequently Percent of users undertaking activity in 4-week period in June 2015 Source: ACMA - Digital lives of older Australians (Aug 2016 )

Fact: age brings disability In 2015, 18.6% of females and 18.0% of males had disability 51% aged 65 and over have a disability, compared to 13% under 65 5 to 14 years (males 12.0% and females 7.0%) 65 to 69 years (males 39.7% and females 36.0%). 90+ years - 68.3% of females had a profound or severe limitation cf with 51.2% of males Source: ABS 4430.0 - Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings, 2015 

What are age-related disabilities? How can we accommodate them?

Ageing and hearing loss Impact: Audio can be difficult to discern Higher pitch sounds can be missed Prevalence: 47% of people 61 to 80 years 93% of people 81+ years

Ageing and hearing loss Solutions Captions Audio contrast Image: https://www.3playmedia.com/2016/08/09/new-zealand-parliament-tv-adds-closed-captioning/

Ageing and vision decline Impact: Decreasing ability to focus on near tasks Changing colour perception and sensitivity Decreasing contrast sensitivity Prevalence: (significant vision loss) 16% of people 65 - 74 years 19% of people 75 – 84 years 46% of people 85+ years

Ageing and vision decline Solutions Larger text Higher contrast Off-white background Avoid florescent colours Underline links Reflow Image: https://www.giaging.org/issues/vision/

Ageing and physical decline Impact: (Motor skill decline can result from many conditions including arthritis and Parkinson's Disease) Difficulty using mouse Including hand-eye coordination for some Difficulty clicking small targets Strain from non-ergonomic tasks Prevalence: (Conditions most commonly reported) Arthritis At least 50% of people over 65 affected Essential tremor Affects up to 20% of people over 65 Parkinson's Disease Approximately 4% of people over 85 affected All heard about the IT support experience of “point your mouse at the XX”? Mouse use – also hand-eye coordination

Ageing and physical decline Solutions Target size Clickable labels Pointer gestures Pointer cancellation Visible focus Image: Copyright Andrew Arch

Ageing and cognitive decline Impact: Navigation, comprehension, and task completion can be affected by: Short term memory problems Difficulty with concentration Distraction from movement or irrelevant material Difficulty coping with information overload Struggle adapting to change Prevalence: (Conditions most commonly reported) Dementia: 1.4% of people 65-69 yrs 24% of people 85+ yrs  Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is more common: Around 20% of people over 70 years are estimated to experience MCI

Ageing and cognitive decline Solutions Clear headings Error prevention Error identification Error suggestion On focus and change of content Pause, hide, stop for movement and animations Image: https://advancedwellness.com.au/cognition-ageing-brain-natural-treatment-sunshine-coast/ Image: https://advancedwellness.com.au/cognition-ageing-brain-natural-treatment-sunshine-coast/

Engage early – during design

Create User Stories Components Writing User Outcome Value As a user, I want outcome As a user, I want outcome so that value In order to get value as a user, I want outcome Ref: How to Write User Stories for Web Accessibility

Example User Stories As an older person with poor hearing, I want captions on videos so that I can understand the dialogue As an older person with cataracts (blue and green is harder to see), I want links underlined so that I know where to click to find the information I need As an older person with Parkinson’s disease, I want large clickable elements so that I can navigate more easily As an older person with concentration issues, I don’t want animations autoplaying so I can read the article I selected

Web accessibility matters https://www.w3.org/WAI/older-users/

Accessible Design Course by Intopia February 2018 ‘Accessibility is just the beginning. It is usability that makes the difference.’ Patti Moore UX Australia keynote 2016 Which includes ‘readbility’ http://intopia.digital

Look after your ageing family  And the ageing you  Image: https://www.haveyoursaygleneira.com.au/positive-ageing-strategy

Let’s continue the conversation Accessible Design Course by Intopia February 2018 Let’s continue the conversation  Intopia  amja  andrew@intopia.digital creating an inclusive digital world intopia.digital http://intopia.digital