EAGER: Understanding Online Communication for Older Adults with Late-Life Vision Loss

社会计算的出现和快速发展为许多学科提出了重大的研究挑战，特别是人机交互。与此同时，视力障碍和失明的患病率在75岁以后迅速增加，这可能会显著影响老年人使用计算机技术的能力。PI认为，如果不投资于老年社会联系的新技术，作为一个社会，我们将危险地没有准备好在网上支持老年人口，这样这些人就能更好地延长他们独立的生活方式，不太可能感到孤独或沮丧。PI在这项研究中的目标是通过探索一种新的方法来丰富视力丧失的老年人的生活，通过提供基于“前计算机”技术的方法来保持在线社交联系，从而解决这些问题。为此，PI开发了一种基于语音的电子邮件系统原型，可以通过传统电话访问，利用这些设备的熟悉性和普遍性，同时实现与个人社交网络的动态在线互动，但尚未在这一人口统计中进行测试。通过评估这种方法的潜力，项目发现将揭示无障碍研究的差距和新方向，并将为该领域的前沿带来新知识和新工具，同时也为计算机科学、传播学和老年学的跨学科奖学金做出贡献。PI的方法代表了一种实现和研究在线社会互动的新方法，使得用全新的人口统计学来研究在线行为现象成为可能。这项工作将为在自然环境中为老年人部署基于语音的在线信息系统的可行性提供新的知识，同时确定晚年视力丧失的老年人所使用的通信策略和面临的挑战，并初步了解基于电话的语音接口的潜力，以支持这一目标社区的交互。PI的V-Mail原型语音电子邮件系统用于传统电话，集成了现有的电子邮件帐户，用户可以将指定联系人的信息转发到V-Mail服务器。例如，一个家庭成员或朋友发送电子邮件给一个V-Mail用户通过发送消息到一个传统的电子邮件帐户（例如，Gmail），该邮件转发到V-Mail服务器，该服务器管理收件人的联系人列表，已读和未读电子邮件消息，以及MySQL数据库中的附件，该数据库使用Python与Twilio交互，当老年人调用系统时。PI将通过测试和完善视力正常的老年人的系统功能来确定初步可行性。然后，她将使用深度访谈来确定晚年视力丧失的老年人用于维持沟通的策略和适应性技术，她将评估开发的基于语音的通信系统对目标社区的可用性和吸引力。

The emergence and rapid evolution of social computing presents major research challenges for many disciplines, particularly human-computer interaction. At the same time, the prevalence of vision impairment and blindness, which increase rapidly after age 75, can significantly impact the ability of older adults to use computer technology. The PI argues that without investment in new techniques for late-life social connectivity, as a society we will be dangerously unprepared to support aging populations online so that these individuals are better positioned to prolong their independent life style and less likely to feel lonely or depressed. The PI's goal in this research is to address these concerns by exploring a novel approach to enriching the lives of seniors with vision loss, by providing methods based on "pre-computer" technology for staying socially connected online. To this end, the PI has developed a prototype voice-based e-mail system that can be accessed by means of traditional telephones and that leverages the familiarity and pervasiveness of these devices while enabling dynamic online interaction with one's social network, but which remains untested with this demographic. By assessing the potential for this approach, project findings will reveal gaps in and new directions for accessibility research, and will bring new knowledge and new tools to the forefront of this field, while also contributing to interdisciplinary scholarship across computer science, communication studies, and gerontology.The PI's approach represents a novel way of enabling and studying online social interaction, making it possible to examine phenomena of online behavior with entirely new demographics. The work will contribute new knowledge on the feasibility of deploying a voice-based online messaging system with older adults in a naturalistic context, while identifying communication strategies used and challenges faced by older adults with late-life vision loss and providing an initial understanding of the potential for phone-based voice interfaces to support interaction for this target community. The PI's V-Mail prototype voice-based e-mail system for traditional phones integrates with existing e-mail accounts which users configure to forward messages from specified contacts to the V-Mail server. For example, a family member or friend sends an e-mail to a V-Mail user by sending the message to a traditional e-mail account (e.g., Gmail), which forwards it to the V-Mail server that manages the recipient's list of contacts, read and unread e-mail messages, and attachments in a MySQL database that uses Python to interact with Twilio when an older adult calls the system. The PI will establish initial feasibility by testing and refining system functionality with sighted older adults. She will then use in-depth interviews to identify strategies and adaptive techniques that older adults with late-life vision loss use to maintain communication, and she will evaluate the usability and appeal of the developed voice-based communication system for this target community.