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

社会计算的出现和快速发展给许多学科带来了重大的研究挑战，特别是人机交互。与此同时，视力障碍和失明的患病率在75岁后迅速增加，可能会显著影响老年人使用计算机技术的能力。PI认为，如果不投资于晚年社交连接的新技术，作为一个社会，我们将危险地毫无准备地在网上支持老龄化人口，以便这些人更好地处于延长其独立生活方式的地位，并不太可能感到孤独或抑郁。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，从而解决这些担忧。为此，PI开发了一个基于语音的电子邮件系统原型，该系统可以通过传统电话访问，并利用这些设备的熟悉性和普及性，同时实现与一个人的社交网络的动态在线互动，但该系统仍未在这一人群中进行测试。通过评估这种方法的潜力，项目结果将揭示可访问性研究的差距和新方向，并将把新知识和新工具带到该领域的前沿，同时也有助于跨计算机科学、传播学和老年学的跨学科学术。PI的方法代表了一种启用和研究在线社交的新方法，使用全新的人口统计学来研究在线行为现象成为可能。这项工作将有助于在自然主义背景下向老年人部署基于语音的在线消息系统的可行性的新知识，同时确定患有晚年视力丧失的老年人所使用的沟通策略和面临的挑战，并初步了解基于电话的语音界面支持这一目标社区互动的潜力。PI的用于传统电话的基于语音的V-Mail原型电子邮件系统与现有的电子邮件帐户集成在一起，用户可以配置这些帐户来将指定联系人的消息转发到V-Mail服务器。例如，家庭成员或朋友通过将邮件发送到传统电子邮件帐户(例如Gmail)向V-Mail用户发送电子邮件，V-Mail服务器将邮件转发到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以及MySQL数据库中的附件，当老年人呼叫系统时，MySQL数据库使用Python与Twilio进行交互。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的可行性。然后，她将使用深入的访谈来确定患有晚年视力丧失的老年人用来保持沟通的策略和适应性技术，她将评估针对这一目标社区开发的基于语音的沟通系统的可用性和吸引力。

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.