An ethnographical study of the accessibility barriers in the everyday interactions of older people with the web

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Issue date
2011-03Suggested citation
Sayago Barrantes, Sergio;
Blat, Josep;
.
(2011)
.
An ethnographical study of the accessibility barriers in the everyday interactions of older people with the web.
Universal Access in the Information Society, 2011, núm. 10, p. 359–371.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-011-0221-4.
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Show full item recordAbstract
Older people experience many barriers when
they access to the web. However, little is known about
which barriers limit more (or less) their daily interactions.
This paper presents some findings based on an ethnographical study of the everyday interactions of nearly 400
older people with the web over 3 years. Difficulties
remembering steps, understanding terms and using the
mouse are more severe than problems perceiving visual
information, understanding icons and using the keyboard.
This is largely explained by inclusion, independence and
socialization, which are the three key components of reallife web use. This paper also shows that these aspects
should be considered in other areas of web and ICT
accessibility, as technophobia is not the only experience in
the interactions of older people with the web, and both
social relationships and life experiences beyond technologies need to be taken into account apart from age-related
changes in abilities. These findings suggest that the current
focus on compensating for age-related changes in functional abilities needs to be widened. Working towards
making the web more accessible should not be divorced
from real-life use. This paper discusses implications for
web (and ICT) design, training and support.