It is projected that by the year 2033, 41% of the population in the United Kingdom will be aged 60 and over, compared to 17% in 2010. However, as people get older, age-related impairments to working memory and cognition, as well as sensory impairments, mean that older adults struggle to adopt new information technology systems, which have become integral to everyday life in recent years. The research presented here investigates, across a series of three large scale experiments, how Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) can be used in virtual world applications, addressing three important domains of application space, to understand how ECAs may be used to engage with older users. The Virtual Banking Experiment investigates whether or not ECA gender or age portrayal has an effect on overall usability of virtual world applications for older users. The results of the experiment show that older users do not exhibit a significant preference for a particular ECA gender, however they do exhibit a preference for interacting with younger ECAs when compared with older ECAs in these applications. Results of the Entertainment Experiment show that scripting the interaction, between older users and ECAs in a virtual world quiz game, significantly improved the usability of these virtual world gaming applications employing ECAs as interlocators. The Social Support Experiment investigated three styles of providing advice to older users as part of a virtual advice bureau service. The results of the experiment show that older users prefer to receive advice from ECAs that has not been presented as having been obtained from real-world experiences.

This dissertation focuses on the ACCESS Framework which is an open source software framework designed to address four issues with regards to older and novice users with accessibility needs – that they often do not know what support is available within their systems, that they often do not know how to change those settings they know exist, that they often lack the confidence to make the changes they know how to make, and are often unable to physically enable accessibility support.The software discussed in this dissertation serves as a bridge between what users are expected to know and what they actually know by assuming the responsibility for identifying user accessibility requirements and making those changes on the user?s behalf. User interaction with the framework is limited to either expressing approval or disapproval with regards to corrective action. Individual corrections are deployed as plug-ins within this tool.Four studies were conducted during this research. Three of these studies were aimed at evaluating the ACCESS Framework directly with the remaining study being an exploration of a cognitive support tool deployed using the framework. Two of these studies involved participants attempting to perform specific, well-defined tasks on systems that had been configured to the extremes of what was possible with operating system settings. These tasks were attempted with and without the support of the framework. The final study was a focus group in which issues of the framework were discussed by individuals who had been through the experimental trials.The research provided strong evidence that this is an effective mechanism for accessibility configuration when there is a strong match between identified accessibility needs and available operating system support. The system was seen as understandable, useful and appropriate by individuals who had been through the experimental trials. The research provided strong evidence that this is an effective mechanism for accessibility configuration when there is a strong match between identified accessibility needs and available operating system support. The system was seen as understandable, useful and appropriate by participants, with a majority stating that they would be willing to use a similar system on their own machines.

This paper aims to examine whether there are any substantial differences between a generation of users born during the 1960’s and younger generation born during the 1990’s regarding the use of digital technologies connected to the Internet. Based on Marc Prensky’s theories on people born before and after 1980 saying those born before are not as natural when it comes to using digital technologies. We used diaries as a qualitative method to gather data from 16 respondents. The results show that there is a small percentage that differs in total use of digital technology in favor for the younger generation but not substantial enough to be ruled as a generation better fitted for Internet usage and digital technologies. The results also show that smartphones were the most used technology and surfing the web was the most performed activity.

A constante evolução da Web tem se mostrado como um fenômeno mundial que rapidamente precisa responder aos diversos segmentos da sociedade atual, com websites e aplicativos de compras, governo, bancos, entretenimento e outros. Nesse contexto, é necessário que o conteúdo Web possibilite acesso aos mais diferentes perfis de usuários, independentemente de suas deficiências ou necessidades especiais. Um outro fenômeno mundial é o envelhecimento da população. Os usuários senescentes (pessoas que estão em processo de envelhecimento, o qual acarreta declínio físico e mental gradual, ocorrendo geralmente nos indivíduos a partir de 60 anos de idade), apresentam algumas de suas capacidades reduzidas e, encontram, naturalmente, barreiras ao interagir com os serviços e conteúdos disponibilizados na Web. Essa população tem apresentado um índice de crescimento demográfico grande neste século em relação ao que se via nas gerações passadas. Apesar das exigências de legislação específica, recomendações e diretrizes que auxiliam o desenvolvimento de conteúdo acessível e usável, ainda há muitos problemas de acessibilidade e usabilidade que precisam ser resolvidos, diante do rápido avanço tecnológico observado nos recursos da Web atual. Em especial, observa-se pouca atenção às dificuldades que usuários senescentes possuem, pois a maioria de websites são projetados considerando como público-alvo, pessoas mais jovens e especializadas, muitas vezes, treinadas para interagir nos websites. Portanto, é relevante um apoio para avaliação das páginas Web, visando atender as necessidades dos usuários senescentes. A proposta deste projeto foi desenvolver um apoio para a avaliação de acessibilidade e usabilidade na Web, considerando-se o perfil dos senescentes, com vistas a proporcionar um feedback objetivo, aos desenvolvedores e especialistas. Esse apoio foi elaborado por meio de um Checklist que foi desenvolvido, com base em procedimentos científicos, e análises realizadas, sobre sua aplicação. / The constant evolution of the Web has proven to be a worldwide phenomenon that quickly needs to address the various segments of current society (websites and web applications, government, banks, entertainment and others). In this context, it is necessary that the Web content provides the possibility of access to the different user profiles, regardless of their disabilities or special needs. Another worldwide phenomenon is the aging population. The senescent users (people who are in the aging process, which leads to gradual physical and mental decline, usually occurring in individuals from the age of 60) have some of their capacities limited and they face barriers to interact with services and content available on the Web. This population has shown a high growth rate in this century in comparison to what was observed in past generations. Despite of the demands for specific legislation, recommendations and guidelines that assist the development of content accessible and usable, there are still many problems of accessibility and usability that need to be solved, given the rapid technological advances seen in the current Web resources. In particular, there is little attention to the difficulties that senescent users have, given that most websites are designed considering target audience that usually is composed of young people and specialists, often trained to interact on websites. Therefore, it is important to support evaluation of Web pages, to meet the requirements of senescent users. The purpose of this project is to develop a support for the evaluation of web accessibility and usability, focusing on the older people, in order to provide clear feedback to developers and experts. This support was prepared by a Checklist that was developed based on scientific procedures, and analyzes on its application.

A constante evolução da Web tem se mostrado como um fenômeno mundial que rapidamente precisa responder aos diversos segmentos da sociedade atual, com websites e aplicativos de compras, governo, bancos, entretenimento e outros. Nesse contexto, é necessário que o conteúdo Web possibilite acesso aos mais diferentes perfis de usuários, independentemente de suas deficiências ou necessidades especiais. Um outro fenômeno mundial é o envelhecimento da população. Os usuários senescentes (pessoas que estão em processo de envelhecimento, o qual acarreta declínio físico e mental gradual, ocorrendo geralmente nos indivíduos a partir de 60 anos de idade), apresentam algumas de suas capacidades reduzidas e, encontram, naturalmente, barreiras ao interagir com os serviços e conteúdos disponibilizados na Web. Essa população tem apresentado um índice de crescimento demográfico grande neste século em relação ao que se via nas gerações passadas. Apesar das exigências de legislação específica, recomendações e diretrizes que auxiliam o desenvolvimento de conteúdo acessível e usável, ainda há muitos problemas de acessibilidade e usabilidade que precisam ser resolvidos, diante do rápido avanço tecnológico observado nos recursos da Web atual. Em especial, observa-se pouca atenção às dificuldades que usuários senescentes possuem, pois a maioria de websites são projetados considerando como público-alvo, pessoas mais jovens e especializadas, muitas vezes, treinadas para interagir nos websites. Portanto, é relevante um apoio para avaliação das páginas Web, visando atender as necessidades dos usuários senescentes. A proposta deste projeto foi desenvolver um apoio para a avaliação de acessibilidade e usabilidade na Web, considerando-se o perfil dos senescentes, com vistas a proporcionar um feedback objetivo, aos desenvolvedores e especialistas. Esse apoio foi elaborado por meio de um Checklist que foi desenvolvido, com base em procedimentos científicos, e análises realizadas, sobre sua aplicação. / The constant evolution of the Web has proven to be a worldwide phenomenon that quickly needs to address the various segments of current society (websites and web applications, government, banks, entertainment and others). In this context, it is necessary that the Web content provides the possibility of access to the different user profiles, regardless of their disabilities or special needs. Another worldwide phenomenon is the aging population. The senescent users (people who are in the aging process, which leads to gradual physical and mental decline, usually occurring in individuals from the age of 60) have some of their capacities limited and they face barriers to interact with services and content available on the Web. This population has shown a high growth rate in this century in comparison to what was observed in past generations. Despite of the demands for specific legislation, recommendations and guidelines that assist the development of content accessible and usable, there are still many problems of accessibility and usability that need to be solved, given the rapid technological advances seen in the current Web resources. In particular, there is little attention to the difficulties that senescent users have, given that most websites are designed considering target audience that usually is composed of young people and specialists, often trained to interact on websites. Therefore, it is important to support evaluation of Web pages, to meet the requirements of senescent users. The purpose of this project is to develop a support for the evaluation of web accessibility and usability, focusing on the older people, in order to provide clear feedback to developers and experts. This support was prepared by a Checklist that was developed based on scientific procedures, and analyzes on its application.