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An Exploratory Study of the Effects of Mild Cognitive Impairment on Elderly Internet Users

This study focuses on the effects of Mild Cognitive Impairment and other minor memory impairments on a person’s ability to successfully use the Internet. Participants over sixty-five years of age were recruited from retirement communities and were selected based on self-reports of Mild Cognitive Impairment or other cognitive difficulties when using the Internet. Interviews with the participants focused on their abilities to use Email, Chat/Instant Messenger and the World Wide Web. Participants were then asked to step through several Internet-related tasks in order to further identify problem areas. Seven participants were interviewed, and six of them completed the optional observation session. The data collected from the interviews and observation sessions were then broken down into different categories, based on the type of difficulties experienced during Internet use. Finally, recommendations were made for good Web design practices intended to overcome the difficulties identified during the study.

  1. http://hdl.handle.net/1901/428
Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UNC_CH/oai:etd.ils.unc.edu:1901/428
Date05 July 2007
CreatorsJoshua Berkov
ContributorsBarbara Wildemuth
PublisherSchool of Information and Library Science
Source SetsUniversity of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Theses and Dissertations
Formatapplication/pdf, 167516 bytes, application/pdf

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