RE: internet usage by people over 60

Apologies to anyone who might have been offended by the title of my paper. 

 

I am over the age of 60, and I am doing the research with another "oldie"
who is now retired after working in IT most of his life. We now spend a fair
bit of time working with other older/senior/mature/elderly people helping
them use the internet. I most certainly don't assume people over 60 don't
know how to use ICT, but also, just because we have been using computers and
the internet for several decades, I don't think we can assume everyone else
uses these technologies in the same way or even knows how to use them.  For
example, one of the issues we have been exploring in our more recent
interviews is the question of whether or not a person knows how to increase
the size of text on web pages, and most of the respondents don't appear to
know how to do this. In an earlier post I wrote about how one of the
interviewees prints out a web page and then enlarges it on a photocopy when
faced with text on a site which he has to read, but which is too small for
him. Several other respondents when faced with the same problem have told me
that they copy and paste the text into a Word document and then enlarge it.

 

Roger

 

 

  _____  

From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of John Colby
Sent: Tuesday, 1 March 2011 8:24 PM
To: Roger Hudson; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: RE: internet usage by people over 60

 

Some of us elderly (born 1950) have been using the web and writing web pages
since 1993, since the web came into being publicly in the UK, introducing
web usage into companies where we have worked, and now are in change of web
teaching for Faculties and Universities and lead on web development.

 

I am not alone.

 

The title of your paper would encourage me not to read it.

 

John

 

John Colby BA PGCE

Senior Lecturer, Business Skills Enhancement, Department of Accountancy and
Finance

Room F100, Feeney Building, Birmingham City University,

City North Campus, Perry Barr, Birmingham B42 2SU

T: +44 (0) 121 331 6937 M: 07872 559800

*	Blog http://johncolby.wordpress.com/ 
*	Tweeting at http://twitter.com/JohnColby and
http://twitter.com/BCUBusiness

 

  _____  

From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org on behalf of Roger Hudson
Sent: Tue 01/03/2011 09:02
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: internet usage by people over 60

For those who might be interested I have posted the results of the recent
online survey about how and why people over the age of sixty use the
Internet and mobile (cell) phones.
http://www.dingoaccess.com/accessibility/mature-age-ict-users-online-survey-
results/ 

 

I will be discussing the results of this research in a paper, "Improving Web
Accessibility for the Elderly", which I am presenting at CSUN 2011 on March
16. http://www.csunconference.org/index.cfm?EID=80000300
<http://www.csunconference.org/index.cfm?EID=80000300&p=380&page=scheduledet
ail&LCID=4676&ECTID=0> &p=380&page=scheduledetail&LCID=4676&ECTID=0  The
paper will also outline some of the issues older web users have with font
size and colour, and canvass various options for how they might be
addressed.

 

Roger Hudson

Web Usability

Ph: 02 9568 1535

Mb: 0405 320 014

Email:  <mailto:rhudson@usability.com.au> rhudson@usability.com.au

Web:  <http://www.usability.com.au/> www.usability.com.au 

Blog: www.dingoaccess.com