ABSTRACT

As technology is advancing, a great number of people with disabilities try out and adopt various mainstream and assistive technologies. However, there has been less attention paid to older adults with visual disabilities, leading to poor user experience and technology abandonment. A convenience sample of 20 older adults with visual disabilities (visual acuity ranging from 20/70 to blind with no light perception at all; duration of vision loss, 28.35 ± 23.04 years; age, 72.85 ± 7.96 years) participated in semi-structured interviews and shared their experiences with technology adoption and abandonment. The diffusion of innovation theory helped to obtain a deep understanding of how older users with visual disabilities adopt or decline technologies, various characteristics of which were discussed through relative advantage, compatibility, observability, trialability, and complexity. The relative advantage was further analyzed for usability, safety, and accessibility, and the usability aspect was broken down into more details: effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. This study sheds light on the detailed characteristics that would ultimately contribute to designing, developing, and implementing future innovative technologies that meet the needs of the aging populations with visual disabilities.

摘要

随着科技的进步，大量的残疾人尝试并采用了各种主流和辅助技术。然而，对有视觉障碍的老年人的关注较少，导致用户体验不佳和技术遗弃。20 名有视力障碍的老年人（视力范围从 20/70 到失明，完全没有光感；视力丧失持续时间，28.35 ± 23.04 岁；年龄，72.85 ± 7.96 岁）的便利样本参加了半结构化访谈并分享了他们在技术采用和放弃方面的经验。创新理论的传播有助于深入了解视力障碍的老年用户如何采用或拒绝技术，通过相对优势、兼容性、可观察性、可试验性和复杂性。进一步分析了可用性、安全性和可访问性的相对优势，并将可用性方面分解为更多细节：有效性、效率和满意度。这项研究揭示了最终有助于设计、开发和实施满足视力障碍老龄化人群需求的未来创新技术的详细特征。