As our “Silver Surfers” age, so the long-standing assumption that “the elderly don’t use laptops, browsers, smartphones or tablets” is being eroded. Many of those in their 80’s have been perfectly comfortable using these devices – though they start to struggle with them as their eyesight and hearing fade.
There is no shortage of physical games and puzzles that have been specially adapted for the partially sighted – but online word games and apps have yet to catch up. Although phones and tablets have accessibility features that help, there is a limit to how effective these can be unless the app was designed with these needs in mind.
Screen readers are a huge boon for the blind but many of those with gradually deteriorating eye-sight struggle on and have not adopted them yet. In many games, the layout and direction of the words is important – and that’s hard to convey in a purely spoken representation. Zooming in and using larger type allows many users to recognise individual letters but can easily “break” the game screen if it hasn’t been designed to allow for massive type.
For those living alone, remote gaming with friends or family could be a huge benefit – if only they could still use the app/game. This would not only reduce loneliness and boredom, it can also help keep their mind active. A potential side benefit is that their ability to play the game – and how that changes over time – can also flag deterioration in their sight and/or mental capacity.
I’m a programmer approaching retirement, with early stage Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) myself. I live 400 miles from my father who has advanced AMD so I’m exploring how we can exploit smartphones, tablets, laptops, voice assistants and large-screen TVs to make life better for the elderly and/or partially sighted.
Challenge 1: Scrabble for the partially sighted.
