The development of TV applications nowadays excludes users with certain impairments from interacting with and accessing the same type of contents as other users do. Developers are also not interested in developing new or different versions of applications targeting different user characteristics. In this paper we describe a novel adaptive accessibility approach on how to develop accessible TV applications, without requiring too much additional effort from the developers. Integrating multimodal interaction, adaptation techniques and the use of simulators in the design process, we show how to adapt User Interfaces to the individual needs and limitations of elderly users. For this, we rely on the identification of the most relevant impairment configurations among users in practical user-trials, and we draw a relation with user specific characteristics. We provide guidelines for more accessible and centered TV application development.

The adoption of social networks by older adults has increased in recent years. However, many still cannot make use of social networks as these are simply not adapted to them. Through a series of direct observations, interviews, and focus groups, we identified recommendations for the design of social networks targeting seniors. Based on these, we developed a prototype for tablet devices, supporting sharing and viewing Facebook content. We then conducted a user study comparing our prototype with Facebook's native mobile application. We have found that Facebook's native application does not meet senior users concerns, like privacy and family focus, while our prototype, designed in accordance with the collected recommendations, supported relevant use cases in a usable and accessible manner.

This article provides a systematic review of studies on recognising bathroom activities in older adults using wearable sensors. Bathroom activities are an important part of Activities of Daily Living (ADL). The performance on ADL activities is used to predict the ability of older adults to live independently. This paper aims to provide an overview of the studied bathroom activities, the wearable sensors used, different applied methodologies and the tested activity recognition techniques. Six databases were screened up to March 2020, based on four categories of keywords: older adults, activity recognition, bathroom activities and wearable sensors. In total, 4262 unique papers were found, of which only seven met the inclusion criteria. This small number shows that few studies have been conducted in this field. Therefore, in addition, this critical review resulted in several recommendations for future studies. In particular, we recommend to (1) study complex bathroom activities, including multiple movements; (2) recruit participants, especially the target population; (3) conduct both lab and real-life experiments; (4) investigate the optimal number and positions of wearable sensors; (5) choose a suitable annotation method; (6) investigate deep learning models; (7) evaluate the generality of classifiers; and (8) investigate both detection and quality performance of an activity.

With the daily problem of social isolation comes an aggravation of older adults’ general health. Social Network Services like Facebook have the potential to ameliorate the social connectivity of this segment of the population. However, they are still not fully adopted by them, whether because of age-related limitations or the lack of appropriate technological skills. In this paper we argue that the development of SNSs based on technology already used by older adults, like Television, or technology which has proven to be more accessible to them, like Tablets, can improve the ability of older adults to use these systems. We report findings from a study composed of semi-structured interviews and focus groups which aimed at the development of two Facebook-based prototypes for TV and Tablet. Results show good receptiveness from older adults to perform social tasks on TV and Tablet-based applications, for interacting using alternative modalities like speech, or back-of-device tapping, and for the use of adaptation mechanisms. Informed by the study results the main contributions are the two prototypes, and a collection of recommendations regarding the design of TV and tablet based interfaces for this population.