Concept and goal of accessible design for older people

Abstract

Purpose: There are several design concepts proposed for addressing the needs of older persons and persons with disabilities, including universal design, inclusive design, and barrier-free design. Among these concepts, accessible design has been developed and promoted through the international standards organizations ISO, IEC and ITU, and in many other national standards bodies. This paper presents the concept of accessible design and discusses devices' impact on gerontechnology, particularly focusing on problems associated with aging. Method: Accessible design is defined in the ISO/IEC Guide 71 as 'design focused on diverse users to maximize the number of potential users who can readily use a system in diverse contexts'. This means that accessible design tries to include the widest range of users given different capabilities and characteristics. Figure 2 shows some possible steps of increasing users. For example, one may increase the number of older people using a product by enlarging font-size. To increase the number of blind people using a product, we may provide tactile information like Braille on the surface of a packaging label. Two particular design strategies can be addressed. One is called 'alternative format of information' or 'alternative means of input/output devices' to meet the needs of people with special requirements. Alternative format includes, for example, the tactile floorinformation presentation in a lift to replace visual information for blind people. The other strategy is to design products, services, and environments that are numerically fit to the abilities of the elderly or disabled. For example, we could design legible font size or comfortably audible sound signals by taking into account the age-related changes of visual acuity or hearing sensitivity, which have been addressed as 'compensation' in the concept of Gerontechnology. Results & Discussion: Accessible design is a useful design concepts to be implemented in Gerontechnology in the fields of products, services, and environments. Modern technology, including informationcommunication technology, can effectively use this design concept to solve various problems that older people face in their daily lives.