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Helen Petrie

Université d'York (Angleterre)

Wednesday March 8th, 2023, 14h, Salle des thèses, IRIT.

Talking ‘bout my Generation … or not?: The Digital Technology Life Experiences of Older People

Abstract: I will argue that research on digital technologies for older people is failing to address two key issues: first, the lack of understanding and stereotypical views about older people by young researchers and developers; second, the tendency of researchers to treat all older people as a homogeneous group. I set out the case for the importance of digital technologies for older people, and the evidence for each of these issues, partly using a review of 102 papers on the topic from the ACM Digital Library. As one part of the way forward, I present a series of pastiche personas of older people, which young researchers and developers may find engaging and informative. Finally, I discuss strategies we might use to improve our understanding of the samples of participants we work with in developing digital technologies for older people. There will be some musical accompaniment (in case you recognise the title).

Bio: Helen Petrie is Professor Emerita of Human-Computer Interaction in the Department of Computer Science at the University of York. She has degrees in both psychology and computer science. Her research focuses on the design and evaluation of new technologies, particularly for people with disabilities and older people. She research has particularly addressed the needs of people who are blind and partially sighted, but she has also worked with people with dyslexia, people with mobility problem, and people who are Deaf or deafened. She has been involved in over 30 British and international projects in this area, have published widely and provided consultancy to government and industry on accessibility and usability of new technologies. She led a team commissioned by the Disability Rights Commission of Great Britain which conducted the largest study in the world of web accessibility for people with disabilities, and emphasized the importance of user testing in this area. She has received a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Technical Innovation Prize, a Social Impact Award from the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal National Institute for Blind People. She is a Fellow of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. She is currently Vice Chair for Communications of IFIP Technical Committee 13 (Human Computer Interaction) and Treasurer of the British Computer Society Special Interest Group on Human Computer Interaction (the Interaction Group) as well as being Editor in Chief of the journal Interacting with Computers.