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TECH STRATEGIES
For an aging population, technology help is at hand
Products and services aim to help greying computer users
overcome problems, ranging from weakening vision to arthritis
GRANT BUCKLER
Friday, May 31, 2002
Bess Lokach's vision loss was sudden.
"Sunday night, my eyes weren't right," the Toronto retiree recalls, "and
Monday morning, when I woke up, they were very dark and cloudy."
That was last November. Ms. Lokach has ischemic optic neuropathy, a condition
that usually strikes after the age of 40. It affects relatively few people --
most people's vision deteriorates far more gradually and to a lesser degree.
Just the same, most of us start noticing vision changes by our 40s, and
eventually have trouble with tasks like reading small print. Many also develop
disabilities such as arthritis and tremors that complicate computer use.
Such problems can only grow as the population ages and as even more seniors
use computers. But technology to help overcome them is proliferating.
For instance, Ms. Lokach, who doesn't expect to recover full vision, can now
use a computer well enough to help out part-time in her son and
daughter-in-law's store. Software that enlarges print on the screen lets her
use word-processing, accounting and payroll programs.
"When I first saw the letters come up on the screen, I could have kissed the
computer," she says.
Sometimes PC use can be simplified without specialized hardware and software.
Alan Cantor, whose Toronto consultancy, Cantor & Associates Inc., helps people
tune PCs to their needs, says too few realize how adjustable their computers
really are.
In the Windows operating system, for instance, adjusting screen resolution
changes the size of everything on the screen -- lower the resolution, and type
and icons become larger. In the software's Control Panel, you can adjust type
size in menus, error messages and other software features, make the mouse
cursor larger, and customize colours.
Those with unsteady hands -- another problem that often comes with age -- can
adjust keyboard settings so keys don't repeat when held down a little too
long, or reconfigure mouse buttons to avoid problems with pointing, clicking
and dragging.
If enlarging the display isn't enough, software is available that can read
aloud the contents of a computer screen.
International Business Machines Corp.'s Home Page Reader software, for
instance, displays Web pages and reads them aloud. The software highlights
on-screen text as it reads, explains Guido Corona, an IBM advisory software
engineer, so that a person with limited vision can relate spoken words to the
display.
Mr. Corona says that software is getting better at figuring out complex Web
pages. For example, Home Page Reader can now navigate tables, which were once
a nightmare for accessibility software.
The University of Toronto's Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC) offers
a vision-technology service that is helping many seniors, Ms. Lokach among
them, says its co-ordinator, Linda Petty.
ATRC along with Industry Canada is developing a tool kit to help people with
disabilities or limited literacy use the Web. The Web-4-All package will
include the Opera text-only browser and software to read Web pages aloud.
The plan is to install the software on Internet kiosks in public places and
give users smart cards that, when inserted in the kiosks, will adjust them to
individual preferences.
Such software, however, has trouble interpreting Web sites that have been
designed without taking accessibility into account.
Several resources help Web designers make their sites accessible to all. One
is the A-Prompt Toolkit, developed by ATRC and the University of Wisconsin.
Available free from aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca, it checks Web pages for
accessibility and suggests improvements.
IBM is also working with SeniorNet -- a U.S.-based network of computer
training centres for seniors -- on a system to store Web users' personal
configurations on a central server and let them adjust any computer
temporarily to their needs.
Personal computers are only one concern. Another is automated banking
machines. According to Nick Hames, vice-president of major ABM supplier NCR
Canada Ltd.'s financial-solutions division, the touch screens already found on
many Canadian ABMs are a first step.
"What a touch screen allows you to do is to make the button that the customer
touches larger," Mr. Hames explains.
Later this year, NCR will begin outfitting ABMs with larger screens and
modifying them to display not only larger print but more readable colours and
typefaces.
Some machines will also get connectors so people with limited vision can plug
in their own headphones -- standard ones available at any electronics store --
and receive audio prompts.
Jane Berliss-Vincent, a computer-access specialist at the Center of Accessible
Technology in Berkeley, Calif., says some machines with this feature have
already appeared in California. At least two major Canadian banks have plans
to install them this year, Mr. Hames says.
As the first generation to grow up with computers reaches its bifocal years,
it's natural that technology vendors are working to keep their products
accessible to a growing group of customers. The sad thing, Ms. Lokach says, is
that too few people know about the aids already available.
Health Canada projects Canada's population of seniors will grow from about 3.7
million or 12.3 per cent of Canadians in 1998 to 5.9 million or 15.9 per cent
by 2016.
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