DIADEM Assistive Web Based Technology: Path to Independence  

Senaka Fernando, Tony Elliman, Arthur Money, Lorna Lines

The School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, UK,

senaka.fernando@brunel.ac.uk, tony.elliman@brunel.ac.uk, Arthur.money@brunel.ac.uk, lorna.lines@brunel.ac.uk

Older adults are now spending more time online, to overcome their isolation and generally improve their quality of life. But it is young who still dominates the online population as older adults are often ill at ease when face with online services that are difficult for them to use. To address this problem, the project Delivering Inclusive Access to Disabled and Elderly Members of the community (DIADEM) has been taking considerable efforts to develop web based assistive technology to help older adults to overcome their difficulties when using online services. Although there are many reasons for such difficulties, the DIADEM project focuses on decline in cognitive abilities which occurs due to aging. The project which is funded by the EU brings together seven research teams from three EU countries (the UK, Norway and Italy) each of which has a complementary expertise necessary for the proper progress and success of the project. The DIADEM project mainly focuses on the problem of accessing services online where older adult users need to fill in online forms (e.g. Housing benefit application). This research has very applied characteristics and experimental version of web based assistive technology was developed through collaboration with the older adult users and their representatives, the developers of assistive technology and the web service/application providers. This innovative technology has an Expert System (ES) element that monitors the user’s interactions, and personalises the user interface to alleviate usability challenges faced by the user due to his/her cognitive decline. The first and second round of user trials which used an experimental version of the DIADEM software, clearly showed the principles behind the DIADEM technology is sound and promising. The DIADEM technology will be presented at a number of public events in the UK and other parts of Europe in October and November 2009. The application/service providers from public and private sector, older adults and their representatives and politicians who are interested in services for older adults would be able to see the benefits of this innovation, at these public events.

Key words: age related cognitive decline, assistive web based technology, online forms, innovation, web services