During T3chFest 2023 I attended a wonderful talk about the digital gar and the elderly and it gave me a lot to think about. I was researching this topic and the more I read, the more interesting it seemed to me. After doing a lot of research, I have drawn a series of interesting conclusions and, to add my two cents, I am going to present them here.
The needs of older people
Older people have a series of age-related needs and we must take them into account when creating our projects. We can divide these deficiencies into 4 groups:
- Visual: This segment of the population may have difficulties reading due to problems with color and contrast perception, or font size, among others.
- Hearing: Older people may have obstacles when it comes to hearing since they may not be able to separate different sounds and high-pitched sounds.
- Cognitive: These deficiencies include difficulty concentrating and short-term memory problems.
- Physical: The digital gap can also be seen in this aspect, since these people may not be able to handle the mouse, due to their reduced dexterity and motor skills.
POUR: Accessibility principles
The WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) establishes 4 basic principles that are the pillars of accessibility. These are:
- Perceptible: That the information is perceptible by the senses.
- Operable: That can be navigable and operable.
- Understandable: Make the platform understandable to people.
- Robustness: That it can be interpreted by different agents and assistive technologies.
Taking into account these 4 principles, we can divide what we should take into account for elderly people based on them.
Perceptible
- Make sure the font is not too small.
- Use fonts that are legible and avoid italics, as it is more difficult to read.
- There must be sufficient color contrast between text and background.
- Avoid aligning the text to the center, as it makes it difficult to read.
- Do not rely only on color to provide information.
- If your platform has some type of multimedia content, add transcriptions, and subtitles for those people who cannot hear well.
- If you use CAPTCHAs, add an alternative version. Some CAPTCHAs have low contrast or are difficult to see.
Operable
- The texts of the links must be very clear, so they can know their purpose.
- Add a title to each page so they can orient themselves better, and include a breadcrumb.
- Make sure the spotlight is visible so they can know where they are and make the site keyboard operable.
- Insert informative labels to the inputs so they know exactly what you need.
- If the platform has content that moves or flashes, allow them to stop it.
- Provide enough time for people to do what they need or to extend time limits.
Understandable
- Give your platform an understandable order and use simple and understandable language.
- Create a coherent and simple navigation menu.
- Avoid modals or content opening in a new tab: It can be confusing.
- Do not make changes to the pages without warning, it could go unnoticed by the person.
- Provides clear information to avoid mistakes, and delivers precise feedback so that they can easily correct the error they have made.
Operable
- Ensure the compatibility of your project. They may be using an older computer or a less modern version of the browser.
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