Examining low and high communication technologies for dementia-inclusive community programming

This project falls within the EPSRC Information and Communication technologies (ICT) research area. Dementia is a progressive disease that leads to degradation of cognitive functions and currently affects around 50 million people worldwide (Dementia 2020). Dementia increases a person's risk of social isolation by 50%, which can negatively impact one's physical and mental health (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2020). Technology can reduce older adults' social isolation by providing them with a means for social connectedness and inclusion (Baecker et al. 2014, Marston et al. 2019. Moreover, technology can serve as a bridge between generations by allowing for intergenerational exchange and learning (Axelrod and Kahn 2019, Freeman et al. 2020, Welsh et al. 2018).
However, most of these technological studies have involved intergenerational family members and do not account for childless adults who may be unable to have similar experiences (Hadley 2019). Additionally, many older adults have apprehension about adopting social technologies as they view them as promoting anti-social behaviour and prefer face-to-face interactions (Marston et al. 2019). Furthermore, for those with dementia with additional sensory issues beyond normal aging, there can be a greater apprehension of adopting or using specific technologies (Houston and Christie 2018).
With the COVID-19 pandemic, some isolation issues have increased (for those who do not or cannot move online), but it has also revealed opportunities for future change. Therefore, it is timely to examine ways of blending online and offline community spaces and programming. Focusing on the greater community will provide opportunities for intergenerational support regardless of one's family standing. But by understanding inclusivity from the perspective of those with dementia, we will be able to develop a framework for design community spaces and programming that is more inclusive of those with differing sensory sensitives and cognitive abilities.
Works Cited:
Axelrod, D. B., & Kahn, J. (2019). Intergenerational family storytelling and modeling with large-scale data sets. In Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2019 (pp. 352-360). (Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2019). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1145/3311927.3323153
Baecker, R., Sellen, K., Crosskey, S., Boscart, V., & Neves, B. B. (2014). Technology to reduce social isolation and loneliness. In ASSETS14 - Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (pp. 27-34). (ASSETS14 - Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/2661334.2661375
Dementia. (2020). Retrieved 17 November 2020, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia
Freeman, S., Marston, H. R., Olynick, J., Musselwhite, C., Kulczycki, C., Genoe, R., & Xiong, B. (2020). Intergenerational Effects on the Impacts of Technology Use in Later Life: Insights from an International, Multi-Site Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(16), 5711. doi:10.3390/ijerph17165711
Hadley, R. (2019). 'It's most of my life - going to the pub or the group': The social networks of involuntarily childless older men. Ageing and Society, 1-26. doi:10.1017/S0144686X19000837
Houston, A., & Christie, J. (2018). Talking sense: Living with sensory changes and dementia. Sydney, N.S.W.: HammondCare.
Marston, H. R., Genoe, R., Freeman, S., Kulczycki, C., & Musselwhite, C. (2019). Older Adults' Perceptions of ICT: Main Findings from the Technology In Later Life (TILL) Study. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 7(3), 86. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare7030086
Welsh, D., Morrissey, K., Foley, S., McNaney, R., Sali