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 VOLUME 6, ISSUE 1     PSYCHNEWS INTERNATIONAL        May 2001

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SECTION J: BRIEF CONFERENCE REPORT 


      OLDER ADULTS, HEALTH INFORMATION AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB

                         Mary H. Parker, Ph.D.


The Second Biennial Conference, "Older Adults, Health Information 
& the World Wide Web", was held February 26-28, 2001, on the 
campus of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, 
Maryland.   

Over 50 speakers representing the research, media, and government 
communities discussed progress to date in empowering older people 
to use technology to meet their needs. A paper copy of the 
Proceedings of the Conference is available and can be requested 
by contacting the SPRY website: www.spry.org.  An electronic 
copy of the report is expected to be available from the SPRY's 
webpage by July 2001.  

Of particular interest may be the following presentations:  

"Designing for Older Users", 
Wendy A. Rogers and Sara J. Czaja, provided a tutorial on 
how age-related perceptual, cognitive and movement control 
differences influence use of technology and how to improve 
age-related design and product and web design strategies.

"Introduction to Usability Testing with Older Adults," 
Sanjay Koyani, reported on recent data collected by 
CHESS, National Cancer Institute, NIH, illustrating 
how involving older adults in Web design influences 
user acceptance and ease-of-use, including data from 
usability tests with older adults (65+) and younger 
adults (20-30).

"The Art of the Possible", 
W.S. "Ozzie" Osborne, General Manager, IBM Voice 
Systems, discussed recent enhancements in the IT 
environment to assist elderly and those with 
disabilities.

"Human Factors: Designing for Successful Computer Use," 
Neil Charness, describes early results from a 
Florida State University project on input device 
use by older adults which indicate that direct 
positioning devices can minimize age differences 
as well as hand differences, suggesting that computer 
system designers need to create multiple age-sensitive 
interfaces.

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Dr. Mary Hamil Parker is Managing Director of 
MKHP Associates, LLC.

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