The Role of Technology in Understanding Perspectives on Aging and Health

As the population ages, research has increasingly focused on conditions associated with growing older, such as cognitive and physical impairment. Technology is often designed as an intervention to manage or treat these changes. This framing can position health conditions as problems to address through design and can neglect the complexity and positive aspects of older adulthood. In this talk, I draw on critical perspectives from Human-Computer Interaction and Gerontology. I describe three ways in which technology design can help us understand and challenge stereotypes around aging as well as cognitive impairment. I will argue for a view that accounts for the ways that technologies position us as we age and, in turn, the way that this view can inform the design of new technologies to enrich the experience of growing older.

Introduction.
Increase in Aging Population.
Growing industry for health technologies for older adults.
Older adults rejecting technology.
Research Approach.
Robotics for Aging.
Discourse on Healthcare Robots.
Older adults rejecting robots.
Findings.
Shifts in Aging Technology Design.
Study design.
Activities to preserve abilities.
Others countering dementia narratives.
Health Activism.
Research Questions.
Methodology.
Showing mundane experiences.
Sharing the complexity of life with.
Moderation to maintain safety.
Summary.