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Personalization of Web browsing: adaptations to meet the needs of older adults

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Abstract

Despite difficulties in using the Web, older adults are motivated to use it. This paper reports on work underway to ease Web access for this population. Although Web accessibility standards provide specifications that Web content providers must incorporate if their pages are to be accessible, these standards do not guarantee a good experience for all Web users. This paper will discuss user controls that make a number of dynamic adaptations to page presentation and input that can greatly increase the usability of Web pages for older users. The paper will discuss the authors’ original work on the topic, lessons learned, and usage patterns. Current extensions to that work are also discussed.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank all the members of our team at IBM’s Watson Research Center and elsewhere in IBM who contributed to this work: Jonathan Brezin, Sam Detweiler, John Richards, Rich Schwerdtfeger, Cal Swart, Beth Tibbitts, and Shari Trewin.

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  1. IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, 19 Skyline Dr, Hawthorne, NY, 10532, USA

    Vicki L. Hanson & Susan Crayne

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  1. Vicki L. Hanson
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  2. Susan Crayne
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Correspondence to Vicki L. Hanson.

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Hanson, V.L., Crayne, S. Personalization of Web browsing: adaptations to meet the needs of older adults. Univ Access Inf Soc 4, 46–58 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-005-0110-9

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