Towards designing more accessible interactions of older people with digital TV

This paper outlines an ongoing PhD thesis about accessibility, DTV (Digital TV) and older people. We aim to design and evaluate accessible interactions of older people with DTV services enabling communication and access to information about health and wellbeing. DTV opens up a wide range of opportunities for older people to communicate with their social circles and access online information. However, DTV services are far from being accessible to older people. We aim to fill this gap by addressing three relevant and up to now relatively unexplored areas in DTV accessibility research with older people: interaction barriers, everyday use of DTV services enabling communication and access to information about health, and cultural differences in both interaction and use. We will use key ethnographical methods to understand these aspects with two user groups of older people living in developed and developing countries (Spain and Brazil). We will also design and evaluate interactive prototypes of related DTV services by drawing upon the ethnographical data, and involving older people in the design and evaluation (participatory design) process.