Understanding the notion of accessible spaces and places: Sydney CBD Visitor Accessibility Web portal www.sydneyforall.com

The paper presents an approach to understanding the accessibility of spaces and places for people with disabilities and seniors. For these groups, the challenges associated with recreational access are compounded by the cultural context, fragmented approaches to wayfinding and a lack of collaboration by providers to promote accessible experiences. The paper presents the outcome of the research project that sought to collaboratively promote accessible experiences within the Sydney CBD and Sydney Harbour environs. The Sydney for All web portal was developed in conjunction with three industry partners: Tourism NSW; Tourism and Transport Forum; and NSW Dept of Environment and Climate Change. The research engaged in participatory action research with the major stakeholders, attractions and the destination experience providers. The Web portal complies with the highest W3C web accessibility standards as evidenced through the compliance testing by Vision Australia. The paper outlines the research approach, underlying philosophy and the major accessibility features of the portal through a case study of the North Head Lookout. As will be demonstrated, the portal is a starting point to understanding accessible experiences through focusing on universal design, destination experience and management frameworks rather than using constraints based approaches that dominate mainstream access auditing

A survey of UK university web management: staffing, systems and issues

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to summarize the findings of a survey of UK universities about how their web site is managed and resourced, which technologies are in use and what are seen as the main issues and priorities. Methodology/approach: The paper is based on a web based questionnaire distributed in summer 2006, and which received 104 usable responses from 87 insitutions. Findings: The survey showed that some web teams were based in IT and some in external relations, yet in both cases the site typically served internal and external audiences. The role of web manager is partly management of resources, time and people, partly about marketing and liaison and partly also concerned with more technical aspects including interface design and HTML. But it is a diverse role with a wide spread of responsibilities. On the whole web teams were relatively small. Three quarters of responding institutions had a CMS, but specific systems in use were diverse. 60% had a portal. There was evidence of increasing use of blogs and wikis. The key driver for the web site is student recruitment, with instituitional reputation and information to stakeholders also being important. The biggest perceived weaknesses were maintaining consistency with devolved content creation and currency of content; lack of resourcing a key threat while comprehensiveness was a key strength. Current and wished for projects pointed again to the diversity of the sector. Research implications/limitations: The lack of comparative data and difficulties of interpreting responses to closed questions where respondents could have quite different status (partly reflecting divergent patterns of governance of the web across the sector) create issues with the reliability of the research. Practical implications: Data about resourcing of web management, technology in use etc at comparable institutions is invaluable for practitioners in their efforts to gain resource in their own context. Originality/value of paper: The paper adds more systematic, current data to our limited knowledge about how university web sites are managed

Older Australians and the Internet

In late 2009, Sandra Haukka secured funding from the auDA Foundation to explore what older Australians who never or rarely use the Internet (referred to as ‘non-users’) know about the types of online products and services available to them, and how they might use these products and services to improve their daily life. This project aims to support current and future strategies and initiatives by: 1) exploring the extent to which non-users are aware of the types and benefits of online products and services, (such as e-shopping, e-banking, e-health, social networking, and general browsing and research) as well as their interest in them b) identifying how the Internet can improve the daily life of older Australians c) reviewing the effectiveness of support and services designed to educate and encourage older people to engage with the Internet d) recommending strategies that aim to raise non-user awareness of current and emerging online products and services, and provide non-users with the skills and knowledge needed to use those products and services that they believe can improve their daily life. The Productive Ageing Centre at National Seniors Australia, and Professor Trevor Barr from Swinburne University provided the project with in-kind support

Designing authentication with seniors in mind

Developers typically adopt perceived best practice, and in the case of authentication this means password security. However, given the wide range of technical solutions available and the diverse needs and limitations of older users, we suggest that the default adoption of electronic “username and password” authentication may not be 'best practice' or even good practice. This paper highlights some challenges faced by three seniors, each of whom has multiple age- related disabilities and concomitant life challenges. The result is that they cannot authenticate themselves when they need to access their devices and accounts. We conclude by suggesting a number of research directions calculated to address some of these challenges and promote inclusive design and allow for diverse user authentication

Bridging the digital divide for hard-to-reach groups

Boeltzig and Pilling identified specific groups of people who typically are not connected to the Internet and examined the circumstances of each - rural, poor, disabled, seniors, and ethnic minorities. They focused on how these groups of people, such as homebound individuals, could benefit most from using online government services. They also identified technical as well as social barriers that limit access. Their recommendations are aimed at both increasing access for these targeted groups and increasing use by individuals in the targeted groups. They also provide valuable recommendations aimed at service or application providers who have a major role in increasing both access and accessibility. The case studies resulted in insights and lessons that are broadly applicable. Based on the case studies, the authors offer recommendations that are practical and serve as useful guides to practitioners and policy makers at all levels of government

Caring for Our Kupuna: Building an Aging in Place Movement in Hawaii

Government funding for elder care in the United States is becoming increasingly strained as the number of seniors and the cost of healthcare rise. Medicare paid $560 billion for hospital visits, prescription drugs, and other services in 2010 and expects to pay out just over$1 trillion by 2022. Medicaid, which covers long-term care for individuals with low income and assets, is the source of payment for 70% of nursing home stays across the country and paid $48.2 billion for senior residential care in 2007.As the costs of Medicare and Medicaid soar, practitioners in Hawaii and around the country have experimented with preventive and supportive aging-in-place services that reduce the cost of service while improving the lives of seniors. Rather than rushing an elder to the emergency room after a dangerous fall in the bathroom, providers have begun installing hand and safety rails in the home to prevent falls. Other providers are offering preventive health and nutrition classes that help seniors maintain their health and delay the need for long-term residential care. By focusing on preventive services rather than treating only advanced health needs, aging-in-place service providers are helping seniors maintain independence at home, avoid nursing home admission, reduce hospitalization, and minimize social isolation. Studies show that those who choose to age at home have better health outcomes while incurring significantly lower health costs than those who age in nursing homes. In addition to saving financial resources, aging in place is popular among seniors: a full 90% of American seniors share the desire to remain in their homes as they age.The value of aging in place is particularly relevant in Hawaii, which has the highest life expectancy of any state and the second highest cost of living in the country. By 2030, Hawaii expects to have an older population of 475,000 individuals, representing 29.7% of the population and a 310% increase during the 55-year period from 1980-2035. As the number of seniors aging in Hawaii rapidly increases, the state faces limited capacity in its residential care homes. With only 4,200 beds in nursing homes and 7,000 spaces in residential facilities in 2010, Hawaii's current facilities would be able to serve only 30% of the 38,000 older adults projected to need long-term care in 2035.6Increasing the portion of seniors aging in place could increase the happiness of Hawaii's seniors ("kupuna") and save significant resources for society. However, a continuum of wrap-around services must be available to seniors if they are to age in place effectively. Aging-in-place services must be available to transport elders, support needs in the home (safety, cleaning, cooking, etc.), connect elders with a community, provide respite for caregivers, and monitor and address health/nursing needs. Without this comprehensive support, elders living alone are not empowered to age with dignity and are more likely to become ill or incur injuries

Who counts and who is counted? Conversations around voting, access, and divisions in the disability community

Online voting platforms have been introduced in some locations as the solution to the many barriers to political participation that disabled people continue to face. Reading the experiences of disabled student voters on university campuses alongside broader trends in electoral reform taking place in jurisdictions across Canada allows us to attend to the dangerous ways in which conversations around access have been limited through virtual solutions that encourage the physical absence of disabled voters. This article situates these absences alongside other categories of exclusion–including groups who are formally disenfranchised–and recalls many unstated values that are active in shaping citizenship cultures. Probing online voting through a critical disability angle, we present a critique of techno-fixes that builds upon broader notions of accessibility and inclusion

Securing the Elderly: A Developmental Approach to Hypermedia-Based Online Information Security for Senior Novice Computer Users

Whilst security threats to the general public continue to evolve, elderly computer users with limited skill and knowledge are left playing catch-up in an ever-widening gap in fundamental cyber-related comprehension. As a definable cohort, the elderly generally lack awareness of current security threats, and remain under-educated in terms of applying appropriate controls and safeguards to their computers and networking devices. This paper identifies that web-based computer security information sources do not adequately provide helpful information to senior citizen end-users in terms of both design and content