Inclusion and Accessibility News UTAD Tests the Usability of the Magalhães Computer with Senior Citizens UTAD Tests the Usability of the Magalhães Computer with Senior Citizens
- 01/07/2009
During the month of June UTAD – the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro and CERTIC – the Engineering Centre for Rehabilitation and Accessibility, invited around 50 senior citizens to try out the Magalhães computer for emailing purposes. In addition, 50 final year undergraduate students from the degrees in "Communication and Multimedia" and "Information and Communications Technologies" also participated as observers and experimental rapporteurs. The tests took place in the Universities and at locations usually frequented by the senior citizens.
The aim of this activity was to evaluate how easy and satisfying it was for senior citizens to make use of the Magalhães computer for emailing.
The preliminary results show that this type of hardware may be an option for certain senior citizens and for certain specific uses, such as electronic mail, if suitable software is provided and the hardware's visual options are correctly set up. The trials also showed the expected difficulties and criticisms related to the reduced screen size and the lack of friendly software.
The details of these conclusions and a set of recommendations will be given to the company J.P. Sá Couto which requested the help of UTAD and CERTIC – the Engineering Centre for Rehabilitation and Accessibility, to evaluate the potential of the Magalhães computer for people with special needs. Other studies and will be carried out and recommendations put forward by UTAD in the next few months in response to this request.
Photos of the sessions:
