C. Stephanidis (Ed.): Universal Access in HCI, Part I, HCII 2009, LNCS 5614, pp. 353–360, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 Age Related Cognitive Impairments and Diffusion of Assistive Web-Base Technologies Senaka Fernando, Tony Elliman, Arthur Money, and Lorna Lines The School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, UK {senaka.fernando,tony.elliman,Arthur.money, lorna.lines}@brunel.ac.uk Abstract. Several researchers argue that age related cognitive impairments have detrimental affect on use of web services by older adults. However little and systematic applied research has been conducted on how age related cogni- tive impairments might affect the usage of web services by older adults. Un- doubtedly, understanding the relationship between the cognitive changes that accompany aging and their impact on older adults’ usage of web services will be beneficial for designing web services for this group. The paper demonstrates how such understanding has been employed to develop an assistive technology in order to improve older adults’ interaction with online forms (e.g. state benefit application form). However the paper acknowledges that this new assistive technology does not guarantee that people with age related cognitive impair- ments accept it, as diffusion of innovation research shows that getting a new technology adopted even when it has noticeable advantage is often very diffi- cult. Consequently the paper identifies critical factors that need to be considered when adopting this new assistive technology, drawing on Rogers (2003) theory of Diffusion of Innovations. Keywords: age related cognitive impairments, older adults, assistive technol- ogy, online forms and web services, innovation, diffusion. 1 Introduction Recent surveys show that the number of people over the age of 65 is increasing worldwide. For example by 2030, the percentage of people over the age 65 in Europe will be about 24% of the total population [1]. However research indicates that the growing numbers of these older adults are living in their homes with limitations in mobility, dexterity, and cognitive ability[2]. Currently there is considerable discussion about the scope of improving the older adults’ autonomy and independence that is restricted by age related impairments, using recent developments in information tech- nology[3]. One of such development is web services and it is rapidly becoming a ma- jor means of accessing health, care in the community and many government services for the older adults[4]. The web services are also becoming a vehicle for older adults in engaging activities such as employment and educational opportunities[5]. However the older adults use web services less often and have less experience with them than