Themes

• Ageing-in-place and facilitation of ADLs
  • Environmental simulations & ADLs
  • Unobtrusive monitoring & privacy
  • Ambient assisted living (AAL)
• Technologies for preventing or living with cognitive decline / impairment
• Technologies for social interaction & leisure
• Interaction design for older users
• Ageing populations in developing nations

• "Active aging"

• "shift left" on cost vs. quality of life scale, moving care from clinical to community to home, train older adults to care for themselves

• R: currently a disintegration and fragmentation of care (e.g., many many different medical specialists)
  • need a more wholistic view of the older adult, and of their caregivers (e.g., library, church, home, fitness centre)
• R: there's a strong focus on acquiring high-tech solutions (e.g., "MRI with better resolution") rather than lower-tech solutions that prevent problems (e.g., better shoes to prevent falls)
  • policy changes are needed to invest in more practical solutions

• R: let's move from a negative view of aging (what seniors can't do) to a more positive one (opportunity to tap into wealth of human potential and experience)
  • if older people are enabled to be productive and contribute, they won't be considered as much as a "burden"

Master Presentations

Andrew Sixsmith (SFU Gerontology)

• Supporting "Active aging"
  • improving quality of life rather than focusing on "problems" of old age
  • enabling rather than caring
  • independence rather than dependence
  • universal design rather than accessible design
  • aging as opportunity rather than burden or threat
  • enabling systems rather than passive systems