Topic: The Role of Technology in Understanding Perspectives on Aging and Health
When: Dec 10, 2020 13:00-14:00 GMT
As the population ages, research has increasingly focused on conditions associated with growing older, such as cognitive and physical impairment. Technology is often designed as an intervention to manage or treat these changes. This framing can position health conditions as problems to address through design and can neglect the complexity and positive aspects of older adulthood. In this talk, I will present three projects on health technologies for aging. I draw on critical perspectives from Human-Computer Interaction and Gerontology to trace narratives of aging in the ways that technologies that are created for and received by older adults, and instances where older adults’ response to health technologies lead to new understandings of design in this space. I will argue for a view that accounts for the ways that technologies position us as we age and, in turn, the way that this view can inform the design of new technologies to enrich the experience of growing older.
Bio: Amanda Lazar is an assistant professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her PhD from the University of Washington in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education. Her research examines the design of technology for older adults – and in particular, older adults with dementia – to support social interaction and engagement in activities. Her work is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).
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