Making public sector websites age-friendly
Government and supporting agencies do a tremendous job regarding digital accessibility and making sure that their online services are accessible to people with disabilities. However, older adults have their own digital accessibility needs and these are not all covered by current accessibility guidelines.
Almost a third of the UK population is over 50 years of age, and the numbers are only increasing as we all live for longer. Older adults are online – almost four out of every five people between 65 and 74 have used the internet recently, according to this ONS survey.
Surveys by organisations such as Nominet have found that only 46% of people in their fifties are classed as ‘digitally savvy’, and this drops to just 23% for the baby boomer generation (i.e. those born between 1946 to 1964). Research has also shown that giving up and leaving a website is almost twice as high for older adults compared to those under 30 years of age.
How do we explain why older adults find it harder to complete tasks than younger generations?
Much of this is because older adults are not digital natives who have grown up with this technology. But this does not explain away all the problems that older people encounter on the web.
As we get older, the way we work with technology alters because of changes in ourselves. As with digital accessibility guidelines, there are four main categories where this is evident: vision, cognitive, fine motor control and hearing. These are the areas where we need to make accommodations for older users to make our digital products, ‘age-friendly’.
Our eyes are thought to be at their best around the age of 30. As we get older, our acuity diminishes, making it harder to read fine details and print. Physical changes to the eye mean we start to develop presbyopia – age-related farsightedness – and by retirement age, almost everyone needs glasses. In addition, peripheral vision narrows, and our sensitivity to contrast diminishes.
Some of the things we need to consider are using large, plain fonts on plain backgrounds. Text should be written in normal sentence case. Text should have plenty of spacing and should be easy to scan.
As we get older, we become more conservative and risk-averse on websites—one study showed that 45% of older people interviewed were reluctant to try new things or explore a website. Interactions tend to be slow and methodical. Compared to younger users, older adults tend to find it harder to learn and to complete tasks, they use different search strategies, and can be more easily distracted.
When considering cognitive issues, things to consider are not straining short-term memory. Use a writing style that is brief, language that is active and not passive, and is clear. Provide examples of the data required in forms. Don’t use icons without text labels, especially for key functionality like the hamburger icon, often used for navigation in mobile design.
Fine motor control naturally diminishes with age from around 50, even in adults without conditions such as arthritis. This can combine with reduced hand-eye coordination, which has an impact on our ability to click small buttons, icons and links.
Make sure that links are not too close together, especially when viewed on mobile devices. Clicking links accidentally is very annoying for older users. Make sure controls have large clickable areas. Avoid actions like hovering or dragging that require plenty of accuracy to work.
When it comes to hearing, Action on Hearing Loss (formally the RNID) says that hearing loss begins to increase sharply at around the age of 50, and that 55% of people over 60 are deaf or hard of hearing.
For video content, make sure that they have accurate closed captions. If it is not possible to provide them, then provide a transcript.
It goes without saying that older adults are not universally affected by any of these considerations. There are plenty of people in this age group who do not exhibit any of these issues. We all know an older adult or have a relative who uses Facebook, does their banking and pays their Vehicle Tax online. But by making your website age-friendly, you’ll be giving many of your older users a better experience, and a better chance of completing the tasks that they set out to do.
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