Towards an Inclusive World - A Simulation Tool to Design Interactive Electronic Systems for Elderly and Disabled Users

Recent research on interactive electronic systems like computer, digital TV, smartphones can improve the quality of life of many disabled and elderly people by helping them to engage more fully to the world. However, existing design practices often isolate elderly or disabled users by considering them as users with special needs and do not consider their problems during the design phase. Later they try to solve the problem by providing a few accessibility features, which surely reduces the scalability of the systems. In this paper, we present a system that can help in designing interfaces for people with a wide range of abilities by simulating their interaction patterns. We have described the detail of our simulator in the context of other similar work and discussed applications of the simulator for developing accessible and adaptable digital TV interfaces. We have presented a couple of case studies of providing static and dynamic adaptation. Besides digital television, our system can also be used for any other digital interface like computer or smartphone interfaces.