Designing for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment: A Panel Discussion

The population is aging and a subset of older adults will have some level of cognitive impairment. Human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) practitioners must consider them in the design process but often are not prepared to do so, lacking relevant experience or training. In this panel, an interdisciplinary team with expertise in aging, in general, and cognitive impairment, in particular, will (a) provide insights into cognitive challenges confronting older adults with cognitive impairments; (b) discuss impacts of these challenges on everyday performance (e.g., transportation, computer use, health); (c) explore the design cycle as it relates to cognitive impairment; and (d) provide examples of accommodations necessary for research and user testing for this population. Interactive audience discussion will focus on future directions and challenges for design and testing of emerging technologies for persons aging with cognitive impairment. This panel will be of interest to a broad range of HF/E domains.