Improving the Language of Designing for Ageing

Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021 - 18th IFIP TC 13 International Conference, Proceedings, pp. 405-425, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) ; Volume 12933 LNCS

Abstract

In response to an increasingly ageing world population, the World Health Organization has recently proposed a new framework – called Healthy Ageing – to better cater to older adults’ life needs and desires. This framework calls for transdisciplinary approaches to answer the challenges and opportunities posed by an ageing society. Following this framework, it is argued that the first step to accomplishing the goals of Healthy Ageing is to address the existing biases and stereotypes in the language used for addressing ageing issues. In this paper, we propose a series of linguistic guidelines that can help improve the lexicon used to talk about ageing in design research and practice, by countering many subconscious ageist biases and stereotypes. Ageism, especially in its implicit form, is a pervasive negative force that can affect not only design practitioners and researchers but also older adults, who often use ageist language to describe themselves. The proposed guidelines would also help the “false friends” of ageing people, who may be using apparently innocuous words, terminology, and remarks to refer to ageing, without perhaps realising the underlying ageist attitudes and stereotypes hidden in their used language. Overall, we aim to foster a change in design researchers’ and practitioners’ perspective on ageing, by paving the way for a transdisciplinary discourse on designing for ageing, which could then be further expanded and explored to eliminate ageism in design.

Description

Funding Information: We would like to thank Professor Andrea Gaggioli for providing valuable feedback during the writing of this paper. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.

Keywords

Ageing population, Ageism, Design for ageing, Healthy ageing

DOI

10.1007/978-3-030-85616-8_24

Citation

Comincioli, E, Chirico, A & Masoodian, M 2021, Improving the Language of Designing for Ageing. in C Ardito, R Lanzilotti, A Malizia, H Petrie, A Piccinno, G Desolda & K Inkpen (eds), Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021 - 18th IFIP TC 13 International Conference, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 12933 LNCS, Springer, pp. 405-425, International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Bari, Italy, 30/08/2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85616-8_24

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202111049989

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[article-cris] Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu / ARTS

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Improving the Language of Designing for Ageing

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