The SIMWIN system

Discussions with a residential care provider and representatives of BASE (formerly the British Association for Services to the Elderly) led to the identification of the need to address social activities of older people in residential care or living alone in their home. It was noted that social and health care regimes use technologies to meet critical needs while not addressing many activities that would deliver social or quality of life benefits, e.g. social interaction with relatives or friends, attendance at events in the community, games playing, etc. Findings generally supported in the editorials of a special issue of Technology and Disability[1]. In response the ACT team proposed a collaboration with the Barnsley AT team to demonstrate an interface to suitable Windows applications that : was highly usable; and, did not need the end user to have any knowledge about IT, Windows or the applications themselves. The research and development intention is that any eventual system would be configurable to an individual's needs due to the variability of requirements of likely end users[2]. The outcome of the collaboration so far � a 'system' using standard Windows applications and AT components - will be demonstrated after the presentation. Relevant end-user desire for and success with videoconferencing and card games was noted in the project ACTION[3]. Access to videoconferencing, card games, photos, videos, music and the Internet are incorporated in the demonstrator. A crucial issue is the usability of these elements and how this can be maximised for older people who do not use IT.