281833
Tools and technologies in facilitating community wayfinding: Opportunities and challenges
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
: 11:10 a.m. - 11:20 a.m.
Rebecca H. Hunter, MEd,
Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Daniela B Friedman, PhD,
Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Mariko Toyoji,
Dept of Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Ensuring effective community wayfinding (CWF) is critical for maintaining mobility among older adults. Reduced mobility, associated with either age or disability, is a public health burden. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the role of user tools and technologies in facilitating CWF in older adults and people with mobility disabilities. Wayfinding tools and aids used by people to support mobility and/or navigation include but are not limited to smartphones, compasses, maps, and written directions. We report the results of a review and synthesis of the literature on user tools and technologies as related to CWF. In our review we include but are not limited to populations with sensory and/or cognitive impairments. We propose new research directions, including the need to better understand the use of tools in everyday settings and how tool-use relates to public health outcomes such as increased physical activity. We summarize opportunities and challenges of user tools and technologies, such as those associated with barriers and the equitable distribution of these technologies in underserved populations. Without a consideration of these barriers, CWF innovations, no matter how efficacious and effective, may only serve to aggravate health and functional disparities by race, ethnicity, and region in aging populations.
Learning Areas:
Other professions or practice related to public health
Program planning
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related research
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health
Learning Objectives:
Discuss the role of tools and technology in facilitating community wayfinding in older adults and people with disabilities.
Keyword(s): Aging, Environment
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am PI and lead of the CDC-HAN. As such I oversee all activities of the network including the community wayfinding research presented as part of this symposium. I have also received other CDC funding to conduct research on the built environment.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
