Reports from older adults, and their friends and families, about ways they have solved challenges that were getting in the way of living life the way they wanted.
These pieces of content contain real life experiences from makers, inventors, hackers of aging, and regular people dealing with growing older.
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Alexa and My Mother: Learnings for Teaching Older Adults Technology
Over the past few years, I have been the major caregiver for my mother, who lives 350 miles away.
This article is partly about my experiences using Alexa to help her, and partly to share some things I have learned about what is important in teaching technology to older adults in ways that mean they will actually take advantage of the benefits of that technology.
Kitchen and Night Safety for Father-in-law: Smarthome Experiments
I wanted to deploy some smarthome solutions to help my father-in-law who has some physical and cognitive decline. I started with a kitchen safety solution (stove timer), and a night safety solution (lighting). This article explains what I did and why, and how you can do it too.
Active Aging: Rethinking the Use of Everyday Objects
As our bodies change with age, we are often advised by well-meaning health providers, family and friends to relinquish the activities we value and that give our lives meaning. We prefer the process of rethinking and repurposing everyday, affordable objects — so we can keep doing the “things we love“.
We discuss and provide examples of how to rethink outdoor activities such as gardening, animal care, and even simple farming. The principles can be adapted to many other hobbies and interests you may have!
Passive Monitoring: Better Care For My 96-yr-old Aunt
I am the primary caregiver for my 96-year old Aunt who lives alone, a 10-minute drive from my home. I am always looking for ways to help her more, while maintaining a balance between her independence and her “safety”.
I have been trying out a new product that provides “passive monitoring” to help watch over her when I am not there. I liked the product, and this report is to share how I used it, and why it was helpful.
Smart Home for Seniors: What, Why?
What is a “Smart Home for Seniors“, we wondered? And how is it different from a normal smart home? And who would want one, and why? And, can you just get some specific smart home features relevant to you — in your current house? Or do you need a whole new house?
This article explores these questions.
Dealing with a Wandering Loved One with Alzheimer’s
Before my wife passed away from Alzheimer’s, she went through a period of wandering outside the home that I could control with a few simple devices. I want to share what I did, and the solutions I used, in the hope they will be useful for others in the same situation I was in.
DIY Technology Solutions to Things Bothering My Aging Relatives
My relatives and their friends are in their 70’s and 80’s and 90’s now, and I am finding they have some recurring “problems” that get in the way of life being as enjoyable as I think it should be. I have come up with a variety of DIY “Tech Solutions” to these problems that I have implemented for them. I hope they will be useful for you too.
Making TV Useful For My 94-yr-old Aunt
This is about how I took advantage of the ubiquity of TV in the lives of many older adults. By adding various smart integrations, I turned the TV from simply a source of background noise into a useful tool — that helps my 94-yr-old aunt accomplish all sorts of things she previously had trouble with.
An Internet Enabled Life
Having used technology all my working life, and now being retired, I notice that many of my peers are missing out on some of the benefits that come with appropriate use of the latest technology.
From MD to Alexa Skills Developer: My Journey
Retired physician, Dr Bob Kolock, shares his new “hobby”: Alexa Skills Developer. He describes how he came to be interested in Alexa, and describes some of the 13 skills he has developed. Many of these skills are useful for older adults, and Dr. Kolock’s perspective from “both sides of the stethoscope” makes them especially intriguing.
Sensors, Dementia, Safety: Real World Experiences
Using a handful of simple, non-intrusive sensors, retired engineer Bob Glicksman has been able to learn all sorts of important things about the daily routine of an elderly person, who has cognitive impairment, and for whom he cares. He has been able to make multiple successful interventions to stave off what might have otherwise been serious adverse events. In fact, this simple sensor setup has worked better than he expected, and he shares his experiences, as an example of a real world use case in which a small addition of technology can accomplish a lot.
Joe Maxwell’s Universal Design Kitchen
This article describes a piece of universal design (a kitchen) from 83 yr old designer Joe Maxwell. When you read about Joe’s kitchen design below from the 1950’s you can’t help wondering why we don’t see more Universal Design in mainstream products.