Indiana University doctoral student Beth Ann Walker Recognized at Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America
Beth Ann Walker, a doctoral candidate in health behavior in Applied Health Science at Indiana University-Bloomington (School of HPER), was recognized in Boston, Massachusetts on November 18, 2011 as the second-place award recipient of a major contest sponsored by the Gerontological Society of America. Walker won second place for her design project aimed at transforming an android mobile phone device for use by adults aged 55 and over. The “Aging Means Business Student Design Contest” invited undergraduate and graduate students from across the nation to showcase their design ingenuities by proposing an original product for older adults, based on a transformation of an existing device or an entirely new creation. Walker was one of 42 applicants.
The primary goal of her proposal was to design a user-friendly Android phone application via App Inventor for Android utilizing principles of gerontechnology in order to enable older adults to benefit from the latest cell phone technologies available. The application consists of a customized screen that displays four speed-dial contact options which are available to allow the user to simply call their contact of choice by touching their large picture. The end results of her design are to:
- enable older adults to be able to use the Android Phone to communicate with emergency responders with a basic one-touch application;
- enable older adults to be able to communicate and engage with their family, peers, doctors, and a multitude of community resources simply with picture icons and basic one-touch applications; and
- simplify programming of the Android Phone to increase usability and acceptance of the phone by older adults.
In presenting the award, judges commented that they liked the well-organized design, elegant simplicity of the app, and the way the app could be customized to meet older adult needs. “Older people will want to use mobile devices,” said judge Mary Furlong, “and this app cracks the code to make smart phones easy to use.”
For her dissertation, Walker is exploring the factors that lead to use and acceptance of virtual gaming, such as Wii Fit, by occupational therapists with their older adult clients. She is also on the faculty at the University of Indianapolis as an assistant professor.
