Critical Reflections on Technology to Support Physical Activity among Older Adults: An Exploration of Leading HCI Venues

Contemporary policy on ageing overwhelmingly focuses on active ageing and achieving a sustainable increase in disability-free years, leading to an agenda that promotes interventions that often focus on deficits of older persons with little consideration of their perspectives on physical activity. As the integration of technology to support physical activity routines becomes more common, this trend also becomes relevant to the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research community. In this article, we present findings from a structured search of technical systems addressing physical activity among older adults that were published at the most cited HCI venues. Drawing from Thematic Analysis, we explore how the model of active ageing informs existing research, and how it is operationalized in technology design. We find that the deficit-focused perspective on ageing is reflected in many technology solutions published at the most visible HCI venues, and discuss shortcomings and strengths of present research to help guide discourse and future work in HCI.