Past Research Projects
Technology Adoption And Older Adults With Age-Related Vision Loss
This collaborative knowledge mobilization workshop brought together 35 older adults with vision loss, family caregivers, researchers, low vision care professionals, community organizations, and industry representative to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the barriers and obstacles to technology acquisition and use for older adults with vision loss and how older adults with vision loss make decisions about the adoption of new technologies.
Publications resulting from this project included:
McGrath, C., & Corrado, AM. (2019). The environmental factors that influence technology adoption for older adults with age-related vision loss. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 82(8), 493-501.
Initiating A Participatory Action Research Process With Older Adults With Age-Related Vision Loss (ARVL)
Participatory action research (PAR) involves engaging participants as co-researchers in a cyclical process of reflection, conducting research, and implementing results as a means of promoting change, however, there are no examples of PAR with older adults with age-related vision loss. As such, this study engaged eight older adults with ARVL as co-researchers, to identify a set of research priorities relevant to aging and vision loss including establishing research questions, proposing methods of data collection/analysis, and proposing stakeholder involvement.
Publications resulting from this project included:
Corrado, AM., Benjamin-Thomas, TE., McGrath, C., Hand, C., & Laliberte Rudman, D. (2019). Participatory action research with older adults: A critical interpretive synthesis. The Gerontologist, 60(5), 413-427.
Benjamin-Thomas, TE., Corrado, AM., McGrath, C., Laliberte Rudman, D., & Hand, C. (2018). Working towards the Promise of Participatory Action Research: Learning from Ageing Research Exemplars. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17(1), 1-13.
McGrath, C. (2021). Setting research priorities in age-related vision loss: The first step in a critical participatory action research approach. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 40(2), 351-359.
The Preservation Of Identity: Understanding The Technology Adoption Patterns Of Older Adults With Age-Related Vision Loss (ARVL)
Despite the availability and benefits of technologies to support vision loss, many older adults either never adopt technologies or abandon them shortly after acquisition. This is partly explained by the fact that technology developers often create technologies for older adults without involving them in the design, development, or commercialization process. What results are technologies that do not match the personal and social identity that older adults desire to portray; an identity consistent with contemporary discourses of ‘positive’ or ‘successful’ aging. In an effort to address this inconsistency, this project explored how the decision-making processes of older adults with ARVL, as it relates to technology adoption, was influenced by the negotiation of identity.
Publications resulting from this project included:
McGrath, C., Molinaro, M., Sheldrake, E., Laliberte Rudman, D., & Astell, A. (2019). A protocol paper on the preservation of identity: Understanding the technology adoption patterns of older adults with age-related vision loss (ARVL). International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18, 1-8.