In this blog, find out how older people are shaping research to explore important issues around digital technologies and ensure that findings reflect their realities and needs to inform social care decisions. The Digital Technologies to Support Social Wellbeing of Older Adults study is guided by their Research Advisory Group of eight older people sharing a wealth of lived experience and skills.
The research team includes Professor Kathryn Almack, Theme Lead for the ARC East of England’s Support for Ageing and Living with Long-Term Conditions theme, along with Alison Tingle, Leisha O’Brien and members of the Research Advisory Group: Raj Mehta and Anne Pridmore.
Research is about real people, real experiences, and real impact. The most valuable research happens when people with lived experience are involved in every step of the process.
The Digital Technologies to Support Social Wellbeing of Older Adults (DiTSoW) study puts these principles into action. We incorporated lived experiences throughout our project to understand older adults’ perspectives on using technology to enhance social wellbeing. This study is one of four projects that form part of the work of the NIHR National Priorities Programme for Adult Social Care and Work, led by the ARC Kent, Surrey and Sussex and nine ARCs across England.
The DiTSoW Research Advisory Group (RAG) brings together eight older people with a wealth of diverse lived experience and professional skills. They shaped the research design to ensure findings reflected the realities of older people and were valuable for social care decision-makers. They were instrumental in our planning and design of the study and ensured our materials for our workshops were accessible and interesting. They encouraged us to consider diverse perspectives and helped develop inclusive, creative ways to share our findings.
“The thing that I love most of all about working with the RAG is that we’ve become a team. Everyone has been so generous; they share their lived experience perspective as well as their professional expertise with us too. They have bolstered the skills mix within the team, particularly around public engagement strategies, events and communicating research to wider and non-academic audiences.”
Leisha O’Brien, Researcher in this study
Designing inclusive and accessible events
In 2023, the RAG members played a pivotal role in organising and leading two accessible World Café-style events. These events brought together older people, people with disabilities, technology developers, charities and local authorities to discuss how digital technology can improve social wellbeing and to develop recommendations for policy and practice.
RAG members took on active roles in both events, facilitating, timekeeping and participating in discussions. They aimed to encourage meaningful engagement from older adults and people with disabilities, ensuring their voices were heard by all participants. To prepare for these roles, we provided specialist training through the NIHR network, developed user-friendly facilitator guides and shared advance lists of attendees to ensure everything went smoothly.
“For me it all comes back to collaborative working. We spent lots of time upfront, including training and that really made this work stand out.”
Raj, Research Advisory Group (RAG) member on the DiTSoW project
The room was full of insightful and vibrant conversations, and we wanted a way to visually capture the energy of these engaging discussions. To bring this vision to life, we arranged for artist Debbie Roberts from Engage Visually to create real-time illustrations during the event, allowing participants to see their ideas come to life (image below).
Graphic record by Engage Visually
“The artists weren't actually taking part in the discussions but they were taking the feedback, going to all the scribble boards that were dotted around where people are putting on thoughts. So, they were able to get onto one document, probably more ideas than we were actually aware of during the discussion. I think it condenses many, many pages of information to a single page. I think, is a really good tool.”
Anonymous, Research Advisory Group (RAG) member on the DiTSoW project
Rethinking accessibility
To ensure our materials are accessible, we developed an audio description of our graphic designed at the event. We would encourage researchers to do audio descriptions, as you quickly realise how much detail sighted people take for granted. You begin to understand how much is left out for people with sight loss or those who have never had sight, whether in research outputs, study materials, or public engagement activities. This experience deepens your understanding of inclusion and different approaches. It helps you think beyond basic accessibility and focus on making research experiences meaningful for everyone.
It’s valuable to get expert advice before trying audio description. Our researcher worked with Warren Wilson, Community Connector at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), and there are also training opportunities from organisations like VocalEyes.
View an accessible audio description of the graphic below:
We have compiled four practical tips for creating accessible audio descriptions:
- Begin with a general statement about the image to give the listener an overall sense e.g., “This picture is very busy, with most of the paper covered in illustrations but there is a lot of empty white space”
- Break down complex images into sections.
- Think about the key element of the image and describe them clearly but without overwhelming the listener.
- Consider what to describe for example colour, size, feel and perspective.
Download our full audio description tips guide here
For more information about audio descriptions, you can view the Royal National Institute of Blind People’s guide here.
Creative dissemination
Creativity has played a central role in this project. In addition to the live illustration, we also launched a special one-off podcast to amplify the voices and insights of the RAG. This podcast gives a behind-the-scenes look at the rich mixture of perspectives and discussions shared during RAG meetings, led by the University of Hertfordshire’s research team. In this podcast, we cover topics that are close to the hearts of the RAG members on the important issues around digital technologies. This includes concerns around the safety of technology, the challenges of setting up devices, the impact of sensory and cognitive impairments and the pros and cons of accessibility settings and artificial intelligence.
Listen to our podcast, titled 'Wired and Wise: What is important to older people when considering technology use and development?' below:
“Members of the RAG with vision loss have been instrumental in us learning so much about conducting research with participants with vision impairments – so many things sighted people can take for granted. Whilst developing the idea for a podcast, we were guided by what the RAG members thought was important to cover.”
Professor Kathryn Almack, Principal Investigator the study
The collaboration between the RAG and researchers demonstrates how powerful equity and shared knowledge can be. It has not only improved the research but also made the events and outcomes more engaging, inclusive, and meaningful for everyone.
“Working in a co-production together is always the right way to work. Whilst we all have individual ideas any research that involves people with lived experience is going to be a positive approach and have a more meaningful end result. The RAG group worked well because I had confidence that my views would be valued.”
Anne, Research Advisory Group (RAG) member on the DiTSoW project
Learn more about the inclusive methods the DiTSoW project used, by getting in touch with Alison Tingle, a.tingle@herts.ac.uk.
