Effect of impairment on upper limb performance in an ageing sample population: 7th International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction: Design Methods, Tools, and Interaction Techniques for eInclusion, UAHCI 2013, Held as Part of 15th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI 2013

Ageing and age-related impairments have a detrimental effect on human performance and are likely to affect gesture based Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Relying on "healthy" individuals to define gestures used for interfacing is likely to bias HCI design within the older population. To what extent gestures are affected by a common ageing disease remains to be determined. The aim of this study is to explore spatial and temporal changes in shoulder motion between rotator cuff patients and "healthy" controls. Seven controls and eight pre-operative patients participated in this study and performed several predefined gestures. The results show that the ROM and speed of movement can be affected by a common age-related disease. Wavelet analysis indicated that patients have a higher level of coupling between conditions making it harder to differentiate between different gestures. These results highlight the need to include age-related disabilities in HCI study populations.