Abstract
Imaginative or other metaphorical methods of travel are increasingly important in later life, as challenges associated with physical travel can increase. Opportunities for the stimulation of imaginative travel may be particularly important for older adults, yet limited due to difficulties related to engaging with the wider community and spending time in familiar places. This chapter discusses the potential for technology to stimulate imaginative mobility amongst largely housebound older adults living in rural areas and explores possible associated benefits for well-being. Details on the technology design and evaluation are given.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Largely housebound’ encompasses older adults who self-identified as being ‘less able to get out and about as they used to, due to a long-term physical health condition’.
- 2.
Project title: Window to the Outside World: Designing a new technology to supplement opportunities for community engagement of older adults in rural NE Scotland .
- 3.
Older adults who lived in rural areas North-East Scotland and were either housebound, visited or knew housebound older adults well.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all of the participants who took part in the research project, Dr. John Paul Vargheese who programmed the working prototype, Alex Tang and Dr. Annie McKee for their thorough, helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. This project was supported by the award made by RCUK Digital Economy Theme to the dot.rural Digital Economy hub, award reference: EP/G066051/1. Further acknowledgment is to the SiDE User Panel at the University of Dundee, awarded by RCUK Digital Economy Research Hub EP/G066019/1—SIDE: Social Inclusion through the Digital Economy.
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Dowds, G., Currie, M., Philip, L., Masthoff, J. (2018). A Window to the Outside World. Digital Technology to Stimulate Imaginative Mobility for Housebound Older Adults in Rural Areas. In: Curl, A., Musselwhite, C. (eds) Geographies of Transport and Ageing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76360-6_5
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