The University of the Sunshine Coast

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that the existing adoption theories lack a sufficient level of attention to the context of the everyday lives of seniors and as such have been incapable of successful explaining adoption concepts specifically related to seniors. The study highlights the concept of empowerment and relates it to assistive technologies that may assist in training and improving the functional abilities of the elderly with respect to their capabilities to undertake daily activities e.g. driving. The paper looks at empowering capabilities and utilises the capability approach to explain the constructs involved in the adoption technologies among seniors. In order to clarify the proposed constructs and the utilisation of the capability approach, the article presents an exemplar in adopting Xbox Kinect video games that combine physical, visual and cognitive abilities and can be used to help seniors to improve their driving. The paper is research in progress and invites experts to collect in-depth empirical evidence for the proposed model.