Balancing Ethics in Research with Older Adults and Persons with Dementia

This paper will discuss ethical considerations for research on technology-based solutions to support memory in healthy older adults and persons with dementia (PwD). The authors have reviewed past research proposing innovative ways to help memory, well-being and independence for healthy older adults and PwD, as well as literature on ethics relating to the use of assistive and ambient technologies for PwD. This review has surfaced issues for discussion in a workshop setting. The key finding from this review is that fundamental practices in HCI (e.g. user-centred research and participatory design) are well-suited to address ethical issues that arise when project goals and benefits across stakeholders are not aligned. HCI research can contribute to the ongoing discourse on ethics of working with vulnerable older adults by providing a space to explore practices such as rolling informed consent and resulting impacts on levels of engagement of healthy older individuals, PwD, families and carers.