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Research paper−15−Synthesiology - English edition Vol.1 No.1 (2008) functions in the Guidelines for the Elderly and People with Disabilities of the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS)[1, 2]. In this paper, first, the significance and the necessity of accessible design standardization are explained. Next, using as example JIS S 0014[3], a standard for auditory signal of consumer products on which the authors worked to establish, the research process that leads to the standardization of accessible design technology will be discussed from the perspective of Full Research.2 Significance and necessity of standardizationThe authors have aimed for standardization through establishment of JIS and other standards ever since the start of development of accessible technology. One of the reasons is because, as elderly-friendly products started to appear in the market, confusions developed due to differences in design specifications by manufacturers or by product types, as well as to a gradual increase of inadequately designed products that carried the elderly-friendly label. The establishment of Guidelines for the Elderly and People with Disabilities series occurred due to strong requests from government and the industry that wished to improve the situation.Aside from such a situation, there are many advantages in conducting ergonomic technology development including accessible design technology, with standardization in mind from the very beginning. First, since human characteristics are multidimensional, there are many factors to consider even when developing one technology. In case of auditory signal, aging characteristic of hearing is the subject of study, but to design sound that is easy to hear and recognize, the effects of at least three factors including frequency, sound pressure level, and time pattern must be studied sequentially. Academically, experimental condition for each 1 IntroductionWith the recent trend of decreased birthrate and increased aging population, that is, less young people and more elderly, the main users of consumer products including home electric appliances, information technology devices, and office appliances are shifting from young to elderly. Conventionally, the users were assumed to be young people when designing such products. However, in the society of decreased birthrate and increased aging population, there is more demand for “accessible design” or design that can be used by as many people as possible including the elderly.This is not merely a superficial issue of difference in design preference between the generations. As the number of elderly users increase, there is a rising concern for cases of product misuse due to failure to see or hear information necessary to use the product correctly. Therefore, appropriate display of product use instruction to maintain high safety level is demanded ever more than before. Also, there is a tendency for the elderly to avoid using new products because they feel uneasy about using them safely. This may hamper replacement by purchase, and the entire market of the product may gradually shrink. However, looking at the situation from a different angle, this great shift in demographic structure is a good chance to pioneer a new market. Now, there is increased activity in developing new products or changing design specifications for the elderly who are new users untargeted before. Ever since 1990, interest in design method that addresses the characteristics of the elderly has been increasing in various product categories such as consumer products and office appliances.With this social background, the authors have been involved in drafting and establishing the standards for auditory and visual - Product design methodology based on measurements ofdomestic sounds and hearing characteristics -Kenji Kurakata* and Ken SagawaInstitute for Human Science and Biomedical Engineering, AIST Tsukuba Central 6,Tsukuba,Ibaraki 305-8566, Japan *E-mail : kurakata-k@aist.go.jpWith the recent trend of decreased birthrate and increased aging population, design that can be used by as many people as possible including the elderly, or accessible design, has been incorporated in consumer product designs. The authors have developed and propagated accessible design technology through the establishment of Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) based on auditory and visual functions of elderly people. This paper uses JIS S 0014, a standard for adjustment method of sound volume of auditory signals, to describe the research process that leads to the standardization of accessible design from the perspective of Full Research.Development and standardization of accessible design technologies that address the needs of senior citizens Keywords : Elderly (older person/people), hearing, vision, auditory signal, standardization, Japanese Industrial Standard[Translation from Synthesiology, Vol.1, No.1, p.15-23 (2008)]

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