Portal of the elderly: development and evaluation of the website with information about the aging process and the main speech, language and hearing disorders that affect the elderly

ABSTRACT Purpose This research aimed to develop and evaluate a website with information on Speech-language therapy area with focus on the aging process. A website containing information with simple language, clear purpose and concise content was designed based on scientific evidence. Methods The Flesch Index was used to check the material readability, with 50% of the content corresponding to “easy” and 50% of the content corresponding to “difficult”. The website development followed the steps: analysis and planning, modeling, implementation and evaluation. Evaluators invited to participate were part of the following categories: elderly people, caregivers and speech-language therapists. The sample consisted of 10 elderly, 8 caregivers and 10 speech-language therapists. Most individuals (89.28%) were females, who often accessed the Internet (78.57%) and had different educational levels. Results Statistical analyses were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman correlation coefficient. The website's content was classified as “adequate” and the website’s technical quality as “excellent”. There was no statistically significant difference between the categories and subscales or the overall score. Conclusion The website can be considered an accessible material, and a source of consultation and complementation of information about the theme, as well as an important tool for effecting the information transmission process. (AU)