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Technology Meets Tradition: Investigating User Acceptance and Engagement with Robots for Supporting Older Adults in Pakistani Homes

Sunbul M. Ahmad Orcid Logo, Muneeb Ahmad Orcid Logo, Carolina Fuentes Orcid Logo, Nervo Verdezoto Orcid Logo, Katarzyna Stawarz Orcid Logo

CHI '26: Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Pages: 1 - 18

Swansea University Author: Muneeb Ahmad Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1145/3772318.3790658

Abstract

As Pakistan’s population ages and traditional care structures evolve, there is increasing interest in technological solutions for supporting older adults at home. This study investigates the potential of social assistive robots (SARs) in Pakistani homes, focusing on cultural values, inter-generation...

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Published in: CHI '26: Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
ISBN: 9798400722783
Published: New York, NY, USA Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 2026
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71287
first_indexed 2026-01-21T16:01:23Z
last_indexed 2026-04-25T06:48:36Z
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spelling 2026-04-24T15:50:07.5025193 v2 71287 2026-01-21 Technology Meets Tradition: Investigating User Acceptance and Engagement with Robots for Supporting Older Adults in Pakistani Homes 9c42fd947397b1ad2bfa9107457974d5 0000-0001-8111-9967 Muneeb Ahmad Muneeb Ahmad true false 2026-01-21 MACS As Pakistan’s population ages and traditional care structures evolve, there is increasing interest in technological solutions for supporting older adults at home. This study investigates the potential of social assistive robots (SARs) in Pakistani homes, focusing on cultural values, inter-generational living, and limited access to such technologies. In a 3-day mixed-methods home study, 14 older adults interacted with a SAR communicating in Urdu. Through observations, interviews, and questionnaires, we evaluated the robot’s acceptability, engagement, and cultural compatibility. The results highlighted the need for culturally sensitive design, emphasising the role of robots as companions rather than replacements for human care, and the importance of robot’s ability to communicate in Urdu. We discuss how SARs could be designed to reflect the characteristics of Pakistani households, including faith, family values, everyday routines, and environmental factors. Our design considerations can benefit research on deploying SARs to support older adults in Pakistan and similar cultures. Conference Paper/Proceeding/Abstract CHI '26: Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1 18 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) New York, NY, USA 9798400722783 Human-Robot Interaction, Social interaction, Culture, Language, Pakistan 13 4 2026 2026-04-13 10.1145/3772318.3790658 COLLEGE NANME Mathematics and Computer Science School COLLEGE CODE MACS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) 2026-04-24T15:50:07.5025193 2026-01-21T13:15:05.3080806 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science Sunbul M. Ahmad 0009-0009-3685-2452 1 Muneeb Ahmad 0000-0001-8111-9967 2 Carolina Fuentes 0000-0002-0871-939x 3 Nervo Verdezoto 0000-0001-5006-4262 4 Katarzyna Stawarz 0000-0001-9021-0615 5 71287__36167__00a017447d7d4d6cad830548b79a947b.pdf 71287.VoR.pdf 2026-02-02T15:36:00.4590784 Output 22384596 application/pdf Version of Record true ©2026 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
title Technology Meets Tradition: Investigating User Acceptance and Engagement with Robots for Supporting Older Adults in Pakistani Homes
spellingShingle Technology Meets Tradition: Investigating User Acceptance and Engagement with Robots for Supporting Older Adults in Pakistani Homes
Muneeb Ahmad
title_short Technology Meets Tradition: Investigating User Acceptance and Engagement with Robots for Supporting Older Adults in Pakistani Homes
title_full Technology Meets Tradition: Investigating User Acceptance and Engagement with Robots for Supporting Older Adults in Pakistani Homes
title_fullStr Technology Meets Tradition: Investigating User Acceptance and Engagement with Robots for Supporting Older Adults in Pakistani Homes
title_full_unstemmed Technology Meets Tradition: Investigating User Acceptance and Engagement with Robots for Supporting Older Adults in Pakistani Homes
title_sort Technology Meets Tradition: Investigating User Acceptance and Engagement with Robots for Supporting Older Adults in Pakistani Homes
author_id_str_mv 9c42fd947397b1ad2bfa9107457974d5
author_id_fullname_str_mv 9c42fd947397b1ad2bfa9107457974d5_***_Muneeb Ahmad
author Muneeb Ahmad
author2 Sunbul M. Ahmad
Muneeb Ahmad
Carolina Fuentes
Nervo Verdezoto
Katarzyna Stawarz
format Conference Paper/Proceeding/Abstract
container_title CHI '26: Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
container_start_page 1
publishDate 2026
institution Swansea University
isbn 9798400722783
doi_str_mv 10.1145/3772318.3790658
publisher Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science
document_store_str 1
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description As Pakistan’s population ages and traditional care structures evolve, there is increasing interest in technological solutions for supporting older adults at home. This study investigates the potential of social assistive robots (SARs) in Pakistani homes, focusing on cultural values, inter-generational living, and limited access to such technologies. In a 3-day mixed-methods home study, 14 older adults interacted with a SAR communicating in Urdu. Through observations, interviews, and questionnaires, we evaluated the robot’s acceptability, engagement, and cultural compatibility. The results highlighted the need for culturally sensitive design, emphasising the role of robots as companions rather than replacements for human care, and the importance of robot’s ability to communicate in Urdu. We discuss how SARs could be designed to reflect the characteristics of Pakistani households, including faith, family values, everyday routines, and environmental factors. Our design considerations can benefit research on deploying SARs to support older adults in Pakistan and similar cultures.
published_date 2026-04-13T07:48:36Z
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score 11.103096

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