Does Not Compute

David Sinclair here, Head of Policy and Research at the International Longevity Centre – UK

In debates about the “digital divide”,  older people are often portrayed as ‘clueless’, ‘scared’ and ‘needy’.  The language used is often ageist and underestimates the diversity within the older population. Yes, only 7 in 10 over 65s uses the internet.  But at the same time, the growth in the percentage of older people using social networks is significant.

On 1^st February 2010 the International Longevity Centre – UK (ILC-UK) published ‘The Fictions, Facts and Future of Older People and Technology, the first in a series of think pieces by Simon Roberts, design anthropologist with Intel’s Digital Health Group.  According to the author: “To put excitement and purpose into our technologies for ageing populations we need to talk differently about ourselves, ageing and older people. We need to find ways of continuing to include older people in the process of design and delivery”.

The think piece sets out a number of recommendations to reach this goal: being aware of how language influences the way in which we think about older people and technology, recognising that older people are an increasingly heterogeneous group and therefore have different needs, designing technologies focused on ‘us as we age’, including ourselves as users, and trying to make technology that connects people with their own aspirations and identity.

The full piece is available here

February 24th, 2010 fionasyrett | 2 Comments »

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