Equity for the Older: Beyond Digital Access

长期以来，老年人一直是数字经济的较小受益者，许多人无法或选择不采用与他们的特定需求和愿望不符的数字技术。随着新冠肺炎以前所未有的速度推动社会数字化，处于数字弱势地位的老年人被挡在了必要的救命服务之外，而其他人则被迫接受他们可能非常不舒服的技术。在我们重新设想社会应对持续流行的现实时，至关重要的是，老年人既不能掉队，也不能被迫在他们的生活方式上做出重大让步。因此，仅仅改善对数字技术的获取是不够的。公平的数字社会要求欢迎老年人进入数字经济，将他们视为第一级利益相关者。该项目通过以下方式满足了创建一个数字社会的迫切需求：1)分析过去20年收集的关于老年人的数据，以了解老年人被排除在数字经济之外的各种相互关联和多重因素；2)对老年人进行访谈和焦点小组，以探索这段快速数字化时期如何改变老年人与数字技术的关系，重点关注四个因疫情而发生重要变化的关键领域：健康、通信、场所、金融；3)与老年人共同设计新的技术原型，以建立一种激进的新做法，使老年人能够有意义地参与创建公平的数字社会；以及4)创造持久的资源，为包容老年人充分多样化的数字经济灌输最佳做法。

Older adults have long been lesser beneficiaries of the digital economy, with many unable or choosing not to adopt digital technologies which do not speak to their particular needs and wants. With COVID-19 spurring societal digitalisation at an unprecedented pace, digitally disadvantaged older adults have been locked out of essential and life-saving services, while others have been made to take up technologies they may be deeply uncomfortable using. As we reimagine society to deal with an ongoing pandemic reality, it is essential that older adults are neither left behind nor forced to make major concessions in their way of life. It is not enough, therefore, to simply improve access to digital technologies. An equitable digital society requires that older adults are welcomed into a digital economy that treats them as first order stakeholders. This project fills this critical need to create a digital society that delivers equal to benefits older adults by:1) Analysing data on older adults that has been collected over the last 20 years to understand various interrelated and multiplicative factors in older adults' exclusion from the digital economy;2) Conducting interviews and focus groups with older adults to explore how this period of rapid digitalisation has altered older adults' relationship with digital technologies, focusing on four key areas undergoing important change as a result of the pandemic: Health, Communication, Place, Finance;3) Co-designing new technology prototypes with older adults to establish a radical new practice which enables older adults to meaningfully participate in creating an equitable digital society; and 4) Creating lasting resources to instill best practice for a digital economy that is inclusive of the full diversity of older adults.