Equity for the Older: Beyond Digital Access

长期以来，老年人一直是数字经济的受益者，许多人无法或选择不采用数字技术，这些技术不符合他们的特殊需求和需求。随着COVID-19以前所未有的速度推动社会数字化，数字化弱势的老年人被排除在基本和拯救生命的服务之外，而其他人则被迫使用他们可能非常不舒服的技术。在我们重新构想社会以应对持续的流行病现实时，老年人既不能被抛在后面，也不能被迫在生活方式上做出重大让步。因此，仅仅改善获得数字技术的机会是不够的。一个公平的数字社会需要老年人被欢迎进入数字经济，将他们视为第一利益相关者。该项目通过以下方式满足了创建一个为老年人提供平等福利的数字社会的迫切需要：1）分析过去20年来收集的老年人数据，以了解老年人被排除在数字经济之外的各种相互关联和倍增因素; 2）与老年人进行访谈和焦点小组讨论，以探讨这一快速数字化时期如何改变老年人与数字技术的关系，重点关注因疫情而发生重大变化的四个关键领域：健康、通信、场所和金融;3）与老年人共同设计新技术原型，以建立一种全新的实践，使老年人能够有意义地参与创建一个公平的数字社会; 4）创造持久的资源，为数字经济灌输最佳实践，包括老年人的全面多样性。

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.