The digital strategy all but ignores older people says David Sinclair from the UK advocacy group Help the Aged and urges the government to correct this through specific targeted programmes for the population over 65 in UK.

Technology offers massive potential for tackling the problems faced by too many older people. It can help deliver better and more focussed services including those which help tackle isolation; poverty; and exclusion; whilst at the same time play a part in helping improve the health of older people.

However, whilst the potential of technology is enormous – it is limited by a large number of factors – imagination; the digital divide; age discrimination; inaccessible services; the lack of support to help older people use technology; the lack of awareness of older people’s issues by service providers and, most fundamentally a lack of involvement by older people in the design of e-services.

As a result, we as a society are missing the real opportunity which technology offers and as a result, older people are becoming more rather than less excluded as a result of the way technology is changing our lives and the public services we rely on. A survey we conducted last year revealed that more than 3 million older people (36 per cent) feel out of touch with the fast pace of modern life.

Only around one in five over 65s have ever used the internet. Most of concern is that the figures for over 65s has not increased over the past 3 years. The most recent figures actually show a fall. This highlights two issues – firstly that the market alone is not and will not deliver internet access for older people and secondly, that we cant just ignore this issue and hope it eventually solve itself. If we look at most other modern media technologies we see a similar pattern of usage – ie it declines with age.

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