About the Older Wiser Wired initiative
By: Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2004-04-02 11:39:00-05:00
The Internet wasn’t originally envisioned for general consumer use. It was text-based, slow, and required the user to overcome a significant learning curve to use it. When the World Wide Web came into being as a graphical environment (simple as it was when it first started), it opened up the Internet as a tool for everyone else. Today we use the Internet for person-to-person communication, banking, buying and selling, paying our taxes, playing games, getting the news, and getting information about those myriad issues of everyday life.
No one can say now that the Internet is as ubiquitous as television, but it has become an undeniable and vital tool of business and is quickly being accepted into people’s homes. Nearly every demographic in the United States is rapidly adopting use of the Internet. Many people are buying their first computer for the sole purpose of going online.
Older adults are active and enthusiastic participants in this trend, yet there is little acknowledgment of their unique needs and preferences in the design of application interfaces and devices. Part of the reason for this is the lack of data about what, precisely, these needs and preferences are.
The key purpose of this initiative is to encourage better understanding and awareness of the needs of older adults.
We are working to develop a Community of Practice around usability for older adults. The Older Wiser Wired initiative is meant to bring together developers, designers, engineers, researchers, and the older adults themselves to make technology both easier and more enjoyable to use as we grow older.
AARP invites you to join us in this endeavor. Sign up for our email list or drop us an email and share your interests.
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