At the start of 2024, Aspen Digital began to explore the many challenges older adults face in a world becoming far more technologically advanced than the one they were familiar with for the majority of their lives and the challenges companies, civil society, and policymakers face while trying to ensure this population isn’t left behind.
As part of this work, Aspen Digital, in collaboration with The SCAN Foundation, brought together a group of leaders from across tech, civil society, academia, and public policy for a virtual roundtable discussion on how older adults should be represented at every stage of the innovation design cycle. This roundtable, combined with a number of 1:1 consultations with advocates and tech companies, resulted in last week’s publication of the Older Adults & Digital Equity Playbook.
Throughout our roundtable discussion, it was clear that there is a significant amount of catching up needed before older adults are adequately and thoughtfully integrated in the development and deployment of new technologies, particularly those that rely heavily on the use of human data. It’s not just industry alone that needs to step up. Civil society and public policy have an obligation to strive for increased digital equity of older adults as well as ensuring substantial risk-prevention guardrails are in place.
