Digital Inclusion in Later Life
Overview
The continuing digitalisation of essential and optional services is rapidly moving us towards a ‘digital by default’ society. Routine tasks in everyday life now typically require the ability to use systems aimed at a digitally literate population.
Digital exclusion is linked not only to the lack of access to digital devices and the Internet, but also to the lack of digital literacy and motivation. Literature suggests that digital literacy is inversely related to age. While older adults are not homogeneous in their abilities and attitudes, the consequences of ageing can affect the ability of this group to adopt and continue to use diverse and fast evolving digital technologies. Yet, these technologies are increasingly needed to improve or maintain the quality of life, and to preserve the independence of older adults. Thus, digital exclusion may have a particularly significant impact on the older population. The knock-on effect of the problem can also impact family, friends and service providers supporting older adults. The rapidly changing digital landscape, lack of systematic consideration of accessibility and age-related differences during the development and deployment of digital solutions, and population ageing all exacerbate this challenge.
Many older adults feel left behind by the pace and processes of digitalisation. Health and social care, government and council services, travel, banking, recreational and wellbeing activities, and social and familial connections are among domains of particular concern in this context.
This project aims to improve the digital inclusion of adults in later life through 4 work themes:
- Deriving a framework for digital inclusion, incorporating factors that encourage digital adoption and inclusive processes for introducing digital services,
- Identifying design practices for developing digital services that are accessible to older adults, and producing guidance for software and interaction designers on these practices,
- Co-creating age-appropriate and engaging resources with older adults in our communities, in accordance with the above framework, to improve their digital literacy, and
- Determining effective support mechanisms for those who help older adults with digital access.
We will work in collaboration with local organisations and use iterative co-design processes to address this challenge.
Staff
- Dharini Balasubramaniam (Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews)
- Ken Boyd (Honorary Lecturer, School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews)
Past staff
- Matthew Simpson (Research assistant, Digitalisation and Golf project)
Past projects
- The Impact of Digitalisation on Older Golfers (pilot study in collaboration with the R&A)
Student projects
- Elderlearn: A Learning System for Improving the Digital Literacy of Older Adults (Mehr Vaswani, MSc dissertation, 2021-22)
- Improving Digital Literacy in Older Adults (Kay Davies, St Andrews Research Internship Scheme, 2022-23)
- EldersOnline: A System that Leverages Intergenerational Learning to Improve Older Adult Digital Literacy and Social Connectedness (Yusuf Farag, MSc dissertation, 2022-23)
- EldersOnline: A High-Fidelity Figma Prototype for Improving the Digital Literacy of Older Adults (Gopichand Narra, MSc dissertation, 2022-23)
- Reducing the Digital Exclusion of Older Adults with a Focus on the Transport Domain (Jodie Williamson, MSci dissertation, 2023-24)
- Creating and Evaluating Resources to Increase Digital Literacy in Older Adults (Sarah Leidich, MSc dissertation, 2023-24)
- The Use of Metaphors and Mind Mapping in Improving the Digital Literacy of Older Adults (Meredith Kellenberger, MSc dissertation, 2023-24)
- A Software Platform to Support Digital Literacy Research (Phattaradhorn Keeratavanithsathain, MSc dissertation, 2023-24)
Publications
- Balasubramaniam, D., Williamson, J., Farag, Y., Narra, G., & Boyd, K. M. (2024). Towards a deeper understanding of the challenges in digital technology adoption by older adults. Presented at the British Society of Gerontology 53rd Annual Conference, Newcastle, UK.
- Farag, Y., Narra, G., Balasubramaniam, D., & Boyd, K. M. (2024). Improving the Digital Literacy and Social Participation of Older Adults: An Inclusive Platform that Fosters Intergenerational Learning. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health – ICT4AWE. SciTePress. pages 47-58. DOI: 10.5220/0012623400003699.
- Vaswani, M., Balasubramaniam, D., & Boyd, K. M. (2023). A novel approach to improving the digital literacy of older adults. In 2023 IEEE/ACM 45th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS) (pp. ). IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society. IEEE Computer Society. pages 169-174. DOI: 10.1109/icse-seis58686.2023.00023.
Posters
- Once upon a time, there was the web … An intergenerational approach to digital literacy. Mind & Matter 2024. University of St Andrews. 27 October 2024.
- Digital Inclusion in Later Life. British Society of Gerontology Scotland relaunch event. University of Stirling. 26 September 2024.
Community engagement
Digital support sessions in St Andrews
We are in the process of setting up a volunteer group, comprising staff and students from the University of St Andrews, to provide digital support sessions for older adults in St Andrews. The Volunteer Policy provides more information for prospective volunteers.
Community contacts
Contact
Email: digital-inclusion@st-andrews.ac.uk