[Report] Digital Done Right

As we age, regardless of our previous digital experience and expertise, we are likely to face barriers to using digital devices successfully. We may reach a stage at which we can no longer function happily online, at least given how we use computers now. This typically requires the ability to remember multiple, complicated passwords, and the dexterity to use a keyboard and/or a mouse or manipulate a touchscreen. The challenges for an older person who is ill at ease with technology are accentuated by the fact that many digital journeys are poorly designed, highly complex and forever changing.

If we’re to create a genuinely digitally inclusive society we will have to change this. But first, we need an accurate understanding of where older people are on the digital spectrum, to help assess what is required for none of them to be left behind and excluded, the goal to which policy must aspire.

At Age UK we understand that how digitally included a person is depends upon more than simply whether they have a smartphone, or how often they use the internet. That’s why we’ve taken data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing – which asks thousands of older people in England all about their lives, including their lives online – to help us understand the different ways in which older people use the internet and engage with the digital world.