Seniors and telecommunications access: disability and disadvantage?
Janet Owens & Kaye Smith - Deakin University.
Australia will experience a sizable ageing effect over the next 540 years with a subsequent increase in the number of people with a disability who are disadvantaged in accessing telecommunications equipment and services. In Victoria, 238 Seniors aged 60 and over completed a survey for this project; 30% of participants indicated they had one or more impairments. People with sensory, dexterity/mobility, cognitive and communication difficulties indicated they experienced access barriers to their use of equipment and services. Between one third to one half of respondents indicated they had difficulty hearing, understanding, or remembering when they used telecommunications equipment. More than half of Seniors had difficulty reading the phone book or a phone's liquid crystal display screen. Half of the respondents had poor awareness of services, such as the Disability Equipment Program and the National Relay Service, that are designed to assist them with telecommunications access. Barriers relating to cost, lack of information and training, lack of opportunity, lack of access, complexity, and difficulties with equipment are shared by Seniors and people with disabilities. Differences in attitudes, reasons for wanting human contact, and Internet use differed for Seniors.
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