With much fanfare, the first babyboomers moved into the official era of retirement last year as they celebrated 65 years of life. They were the first ripples of a ‘Silver Tsunami’ of Boomer retirees who will bring changes to entertainment, to Social Security, medical services, to retirement life. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) released a report calling on entrepreneurs, developers, and service providers to take on the challenges of bringing the myriad technologies (some of which were built by the Boomers) to everyone – including those over 50 who want to use those technologies but might need them modified. Is your organization developing its strategy for the near future?
The report, Connected Living for Social Aging: Designing Technology for All, stresses the fact that older Americans have adopted new technologies throughout their lives, and the will have high expectations of continuing to adopt technologies as they move toward retirement. Yet they also need technologies that adapt to their needs.
Design for All technology enables young and old, with and without physical limitations, to benefit from the same products. Consider examples of products today that are intended to appeal across age ranges—like the television, the eBook reader, and cars—that have:
- Personalized user experiences.
- Networked smarts about where we are and what we do.
- Remembered preferences across multiple users. (p.12)
The obvious audience of the report is full of entrepreneurs who are looking to move into the growing markets for Boomers and for GI Generation retirees. Yet established Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs), medical practitioners, and social-networking platforms (to name a few) should also read the report. Boomers have sophisticated tastes in technology, and they will be looking for ways to reach out to family member across the country, to gain access to their medical records, and to report their own experiences – not to mention their expectations to have access to entertainment and news. Are you prepared to offer your services, to extend your social-media outreach, market your product… to these plugged-in seniors?
Check out the report and be inspired to develop your technologies for everyone.
