Expert Interview | Digital rights are the basic rights of the elderly

In order to help the elderly bridge the digital divide, the country has introduced a series of policies, and many social organizations and enterprises have also actively participated in "digital aging". How should we rationally view this trend? Let's take a look at the interview.

Written by reporter Wang Xueying Edited by Ding Lin

New Media Editor/Fang Yongzhen

【Interview with experts】

Wu Xiaolan

China Research Center on Aging

Researcher at the Institute of Aging Health and Livable Environment

Recently, the China CDC Weekly published the above paper online, titled "Trends and Challenges for Population and Health During Population Aging — China, 2015–2050". The study shows that by 2030, the number of disabled elderly people in my country will exceed 77 million, and the disabled elderly will experience a disability period of 7.44 years.

In fact, the digital disability of the elderly may come earlier. With the rapid development of information technology, "a mobile phone in hand, a worry-free life" has almost become a true portrayal of modern people's lives. However, in many scenarios that emphasize digital applications, the "silver generation" is in trouble.

The "14th Five-Year Plan" clearly states that "the implementation of a national strategy to actively respond to population aging" will accelerate the construction of information accessibility and help the elderly, people with disabilities and others share digital life. In July this year, the State Council issued the "Outline of the National Science Literacy Action Plan (2021-2035)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Outline"), which listed "implementing the action to improve the scientific literacy of the elderly" as one of the five actions to improve the scientific literacy of the whole people during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.

In order to better help the elderly cross the digital divide, improve their quality of life in their later years, and better enjoy the "digital dividend" brought by the development of a high-tech society, the country has also successively introduced a series of policies such as the "Digital Rural Development Strategy Outline" and the "Implementation Plan for Effectively Solving the Difficulties of the Elderly in Using Intelligent Technology" to actively guide the society to upgrade digital assistance for the elderly.

The above measures provide policy support for bridging the "digital divide" faced by the elderly and improving their quality of life.

▲Shanghai citizens use the "One-click taxi-hailing smart screen" (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)

At present, more and more social organizations have begun to engage in digital age-friendly development. How should we view this trend of "age-friendly development" rationally and understand it more objectively?

Regarding this topic, this newspaper conducted an exclusive interview with Wu Xiaolan, a researcher at the Institute of Aging Health and Livable Environment of the China Research Center on Aging.

▼▼▼

Designing for the Elderly: Not “Impossible”, but “Unthinkable”

Beijing Science and Technology Daily: How urgent is the need for digital upgrades and adaptation for the elderly in Chinese society today?

Wu Xiaolan: At present, my country is comprehensively promoting the construction of Digital China. More and more cities are accelerating the layout of smart cities and digital transformation. This transformation is crucial to improving the level of national and urban governance and accelerating high-quality development. It has brought tremendous impetus to the economic recovery of China and even the world. However, while achieving precise, economical and efficient digital transformation, its inclusiveness and inclusiveness cannot be ignored.

At present, there are 264 million people aged 60 and above in my country, accounting for 18.7% of the total population. According to the 2020 data of the "Statistical Report on the Development of Internet in China", the Internet penetration rate in my country reached 67.0%, but the proportion of netizens aged 60 and above was only 10.3%, and the proportion of elderly people was even lower. With the rapid development of digital technology and information technology, we cannot let the elderly become "digital refugees" and cannot let the elderly be isolated from social development and scientific and technological progress. This urgently requires the comprehensive promotion of digital aging, the construction of an aging-friendly digital society, and the prevention of the "digital divide" from causing serious impacts on the basic living needs of the elderly, such as travel, medical treatment, and consumption.

▲In December last year, outside the outpatient building of Xuanwu Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, a staff member (left) returned the mobile phone that helped scan the "trip card" information to the elderly (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)

Beijing Science and Technology News: Aging-friendly education cannot be achieved overnight. In your opinion, what is the biggest difficulty in helping the elderly cross the digital divide and promoting aging-friendly education in the whole society?

Wu Xiaolan: The construction of digital aging-friendly services is a systematic project involving all aspects, and is also a long-term social project. The "difficulties" and "blocking points" of this project mainly lie in concepts, technologies, and the special life course and characteristics of the elderly.

First, the current education level and income level of the elderly are generally still relatively low. Data from the seventh census show that although the education level of the elderly has significantly improved compared with the past, the proportion of those with a high school education or below is still close to 90% (86.1%). In the vast number of small towns and rural areas, the education level of the elderly is even lower, and their income is also relatively limited.

Under the circumstances of economic pressure and low education level, many elderly people are unable to afford the cost of digital hardware and software facilities, and lack the basic cultural literacy necessary to use information technology. At the same time, the aging process of the elderly will be accompanied by memory loss, making it difficult to remember complex program operations, and there are obstacles to the extraction and conversion of information. If there is a lack of a friendly technology use environment, it will further increase their psychological resistance.

Secondly, society generally lacks the concept of design for the elderly. Design for the elderly is not "impossible" but "unthinkable". Although the aging process of the population is accelerating, the digital network market is still the "main battlefield" for young people. Whether it is production, research and development or design, it is developing towards newer, faster and more high-end fields in the hands of the younger generation. This makes many digital products lack consideration for elderly users in their design concepts from the beginning, resulting in a serious lack of design for the elderly in digital construction, which increases the difficulty for the elderly to recognize and use new technologies.

▲The "green code channel" and "no health code" channel in the departure hall of Beijing Daxing International Airport (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)

▼▼▼

Providing a national plan to bridge the "digital divide" for older people

Beijing Science and Technology News: In November last year, the State Council issued the "Implementation Plan on Solving the Difficulties of the Elderly in Using Intelligent Technology"; in July this year, the State Council issued the "Outline of the National Science Literacy Action Plan (2021-2035)", emphasizing that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, it is necessary to implement actions to improve the scientific literacy of the elderly and help them bridge the digital divide. How do we interpret these measures?

Wu Xiaolan: The government's "Implementation Plan on Effectively Solving the Difficulties Faced by the Elderly in Using Intelligent Technology" lists in detail seven categories of high-frequency matters and service scenarios, including 20 key tasks. Its purpose is to help the elderly solve specific difficulties in using intelligent technology and make the "Smart Assistance for the Elderly Action" truly take effect.

From the perspective of the supply side, on the one hand, we should emphasize the optimization of traditional service methods to make digital elderly care services more intimate and comprehensive; on the other hand, we should continue to strengthen technological innovation, use technology to solve technical problems, and develop more elderly-friendly products and services. These two aspects emphasize different work priorities and specific divisions of labor, turning the responsibilities of the government, society, and enterprises into specific and actionable behaviors.

As General Secretary Xi pointed out, "Scientific and technological innovation and popularization of science are the two wings for achieving innovative development. We must place popularization of science on an equal footing with scientific and technological innovation." If the implementation plan is a promotion of scientific and technological innovation, then the planning outline is a promotion of popularization of science.

Putting the popularization of scientific literacy for all people on the agenda can, on the one hand, improve the scientific literacy of all people, especially the elderly, a key group, and on the other hand, lay a solid foundation and provide a guarantee for fundamentally narrowing the "digital divide". It can be said that these two documents start from both scientific and technological innovation and popularization of science, and provide a national plan to bridge the "digital divide" faced by the elderly.

▼▼▼

Transforming the “digital divide” into a “digital dividend”

Beijing Science and Technology News: In addition to relying on government power, upgrading to aging-friendly living requires the joint efforts of the entire society. In recent years, more and more technology companies have begun to actively participate in digital assistance for the elderly. What do you think of this trend?

Wu Xiaolan: This trend is natural and inevitable, and should be actively encouraged and guided. With the rapid growth of the elderly population, especially in the context of normalized epidemic prevention and control, the elderly population has an increasing demand for digital services and technologies. This requires vigorously encouraging and guiding technology companies to develop technology to help the elderly and effectively increase the supply of digital services and products suitable for the elderly.

For example, the Beijing Municipal Committee on Aging took the lead in establishing the "Smart Elderly Assistance Alliance", and more than a dozen organizations including Douyin, Didi Chuxing, Lianjia, Friends of the Elderly, and Sunset to Dawn actively responded to the call and promoted the adaptation of Internet applications to the elderly, making smart technology more humane and improving operability.

▲At the "Smart Terminal Age-Friendly Standard Release Conference" co-organized by the Telecommunications Terminal Industry Association and the China Electronic Video Industry Association, staff demonstrated the application of smart terminals suitable for the elderly (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)

Beijing Science and Technology News: Some people have expressed concerns about companies starting to participate in the digital elderly care campaign. If companies cannot find a balance between profit-seeking and public welfare, digital elderly care may become a short-term follow-up behavior. What do you think about this?

Wu Xiaolan: First of all, we must encourage and welcome all sectors of society to participate in the digital assistance for the elderly campaign. Enterprises play an irreplaceable role and power in the digital assistance for the elderly campaign.

Secondly, digital age-friendly products are not just a one-way effort by enterprises. my country has an increasingly large elderly population and a huge elderly digital consumption market. Especially as the post-60s generation enters old age, they have stronger consumption power and higher requirements for digital products and services.

Therefore, corporate digital assistance for the elderly is not only a public welfare act. In their efforts to narrow the digital divide for the elderly, they can also clarify their own position and advantages in the long-term market competition. Turning the "digital divide" into a "digital dividend" is an active adaptation to the dual era trends of an aging society and a digital society.

Beijing Science and Technology News: Bridging the digital divide requires emphasis on public welfare, but cannot rely solely on public welfare. In your opinion, how should society balance the public welfare and non-public welfare in the process of digital assistance for the elderly?

Wu Xiaolan: In the digital age, digital rights are a basic right of the elderly. The government, society, enterprises and families all have the responsibility and obligation to ensure that the elderly enjoy this right.

Digital assistance for the elderly undoubtedly has a strong public welfare nature. In reality, this is mainly reflected in: strengthening application training and improving the ability to operate intelligent applications; carrying out intelligent technology education for the elderly, guiding the elderly to understand new things, experience new technologies, and actively integrate into the "smart society."

At the same time, we should also note that digital adaptation for the elderly is implemented in a large market environment. It adds requirements for adaptation for the elderly and information accessibility that we did not pay much attention to before to the standards for the production of digital products and services. For example, it requires companies to carry out website and app transformation, and requires software developers to pay attention to the needs of special groups to make application software more suitable for the elderly. For the elderly who cannot use mobile phones and have insufficient learning ability, it encourages equipment manufacturers to develop more products suitable for the elderly, make smart devices smarter, and increase the research and development and application of smart products such as "one-click rescue", "one-click taxi", and "smart TV".

Produced by: Science Central Kitchen

Produced by: Beijing Science and Technology News | Science Plus Client

Welcome to share to your circle of friends

Reproduction without authorization is prohibited