Equity for the Older: Beyond Digital Access
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: Computing & Communications
Abstract
Older adults have long been lesser beneficiaries of the digital economy, with many unable or choosing not to adopt digital technologies which do not speak to their particular needs and wants. With COVID-19 spurring societal digitalisation at an unprecedented pace, digitally disadvantaged older adults have been locked out of essential and life-saving services, while others have been made to take up technologies they may be deeply uncomfortable using. As we reimagine society to deal with an ongoing pandemic reality, it is essential that older adults are neither left behind nor forced to make major concessions in their way of life. It is not enough, therefore, to simply improve access to digital technologies. An equitable digital society requires that older adults are welcomed into a digital economy that treats them as first order stakeholders.
This project fills this critical need to create a digital society that delivers equal to benefits older adults by:
1) Analysing data on older adults that has been collected over the last 20 years to understand various interrelated and multiplicative factors in older adults' exclusion from the digital economy;
2) Conducting interviews and focus groups with older adults to explore how this period of rapid digitalisation has altered older adults' relationship with digital technologies, focusing on four key areas undergoing important change as a result of the pandemic: Health, Communication, Place, Finance;
3) Co-designing new technology prototypes with older adults to establish a radical new practice which enables older adults to meaningfully participate in creating an equitable digital society; and
4) Creating lasting resources to instill best practice for a digital economy that is inclusive of the full diversity of older adults.
This project fills this critical need to create a digital society that delivers equal to benefits older adults by:
1) Analysing data on older adults that has been collected over the last 20 years to understand various interrelated and multiplicative factors in older adults' exclusion from the digital economy;
2) Conducting interviews and focus groups with older adults to explore how this period of rapid digitalisation has altered older adults' relationship with digital technologies, focusing on four key areas undergoing important change as a result of the pandemic: Health, Communication, Place, Finance;
3) Co-designing new technology prototypes with older adults to establish a radical new practice which enables older adults to meaningfully participate in creating an equitable digital society; and
4) Creating lasting resources to instill best practice for a digital economy that is inclusive of the full diversity of older adults.
Publications
Knowles B
(2023)
Trustworthy AI and the Logics of Intersectional Resistance
Knowles B
(2024)
ACM TechBrief: Trusted AI
Knowles, B.
(2024)
HCI and Aging: New Directions, New Principles
| Title | The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2023) |
| Description | A longitudinal dataset of information on the dynamics of health, social, wellbeing and economic circumstances in the English population aged 50 and older. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Made available through the UK Data Service for use in a multitude of research publications. |
| URL | https://www.elsa-project.ac.uk/ |
| Description | "Who's Speaking, Who's Listening?" - Smartspeakers' workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This workshop, run by Ewan Soubutts and Aneesha Singh from the University College London team on the 31st of January 2024, was attended by around 12 older adults fom AgeUK, East London. Smart speakers were used as a means of engaging this group (who have had less exposure to digital technology), with an easy to control technology, using their voice. Participants were engaged and raised a lot of questions around how smart speakers work and the appropriateness of the technology in their own lives. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | AHRC-funded Design & Policy Research Network Workshop 6 September 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Judith Tsouvalis attended the fourth workshop of the AHRC-funded Design & Policy Research Network of which she is a member, The workshop brings together people working with participatory (design-based) approaches in academia with policymakers and aims to encourage collaborations and best practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.arts.ac.uk/research/current-research-and-projects/design-and-policy-network |
| Description | AI and Creativity Workshop with AgeUK East London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | A public engagement workshop with AgeUK East London, introducing the center's participants to AI through the lens of creative tools, such as ChatGPT and BingAI. The participants gained an understanding of what AI is and can do and experimented with some of these tools, to gain a greater appreciation for how they could be applied within their own lives. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Artificial Intelligence and Creativity |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This workshop, run by Ewan Soubutts and Aneesha Singh from the University College London team on the 28th of February 2024, was attended by around 12 older adults fom AgeUK, East London. The group (who have had less exposure to digital technology), was engaged on issues around Artificial Intelligence and Creativity. This raised a lot of questions, including around the appropriateness of the technology in their own lives. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Engagement with local community centres and the Centre for Ageing Research (Lancaster) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Julia McDowell engaged with 26 older adults in the community, both formally during data collection exercises, and informally at coffee mornings and other activities, to gain insights into their uses (or non-use) of digital technology, including during COVID, to help ensure the research addresses and responds to issues relevant to older adults as key stakeholders. Engagement with community centre managers/leaders to elicit their perspectives on the opportunities and challenges faced by older adults in their communities using digital technologies, and discussions around the need for and provision of dedicated training. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Full-day Workshop, Interact 2023 Conference "Design for Equality and Justice" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The workshop was organised by project team members Ewan Soubutts and Aneesha Singh from UCL and attended by Judith Tsouvalis from Lancaster. It focused on older adults' engagement with digital technologies in playful, accessible and creative ways in everyday life. The aim of the workshop was to develop a research agenda for HCI research with older adults to explore, enjoy, build new and extend existing interactions with such technologies. It focused on five themes for the role of such technologies: (i) for enabling expression and creativity, (ii) as a catalyst for experience and action, (iii) for enabling reflection and awareness, (iv) for communication and (v) supporting the design process for (re) inventing new products and avenues for use. This hands-on workshop featured co-creation and exploration of research methods and technologies, bringing together researchers interested in designing for and with older adults and in questions related to ethical dimensions of AI, its governance, and issues related to social justice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact2023.org/workshops/0/ |
| Description | Just One Thing Podcast: How to stay young |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Provides insights gleaned from analysis of English Longitudinal Study of Ageing on how to stay young. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001tscr |
| Description | Paper presented by Bran Knowles in June 2023 at the FAccT '23: ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The paper focused on the growing awareness of the capacity of AI to inflict harm has inspired efforts to delineate principles for 'trustworthy AI' and, from these, objective indicators of 'trustworthiness' for auditors and regulators. Such efforts run the risk of formalizing a distinctly privileged perspective on trustworthiness which is insensitive (or else indifferent) to the legitimate reasons for distrust held by marginalized people. By exploring a neglected conative element of trust, we broaden understandings of trust and trustworthiness to make sense of, and identify principles for responding productively to, distrust of ostensibly 'trustworthy' AI. It was published in the conference proceedings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://facctconference.org/2023/ |