Three years ago Faith Gibson retired from a busy academic career as professor of Social Work at the University of Ulster. But despite having given up the "day job" she remains a very busy woman. She is still actively involved in academic areas which interest her and she has retained strong links with a project which has been close to her heart for many years: involving older people in the information society. "I speak as an older retired person and a user of information communication technology myself," she says. "But I also speak as someone who looking back over a long professional life as a social work practitioner, teacher and researcher can honestly say that it has been my involvement in a project concerned with introducing older learners to information technology that has given me the most pleasure and the most personal and professional satisfaction."
Gibson's interest in getting older people to use computers started with a practical purpose. She wanted them to write their life stories and having mastered word processing herself she could see its advantages in this context. This writing of life histories was linked to her professional interest in the beneficial effects of reminiscence work whereby memories are used to enhance the present quality of older people's lives.
"We use these long-term memory deposits to help older people retain and regain a sense of who they are because the general practice of our society is to relegate them to the side lines and not to involve them," says Gibson. "By writing a life history or making a record of their past their sense of themselves is reinforced and they have something to hang on to. It can be particularly useful in helping those suffering from dementia," she says.
Gibson's first group of older computer users did not look like the most promising of students as they were very elderly and extremely physically frail. But Gibson and her close associate, Gerry McAuley, who was the hands-on computer expert behind the project, persevered. In 1992 they launched their "Teaching Older Dogs New Tricks" training programme with four residents from a nursing home as their first students. "We started with a `worst case' scenario and we figured that if we could succeed in this situation we could succeed in any," Gibson says.
They have since offered their programme to as broad a range of potential students as possible and Gibson says that apart from the fun, excitement and sense of accomplishment which the training has created it has also brought about a marked improvement in students' mental health and general wellbeing.
"There is no longer any dispute about older people's ability to learn to use computers. Older and very old people can acquire new technology skills and many indeed wish to do so. Suitable learning arrangements and opportunities to access computers are the real obstacles," Gibson insists.
A further obstacle, Gibson says, is often the attitude of younger people. "They can often be very dismissive if an older person says he or she is going to learn about computers and this puts the older person off because people buy into these negative attitudes."
Gibson is deeply concerned about older people being left out of or behind by the information society. "The information society poses particular problems for middle-aged and older people who happen to have been born too soon," she says. "By an accident of birth they have missed out on opportunities for learning how to use the tools on which this type of a society is based. To lack computer skills and access to computers will almost certainly mean exclusion, marginalisation and reduced life chances in a society fast moving towards enormous reliance on computers for gaining access to basic information and the essential services of everyday life.
`THE long-recognised social disadvantages of illiteracy will be nothing compared with the problems which will be created for people by technological illiteracy," Gibson continues. "For example what will happen to such people when it is no longer possible to get money in the bank or buy a railway ticket or obtain travel information by any other method than a technologically-operated one?" Faith Gibson is a realist and she knows that this combination of access and attitude are tough obstacles. "What saddens me in a way is the huge amount of money devoted to developing assistive technology for older people," she says. "This is done on the naive assumption that when the time comes these clever gadgets will be used by frail old people who have never been exposed to technology of any sort."
While Gibson and her colleagues have been working diligently to sell the idea of IT training to older people's groups, they have been less successful in getting the IT industry to take an interest in their efforts. "The IT industry across Europe has been very slow to see the potential of the older market. Yet all the evidence from the US shows that the potential is there," Gibson says.
"I think part of the problem goes back to the issues of age and attitude. The IT industry has been very stuck on its image as a young people's industry developing products for bright young things to use. It has been very reluctant to identify with "grey power" even though Europe's changing demographics may well mean it will have to address this issue as the population ages.
"I am absolutely delighted that Microsoft has taken up the challenge to become involved with older people. I am very pleased that they are supporting this competition and that they are looking at older people as potential customers. Computers have the potential to enhance older people's lives so much whether it be to write their memoirs or to e-mail their families living abroad or to mange their stocks and shares. The sky is the limit," Gibson says.
