Seniors/Aging Individuals

Chicago Digital Equity Plan

Nearly 172,000 Chicago households (over 15%) don’t have internet at home, and nearly 92,000 (roughly 8%) don’t have any device, including a computer, laptop, tablet, or smart mobile device.

Minnesotans Urged to Play Role in Digital Equity Plan

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development's Office of Broadband Development (OBD) is developing a digital equity plan to create improvements in internet affordability, access to internet-enabled devices, and ways to provide digital skills training. We want to hear from Minnesotans most impacted by the digital access and skills gap to ensure our digital equity plan reflects the goals and needs of all Minnesotans. This plan will help us determine how to spend federal funding coming in 2024 aimed at increasing digital access and skills.

Closing the Digital Divide Requires More Than a Quick Fix

In the summer of 2023, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will begin distributing hundreds of millions, and in some cases billions, of funding to states as part of the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Expectedly, states are busy creating and staffing broadband offices in anticipation of the BEAD and digital equity monies. Blinded by a nationwide broadband fever, however, some broadband leaders have proclaimed that states will entirely close, bridge, or eliminate the digital divide in the coming years.

Best Buy-Owned Phone Service Faces Angry Customers After 3G Network Shutdown

Best Buy’s Jitterbug Flip phone stopped working for some customers after the start of the new year following the planned shutdown of Verizon’s 3G network on December 31, 2022. “As a result of network updates made on January 2, [2023] some customers with a Jitterbug Flip phone are experiencing a disruption to their service,” Best Buy said.

‘It’s discrimination’: millions of Britons frozen out in the digital age

Many people in Britain can’t live without their smartphone and use it to manage all aspects of their lives, from banking to shopping and socialising.

A Year One Update on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: Investing in Broadband Adoption

In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress recognizes that just extending the reach of broadband networks isn't enough; there is work to be done on broadband adoption as well.

Biden-Harris Administration Awards More Than $5.5 Million to Nebraska in ‘Internet for All’ Planning Grants

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awards Nebraska with its first “Internet for All” grant for deploying high-speed Internet networks and developing digital skills training programs. Nebraska is receiving $5,598,563.04 in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to plan for the deployment and adoption of affordable, equitable, and reliable high-speed Internet throughout the state. Nebraska will receive $4,999,817.07 to fund:

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Turns One: A Progress Report on Internet For All

The Internet For All initiative is moving with speed to deliver on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s goal.  We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished in the first year, which includes:

The Infrastructure Law is Still about More than Money

A year ago, I urged us all to look beyond the $65 billion the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act sets aside for broadband and realize the importance of Congress’ recognition that access to affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband is essential to full participation in modern life in the United States. I still find this renewed and updated Congressional commitment to universal service to be astounding. We should continue to celebrate it—and continue the work that ensures this commitment becomes a reality.

Biden-Harris Administration Awards More Than $4.9 Million to Idaho in ‘Internet for All’ Planning Grants

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is awarding Idaho its first “Internet for All” grants for deploying high-speed Internet networks and developing digital skills training programs under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All initiative. Idaho is receiving $4,940,793.09 in funding to plan for the deployment and adoption of affordable, equitable, and reliable high-speed Internet throughout the state. Idaho will receive $4,376,087.09 to fund the following:

Bridging the Digital Divide in Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Communities in the South

The Southern Rural Development Center in partnership with the Purdue Center for Regional Development received funding from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to document digital exclusion among disadvantaged groups in the South, gauge the digital inclusion capacity of Cooperative Extension personnel, and design and implement programs and resources to tackle digital exclusion. As part of this effort, a survey was conducted to better understand the depth and breadth of digital exclusion among disadvantaged groups in the South.

The Critical Role of Web Accessibility in Health Information Access, Understanding, and Use

Older adults and people with disabilities cannot equitably access the same health information and care as people without disabilities when hospital websites are not accessible. The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) found the following key insights relating to digital accessibility and its importance to older Americans:

  • Hospitals and health care systems in the U.S. need continuing education on the role of web accessibility in American Disability Act (ADA) compliance given the significance of newly issued federal guidance.

Smartphones and older users remain an uneasy match

More than ever, services and businesses from banks to doctors' offices and restaurants to airlines expect users to have access to smartphones — but many older people still lack digital skills, and products don't always take their needs into account. A December 2021 survey conducted by AARP found that three in four people over the age of 50 say they rely on technology to stay connected, but 42% of them say that technology is not designed for all ages.

Why healthcare industry leaders need to prioritize digital equity

Healthcare is facing a new frontier, as the industry has seen a boom in digital health tools and technologies on both the patient and provider side. An explosion of health dat has also been driving increasingly sophisticated predictive and prescriptive insights into individuals and populations. Unfortunately, this frontier has proven to be hostile to marginalized communities. There is a growing digital divide, where healthcare technology has actually posed challenges, instead of benefits.

Older Minnesotans being left behind by increasingly online world

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the importance of digital equity with the acceleration of digital transformation occurring in workplaces, education, and commerce. However, virtual as the new normal is exposing an age-based digital divide within our state of Minnesota. Older adults have lower access to the internet, fewer digital skills, and more limited use of technology. The digital divide contributes to increased social isolation, the severity of chronic diseases, and an overall diminished quality of life. The problem is worse in rural areas than metro areas.

Digital divide creates challenges in connecting older adults to post-pandemic resources

As the world inches towards full emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic, California says older adults were hit the hardest in the past couple of years. The digital divide was partly the reason why. Director of the California Department of Aging (DOA), Susan DeMarois, says extreme isolation, resource availability, and elder abuse for those 60 years old and older have all increased since 2020. That's on top of this population experiencing the highest mortality rate for the virus.

New NTIA Data Show Enduring Barriers to Closing the Digital Divide, Achieving Digital Equity

Data from the 2021 NTIA Internet Use Survey show that historically less-connected communities used the Internet and connected devices in greater numbers than they did two years ago before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital Inclusion for Seniors Changes Amid Pandemic

Older adults have long needed help with technology. Because of this dynamic, for many years digital inclusion programs have worked extensively with older adults. Those efforts, however, became impossible to safely conduct at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, advocates in the space had to get creative. Tobey Dichter is the CEO of Generations on Line, with more than 20 years of experience in digital inclusion work with seniors. Dichter’s group offers online tutorials to help those who are connected learn more about how to navigate and stay safe on the Internet.

2022 Tech Trends Fact Sheet: Technology and African Americans Over Age 50

African Americans 50-plus are increasingly more comfortable using technology and continue to spend above pre-pandemic levels on tech devices they use daily. Nonetheless, their ownership and use of technology have remained constant from 2020, and so has their desire to connect with others and learn new skills.

The looming 3G shutdown comes with life-threatening risks

On the morning of Februaru 23, millions who depend on a 3G wireless connected device for medical emergencies, fires, burglaries or carbon monoxide detection will find their lives needlessly at risk. These devices will not work when AT&T shuts down its 3G network on February 22, threatening tens of millions of people relying on them in their homes and businesses. Known as the 3G sunset, those affected include hundreds of thousands of people who have personal emergency response systems (PERS).

Adrianne B Furniss Announces 2022 Charles Benton Digital Equity Awards

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Executive Director Adrianne B Furniss announced the 2022 Charles Benton Digital Equity Award winners at The National Digital Inclusion Alliance's Net Inclusion 2022 event. "We are here to honor three people who have demonstrated commitment, innovation, leadership, and collaboration: the very skills we need to navigate us through very trying, interlocking crises—and to steer us to a more equitable, more just society," said Furniss.

AARP Submits Comments to NTIA Regarding Broadband Programs in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

AARP submitted comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) urging the agency to encourage states to integrate digital literacy programs and data-driven planning into their funding strategies for programs created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. "AARP looks forward to partnering with NTIA during the upcoming years to support NTIA’s effective disbursement and oversight of the significant increase in public monies to advance broadband deployment and digital equity," stated AARP in its comments.

How Americans Have Used — and Struggled With — the Internet During the Pandemic

Pew Research Center released a sweeping report looking at how Americans have used the internet in the pandemic, how reliant they were on digital tools, and some of the struggles they have had as they tried to conduct many of the work-related, educational, social and community activities of their lives online. The headlines from the survey included: