Why tech firms make a mistake by not catering to seniors

[Commentary] Americans older than 65 now number 40 million — that’s roughly 13 percent of our population.

The U.S. Census Bureau says that 11 million are older than 80, and, if the seniors I have encountered are any indication, very few of them are going to learn to use the spectacular, innovative and intuitive devices younger consumers can’t seem to live without. Still, shockingly few companies are providing pragmatic technologies to aid these 40 million people in their lives. In my work, I’m constantly amazed by the antiquated or inadequate technology used to serve the elderly. The “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” buttons are almost the size of garage door openers, and seniors are supposed to wear them around their necks at all times. What’s more, they are supposed to somehow manage to push them after they’ve fallen and lost consciousness. I fail to see how that is in any way practical. The reason that panic pendants have gained adoption is that they’re simple: When a crisis happens, press the button. The elderly demographic needs innovation that reduces the complex into a minimalist interface that distills, rather than magnifies, information and choices. Today, most laptops come with dozens of preloaded games and gizmos littering the desktop. What would happen if they arrived instead with a start-up screen that looked just like the AOL sign-in page from 1999 but had state-of-the-art technology underneath it? Wouldn’t that get people on Skype, Twitter and Flickr faster?

[Manson is the president of the independent living technology company BeClose]