Virtual aging for living in a real world

When you visit the senior center is an attempt to raise awareness by the younger or able-bodied person [especially those in power] to see what older people in Bethel have to deal with at their senior center. The images are hosted by a friend at Visit Bethel Alaska’s Eddie Hoffman Senior Center.

There are suggestions there for obscuring vision or approximating a wheelchair on gravel, etc. that anyone can do to get a feeling for whether a building or service is either dangerous (fire exits, poor seating and lighting) or inadequate for other people. Some other checklists [see categories of postings] exist for assistive living facilities, but few if any for regular community facilities.

Another way to empathize came from finding a type of Internet search tool, http://www.answerbus.com/, which allows human type questions such as How to buy furniture appropriate for elderly people? The answer led to

Tips for events managers working with older people

There are limitations within various web log software (especially if one can only afford the free sites) to identify what people are interested in when they stop by. I don’t care if there are meganumbers**, but I do find it really useful to check every now and again to see what information visitors might be interested in on this site; whether they found bad links; whether they found useful information (maybe I’ve used the wrong terminology; maybe they have used the wrong terminology); etc. The readership information is useful to remind me that people from diverse backgrounds stop by so I shouldn’t use colloquialisms (or I should define them), etc.

[**Ok, the numbers matter in that once there were more than just my friends and relatives stopping by, my responsibility to keep things up-to-date, tidy, and clear increased.]

But I also like to know what else is out there that may be relevant or to find better information than what I have run across by checking out other people’s searches. Here’s a great example from someone who used http://www.google.com.au/ to search for “seating for older people” (thank you)—

“[PDF] Tips for events managers working with older people
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – View as HTML
for people with vision impairment. • Is there adequate seating for older people during. intervals? Does seating have arm-rests and a. suitable height? …
www.maca.nsw.gov.au/pdf/including_us_too!.pdf -”

Including Us Too: Tips for events managers working with older people. January 2001. Free
How do you ensure your event is designed so that older people will be able to attend and enjoy it? This is a handy guide to with practical ideas of what to do and not do to make your event popular and successful with older people. By Margaret Tucker. 16pp. ISBN 0 7313 9829 7. New South Wales [Australia] Ministerial Advisory Committee on Ageing

The tips / checklist is in pdf format, unfortunately. But it has specific questions to ask (hooray!), e.g., How many stairs do participants have to climb? and some not so specific, e.g., Is there adequate seating for frail older people to wait in comfort? Overall it is an excellent resource and really exciting to see the thought and consideration put into it.

[The html version is available from Google here, but get the original if possible. http://tinyurl.com/gxe5g]

Check out their discussion papers and other publications, too.

A fair go, a fair share, a fair say, for older people in NSW

The NSW Ministerial Advisory Committee on Ageing regularly publishes discussion papers, reports, fact sheets and brochures. They are written for a range of audiences. Some are for community education – either for older people or for others working with older people. Other publications are discussion papers, with the aim of widening debate on a particular topic. Some are research papers, with or without recommendations to government.

http://www.maca.nsw.gov.au/publications.htm

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