ICT infrastructures in the aging society

As Information and Communication Technology (ICT) penetrates dwellings worldwide, also the increasing number of older persons will become more dependent on information technology infrastructures. While ICT continues to advance quickly, the ergonomic refinement for use by older adults has lagged behind. In addition, technical problems exist, partly resulting from designers’ frequent use of proprietary products having little or no interoperability with products of other vendors. Fortunately, standards are emerging to address this problem; the cellular phone appears to be evolving into the general user interface for all, including older adults, and the addition of networking to ICT will significantly enhance environments to support aging-in-place.