Overcoming Digital Divides: Older Adults and Digital Literacy
Older adults are less likely to use the internet than younger people living in Canada, and many report that information technologies do not improve their quality of life or save time. Attitudes toward digital technologies reflect the lack of knowledge about how programs work or information can be protected. A significant portion of people living in Canada report never being taught crucial digital literacy skills. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the issue is more pertinent than ever before: older adults are facing the risk of increased social isolation as community gatherings have shifted to online-only formats.
What policy solutions could help mitigate barriers faced by older adults in online access and digital literacy? How can digital literacy programs become more inclusive of older adults?
We heard from community and industry representatives that discussed what is impeding internet access among older adults and how digital literacy programs can enhance safe internet use for everyone living in Canada. The discussion was followed by breakout rooms focused on workshopping innovative policy solutions to bridge divides in digital access and literacy between older and younger generations.
Online event
About the Overcoming Digital Divides workshop series
The digital divide is about more than the lack of internet infrastructure in rural parts of Canada. It includes gaps in every corner of Canada in internet and device affordability, quality and digital literacy. These divides are tied to socioeconomic factors leaving some communities in Canada more disconnected than others.
How can federal, provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous governments advance policy solutions for full digital inclusion? What community and industry programs and policies can help to close these divides?
We explored these challenges and looked to advance concrete solutions in the Overcoming Digital Divides workshop series with the Ryerson Leadership Lab, Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship, and the First Nations Technology Council.
Read a short framing paper put together by our partners that lays out the context, evidence and importance of these discussions.
Part of Towards Equity
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified inequities and exposed the deficiencies of our institutions. It has confirmed we must enact change and signaled that transformation is possible. What must we understand—and do—to recover equitably and reimagine our systems to confront the intersecting crises of inequality, systemic racism and climate change?
Towards Equity, SFU Public Square’s 2021 Community Summit Series, takes place online throughout the year and brings the university into conversation with local and global communities. Join us to learn and take action together towards a more just, equitable and sustainable future.
Virginia Bosomworth
Past President, LIFE Institute
Prior to retiring, Virginia “Ginny” Bosomworth held senior leadership positions in the U.S. Financial Services industry before launching her own consulting practice in Canada.
Enabling people to contribute at their maximum potential while driving value for the organization is Ginny’s passion. Ginny has designed and delivered programs throughout her career and later as a volunteer to link strategy with performance outcomes, resulting in improvements to the bottom line and engagement among participants. Most recently, Ginny served as president of The LIFE Institute, a Toronto-based not-for-profit charitable organization dedicated to providing lifelong learning opportunities to older adults by offering a wide range of courses, activities and related opportunities to volunteer.
Presently, Ginny is engaged in international development work (as a volunteer) to create access to education for kids in Honduras and also as a new farmer in Canada with the intent of providing land access to young aspiring farmers to enable a sustainable future.
Virginia holds a Master of Arts in Diplomacy and International Commerce and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Kentucky.
Eric Craven
Community Development Librarian and Digital Literacy Project Coordinator, Atwater Library and Computer Centre
Eric Craven is the Community Development Librarian at the Atwater Library and Computer Centre in Montreal. He completed his MLIS at McGill University. Eric’s work focuses specifically on using digital media to disrupt normative expectations and perceptions in the community. For the past 10 years, as coordinator of the Digital Literacy Project, he has created programming that directly responds to community needs, creating spaces for participants to express themselves, find new ways to talk about things important to them and to help them build their own communities and work towards their own goals through creative digital media projects. This includes a series of projects focused on gender intersections with economy, gender-based sexual violence and gender-based cyberviolence. Eric has worked with a wide range of academic and community stakeholders bringing different groups of people together, ages six through 96, to express themselves through digital art and media including many immersive community new media projects focusing on engaging seniors with video and sound.
Michel Mersereau
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
Michel received his PhD in 2020 from the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. Michel’s research focuses on the role of the internet in facilitating access to essential services, needs and goods, as well as the broader policy implications associated with digital inequity. Michel’s prior research explored the role of the internet in supporting the basic needs activities of residents at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, and at Toronto’s Native Mens Residence.
Karen Wong
Researcher, SFU Science and Technology for Aging Research (STAR) Institute, and Clinical Advisor, 411 Seniors Centre
Karen Lok Yi Wong has an MA in social policy from the University of York (U.K.) and an MSW in social work from the University of British Columbia. She conducted research and analyzed policies on older adults and health care including palliative care, long-term care and family caregiving, and published and presented widely academically and professionally. She is currently affiliated with SFU's Science and Technology for Aging Research (STAR) Institute.
She is a registered social worker in B.C. and has been practising in diverse settings related to older adults such as home support, community senior services centres and long-term care. She is currently practicing social work in Mount Saint Joseph Hospital.
She is a long-term volunteer with the Alzheimer Society as a family support group facilitator and workshop speaker. She is serving on the BC Association of Social Workers' Multicultural and Anti-Racist Committee and Seniors Community of Practice. She is also the clinical advisor of 411 Seniors Society.
Caroline Grammer
Professor, Faculty of Applied Arts & Sciences, Department of Community Services, Seneca College
Caroline Grammer has an Honours Bachelor of Psychology (with neuroscience focus and biomedical ethics) from the University of Toronto, a Bachelor of Social Work from University of Victoria, and a Master of Social Work with UBC. She is a full-time professor at Seneca College in the Faculty of Applied Arts & Sciences, Department of Community Services, cross-appointed to the Social Service Worker Gerontology diploma program and the Bachelor in Therapeutic Recreation program since 2005.
Through her Bachelor of Social Work she began working with Indigenous and youth populations living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver who were AIDS/HIV+, eventually following them into palliative care, which brought her to St. Paul’s Hospital to study and work with the palliative social worker and biomedical ethics team on supporting patients dying of AIDS in the ‘90s under heavy stigma and fear, and working with the underground cannabis network to provide pain relief for the patients and clients with the only method of pain relief that worked. She transitioned from clients with AIDS to the older adult palliative population who remained invisible in institutional settings, and began her work to raise awareness and develop palliative programs in long-term care homes in Vancouver along with a strong team of experts and advocates.
Caroline has also been a practicing psychotherapist for the past 20 years, working with individuals, families and couples, using cognitive behavioural therapy, focusing on trauma, depression, anxiety, grief, and geriatric and caregiver issues. She has been a gerotechnology consultant (one of Canada’s few) for the past 25 years, engaged with global think-tanks on how technology can allow for aging in place. She designs and implements studies to test industry technology with older adults and run clinical trials on medical-grade technology that assists older adults in maintaining or improving their mobility and independence.
In her “free time” she is a single mom who raises two marvelous teens who provide daily entertainment for her during the current COVID-19 lockdown.
Helping older adults connect online can ease isolation
By Nour Abdelaal and Sam Andrey, Ryerson Leadership Lab
Lockdown and physical distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic have increased social isolation for many Canadians. This isolation can be especially acute for older adults without the devices and internet connection they need to stay connected, or to access digital health services. Older adults are less likely than younger people to have internet services at sufficient speed. The third part of the Overcoming Digital Divides workshop series explored how we can close gaps in internet adoption and digital literacy for older adults during and after the pandemic.
Overcoming Digital Divides: What We Heard and Recommendations
This final report on the Overcoming Digital Divides workshop series summarizes the main themes shared at the workshops and offers five main policy recommendations to address Canada's digital divides moving forward.
Sponsor
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Overcoming Digital Divides: Older Adults and Digital Literacy
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Overcoming Digital Divides: Older Adults and Digital Literacy
Older adults are less likely to use the internet than younger people in Canada, and many report that information technologies do not improve their quality of life or save time. The issue is more pertinent than ever under the pandemic.
Read More →
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Overcoming Digital Divides: Low-Income Communities
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