Access Tool? Accelerating Treadmill? Technology and the Aging Population

Smart homes, smart cars, and electronic interactions with family, merchants, and service providers promise to make the lives of the elderly and people with disablities much easier. Paradoxically, the constantly accelerating pace of technological change will eventually make the machines we live with inaccessible to everyone who has a normal life span. Thought, planning, policy formulation, and action will be required to insure that everyday technology maintains interfaces that will be accessible to aging users, who are among the people who need it most. The User Access community is uniquely qualified to formulate and pioneer accessible design principles, and to bring these principles and policies to the attention of the public, relevant non-government organizations like the AARP, and public officials.