Cyberspace accelerates "adaptable aging" transformation

Elderly people can also enjoy digital life

  With the rapid digital transformation of society, the digital application of the elderly has begun to receive unprecedented attention.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently issued the "Special Action Plan for the Ageing and Accessibility of Internet Applications" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan").

Decided to organize a one-year special action on Internet application adaptation and barrier-free transformation across the country, dedicated to solving the difficulties encountered by special groups such as the elderly and the disabled when using intelligent technologies such as the Internet.

The first batch of transformation actions will give priority to promoting 115 websites in 8 categories and 43 apps in 6 categories for ageing and barrier-free transformation.

  The elderly face the "digital divide"

  I want to enter a public place, but I have difficulty showing my health code; I went to the hospital for on-site registration, and I was told that my account source had been booked online; I was about to "surf" online to get fresh information, but I couldn't see clearly because I missed it. Downloaded other software...The diversified and detailed content and services on the Internet have greatly enriched the people’s lifestyle, and the elderly often cannot fully enjoy these benefits because they are not familiar with network operations.

  According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology a few days ago, about 274 million elderly people use mobile phones in China, of which about 134 million elderly people use smartphones to access the Internet.

This means that there may be nearly 140 million elderly people using feature phones or smart phones but not surfing the Internet, and there is a digital divide between the elderly and the Internet.

  According to Lu Shiyu, a senior researcher at Tencent Research Institute, China’s Internet is continuing to penetrate the middle-aged and elderly population. More and more elderly people are starting to go online and enjoy the convenience of digitalization, but at the same time, some elderly people have not been exposed to the Internet. .

  Service for the elderly demonstrates humanistic care

  The construction of a digital society requires both speed and temperature.

Aiming at the problem of the elderly’s difficulty in using smart technology, clarifying the daily needs of the elderly for Internet use, and focusing on solving the urgent problems of the elderly in using smart technology, it is becoming the consensus of the regulatory authorities, related enterprises and the society.

  The "Plan" pointed out that more products with features such as large fonts, large icons, and high-contrast text should be launched in response to the usage habits of the elderly.

Encourage more companies to introduce simple and easy-to-operate interface modes to realize multiple barrier-free functions such as one-key operation and text input prompts.

Improve the ability of dialect recognition to facilitate the use of smart devices by the elderly who do not speak Mandarin.

  In addition to improving the difficulty of interface operation, the "Plan" also pays attention to the related transformation of "content aging".

In view of the problem that there are many mandatory advertisements in the current Internet applications, which are easy to mislead the elderly, the old version, the care version, and the barrier-free version of the Internet website and mobile APP after the completion of the transformation will no longer have advertising plug-ins, especially payment operations. There will be no inducing buttons for convenient and safe use by various special groups.

  Liu Liehong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is actively promoting the construction of information accessibility. It has now promoted 32,000 government websites to achieve information accessibility transformation, guided the release of a number of information accessibility national and industry standards, and jointly promoted more than 200 smart elderly care. product and service.

  Relevant companies have also carried out reforms for aging.

Mainstream mobile phone manufacturers retrofit their phones and their functions to adapt to aging, and provide "elder mode", including large screen, large font, large volume, large battery capacity, and "remote assistance" functions to facilitate the elderly to use health codes, payment codes, etc. Simple and easy-to-use smart service.

In response to the difficulty of getting a taxi for the elderly nowadays, companies such as Didi Chuxing, Meituan Taxi, and Dida Chuxing have successively launched services suitable for elderly taxis, such as the elderly taxi hotline, one-click taxi-hailing, and additional functions such as cash payment. Improve the travel experience of the elderly.

  In order to help the elderly quickly integrate into the digital life, Douyin Public Welfare released a series of courses "Helping the elderly cross the'digital divide'", through a series of simple and easy-to-understand short videos to explain to the elderly users how to use smartphones , How to prevent fraud and other knowledge.

At present, 22 episodes of this series of courses have been launched, which have been broadcast nearly 5 million times.

  Work together so that the elderly can use it happily

  The construction of barrier-free information is conducive to fill up the shortcomings of people's livelihood, enhance people's livelihood and well-being, and enhance the happiness of the people.

Facing the urgent need of the elderly to integrate into the digital society, not only the active cooperation and active learning of the elderly individuals, but also the participation of the whole society and multiple subjects such as government authorities, related enterprises and platforms, communities, and family children.

  Liu Liehong pointed out that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will continue to urge and guide the information and communications industry to maintain rapid development while paying attention to the construction of information accessibility, and through measures such as technology evaluation and credit evaluation, to establish a long-term mechanism to promote information accessibility, so that enterprises can change their minds. Let special groups use it happily.

On the one hand, during the special action period, the Internet accessibility level will be continuously evaluated, and Internet websites and mobile apps that meet the requirements will be granted information accessibility marks; for those that do not meet the requirements, they will be guided and urged to improve in time; on the other hand, Comprehensively consider the effects of the ageing and barrier-free level of relevant Internet applications, the information accessibility working mechanism, and the corporate assistance to the elderly and the disabled. For companies with outstanding performance, add points in the "corporate credit evaluation" and mobilize all companies widely The enthusiasm to participate in the construction of information barrier-free.

  "The role of the family should not be ignored." Lu Shiyu said that the influence and drive of children is an important reason for the elderly to start accessing digital tools. Children should give the elderly more attention and tolerance, and support the elderly to embrace the era of digital intelligence.