As we all know, during the past century, nearly 30 years
have been added to the average life expectancy. This is more than in any century or, indeed, all history combined. However, the question remains -- to what
extent has the quality of life improved among those masses aging? Thanks to a 10-year study by the MacArthur
Foundation, we now know that the formula for successful aging includes exercise
of mind and body, disease avoidance, and staying actively engaged in life. At AARP, we see the ability to live longer,
healthier, more productive lives as one of the great accomplishments of the 20th
century.
Living into one’s seventies, eighties and beyond is no
longer a pipedream and, while this affords new choices and opportunities, it
also presents serious challenges which must be addressed. I think we all agree that discussions on
technology and aging will become increasingly important in order to meet these
challenges. Today, I am going to
encourage you to consider two areas where much “age-friendly” work needs to be
done: housing and transportation.
We must design more livable, safe housing for people who
want to age with a considerable degree of self-sufficiency and security. This is especially important for those who
live alone. In my home state of
Massachusetts alone, nearly a quarter million people who live alone in
non-family households are age 65 or older.
We know this is even a greater number in many other states. There is already a shortage, so just imagine
what we will be facing 30 years down the road, when our national population of
people over age 65 has doubled. Housing
solutions are needed now -- for older Americans and for the families
that care for them. This cannot be
place on the back burner of the policy stove and left for another day.
The key point to consider
in any discussion about housing for aging Americans is that as people change,
their abilities change. For instance,
just last year, I would have come up on this stage with one step, but my knees
will not let me do it quite that well now.
Diminishing physical abilities can sometimes make daily routines
difficult to manage. A sad dynamic is
that too often when people become older or disabled, they are forced to give up
their homes. This is usually a because
of safety concerns or the steep cost of altering the house to better fit their
needs.
An unfortunate part of our
architectural history is that houses have traditionally been designed for those
well under 50, with steep staircases and narrow doorways as the norm. While
some of these dangerous design features are finally starting to fade away, many
typical design standards have still not been changed to adapt to our nation’s
older population. When my wife and I
rehabbed our home two years ago, we struggled with the architects, contractors,
and everyone else to make sure that we had no thresholds, that we had easy
steps, that we had grab bars in the bathrooms and other such design elements. We wanted everything on one floor with wide,
open space. It took quite a bit of
aggressiveness to make sure that our home fit our needs. It is even harder to try to find features
like grab handles that don’t look institutional or are color-coded for bathtubs
and or other rooms.
We need to start thinking
in terms of “universal design”; designing houses to adjust to the person,
rather than the person to the house. As
an industrial engineer, for 20 years my job was to make sure that machinery
would be adapted to the individual, rather than the individual to the
machine. Housing improvements like this
would be welcome news to the tens of millions of older Americans who don’t
relish the idea of retirement centers or long-term care facilities. It is important to note that universal
design is not about increasing accessibility for people with disabilities. Instead, it focuses on design features that
will make daily living easier for all of us.
Universal design features run the gamut from skid-proof tile, graded
walks, height-adjustable closet rods, and lever door handles (hard to find in
some of the very large hardware stores like Home Depot). Universal design allows our houses to age
gracefully with us. It represents
progress.
The age-friendly home model
extends beyond the walls of the house and technology will play a vital role in
extending it to its maximum power. We
are told by CEOs from the high-tech industry that, before we know it, we will
be incorporating intelligent devices that talk to each other and help us manage
our lives into our daily activities.
These tools will be the fax machines, ATMs, cell phones, and home
computers of the future. It is
important to note, however, that while these now common technologies ease our
lifestyle, many people who are aging still have not learned how to use them or
are not comfortable using them.
Acclimation processes need to be built into the introduction of these
new conveniences.
Environmental technologies
that extend beyond the home, include the ability to actually network the
heating and security systems in our homes to a son’s, daughter’s or other
caretakers home miles away—even hundreds of miles away. Smart appliances also have the potential to
move home health care to an entirely new level. Consider, for example, implanted pacemakers with the ability to
send warning signals directly to local physicians. The rapid diagnosis could save time and actually be a difference
between life and death.
Age-friendly housing
brings us to our second related issue.
What about people traveling to and from their homes? The availability of safe accessible
transportation is another pressing issue for Americans striving to maintain independent,
active lifestyles in their later homes.
To use another personal illustration, a couple who is just ten years
older than me, lives right across the street from us in a cul de sac. Cul de sacs are great, but they are far from
bread and milk, from libraries, from post offices, and from other basic
needs. Because of an incident in a
small traffic accident, (fortunately, the only injury was that of pride), their
license has been taken away. So now
this couple relies completely on their children for grocery shopping and
everything else. The independence that
that gives up!
Transportation is such an
important issue at AARP because it provides people with mobility, and with that
mobility, independence. It allows
people to maintain healthy connections with their lives, whether we’re talking
about going to the grocery store, catching a bus to the doctor’s office,
getting to the community center, needing a ride to the airport, or any other
place we may wish to go. Transportation
becomes an even greater issue when we consider available options, or the lack
of them. This is true, not just in
remote rural areas, but in practically every suburb in America.
When we think of
transportation, it’s natural to consider driving. Many older Americans rely on their car. Almost 12% of all licensed drivers in Massachusetts are age 70
and above. Remember, we can expect the
number to multiply as more and more baby-boomers reach retirement age. Safety is obviously a great concern for
older drivers and their families. Can
technology help? If it does, how can it
be designed so that it is not also distracting? For instance, a woman shared a story about driving a car that
beeped a warning when she backed up.
When she first owned it, she was trying to park into a parking space
and, forgetting it had this feature, was startled when she heard the “beep,
beep, beep”, thinking there must be a truck in the vicinity that she did not
see. In her confusion, she was not sure
whether to continue backing up or accelerate.
Fortunately, no one was hurt, but it could have been a drastic
situation. Joe Coughlin, Director of
the Age Lab at MIT, will be speaking later on the agenda. I mention this, because Joe’s group is
studying the effects that information technology in cars is having on older
drivers and I’m sure he will go in to greater detail about the questions that
need to be answered on that front. In
the example just illustrated, built-in collision-avoidance alarms are good, but
they also distract older drivers, whose reaction times have begun to slow down.
We need to recognize these
changes. From a practical viewpoint,
while technology may introduce benefits on some levels, it is important to gain
a clear understanding of the effects of this new technology on older
drivers. We have seen the electronic
gadgets that are being added to cars, such as mini-TVs with VCRs. As these become standard, we need to
remember that multi-tasking features might have to be modified for older
drivers. There are also low-tech
changes that would be helpful, such as larger street signs that are higher up
for those who drive cars lower than an SUV.
Large outsized rearview mirrors would also be helpful to drivers whose
eyesight may be in decline, as would larger numbers on all the various
dashboard indicators such as clocks and speedometers. I would add that remote access devices that are quite common on
automobiles now should also become quite common in homes. For instance, it would be helpful not to
have to fumble in the dark for the keyhole.
So what role does AARP
play? We are active in research and
advocacy for activities that benefit older drivers. For instance, we supported the creation of new means to identify
people at high risk for accidents, or drivers who have health conditions that
may affect their driving skills. This
serves the purpose of helping to protect everyone on the road, not just the
older drivers. At AARP, we see the
inherent value of information exchange on issues related to older drivers and,
therefore, sponsor programs such as, “55 Alive”. Because of this, we participate in numerous coalitions, task
forces, and conferences that focus on the older driver population. We are a member of the Coalition for
Consumer Health and Safety. We also
serve in the Aging Driver Working Group of the American Association of Motor
Vehicle Administrators. We provide
input to organizations like the National Highway Transportation Safety
Administration on issues such as improving airbag safety for older drivers.
While many older people
may rely primarily on their own car for transportation, we know that as people
age, many also begin to rely more heavily on public transportation. It is not only the technology that comes to
play here, but access. There is less
public transportation available now than when those of us my age and a bit
younger had when we were young! This
raises important issues. Inadequate
public transportation can harm the physical, mental, and spiritual well being
of people in their later years. And
technology can help to improve public transportation, as a whole. One of the major problems of public transit
is that it is largely limited to urban areas.
People in rural areas and in the suburbs do not have access. In addition, public transit routes and
schedules generally follow work and rush hour patterns. This means that if any service is provided
at all to the destinations of older people, it is bound to be limited and at a
inconvenient times.
It seems reasonable to
suspect that new forms of transportation could be developed. Paratransit, for instance, involves
customized routes and schedules as well as curb to curb pick-up and
delivery. Global positioning systems
should be able to increase the efficiency of public transportation. This technology could impact the efficiency
of route design to better serve older riders, as well as improve security. AARP advocates that research and development
of the use of high-tech communication tools for improving access and security
be supported both by the auto industry and by policy makers. We must get more people to face this issue
and work towards taking advantage of universal design features.
In closing, I would note that during the past decade, the
development of the high-tech industry has ushered in unprecedented change in
progress. This change has affected, and
in most cases improved, our daily lives.
It is important that as our nation’s aging trend continues, we take
every opportunity to apply new technologies efficiently and effectively in the
realms of age-friendly housing and improved transportation. Research in these areas must be a
priority. Older Americans, the backbone
of this nation, deserve no less, and as Dr. Rowe said, engaging all of us as we
age means that we need to improve all of these things, so we can maintain that
connection with the world around us.