Tag Archives: Universal Design

Planning and design for an ageing population: Coursework for Re-thinking aging

Posted on by under Education

Currently, I am participating in an massive online open course (MOOC) from the University of Melbourne on the topic of Re-thinking aging:  are we prepared to live longer?

The free course is offered through Coursera; it started the last week in April and runs for 5 weeks. You can read more about the course and sign up for future offerings at: https://www.coursera.org/learn/ageing/home/welcome

We were encouraged to keep a journal or blog about our journey through the course, particularly to note where our opinions and ideas have changed from the beginning of the course to the end. I thought this would be a great opportunity to share the course information and my opinions with you – a little something different than my usual posts 🙂 As such, this will be a work in progress over the next 5 weeks.

Week 3:  Planning and designing for an ageing population

Week 3 of the course highlights the planning and design principles for an age-friendly environment for housing, retirement communities and health care settings. Continue reading →

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How to really piss-off older people with bad advertising

Posted on by under Inspiration

As I was writing my post on The Rise of Aging-Friendly Stores, I came across this little gem (article below).

When working on starting up a business a few months ago, my business partner and I had a great discussion with Aging2.0 co-founder Stephen Johnston. We discussed how marketing with terms like “silver, age-friendly, 50+, and elderly” are not good to use, mostly because people want to be thought of as consumers, not an age group. As he said, “senior doesn’t sell.”

But we were running into problems with how people would find our services (consulting with businesses to make their electronic products and services more age-friendly). We wanted to use principles of Universal Design, which, in a nutshell, is designing so that all people, regardless of age or disability could use a product or service. And, while the companies may have a better understanding of how Universal Design can be applied, we still weren’t sure how to let aging adults know that we were making sure products and services were specifically for them.

Well, anyway, this article is a great addition to the conversation on marketing towards aging adults. A guide of what NOT to do!

Continue reading →

Shopping we all can enjoy, the rise of aging-friendly stores

Posted on by under Inspiration

I came across the following article this morning. It’s about a grocery store in Eau Claire, Wisconsin that has become dementia-friendly, in partnership with their local Aging and Disability Resource Center and the global Purple Angel Campaign.

Inspired, I did a bit more digging around on the internet, and wrote this post about how communities and businesses are becoming more age-friendly and dementia-friendly. Examples from New York, Wisconsin, the UK, Germany, and Japan are highlighted.

Continue reading →