Opening up the digital world for older people and at the same time not excluding everyone who has problems with smartphones and tablets from social participation – this is what the newly elected Senior Citizens’ Advisory Board around its old and new chairman Reinhard Bauer has set itself. On Tuesday, social officer Dorothee Schiwy and the re-elected boss presented their team – two new specialist committees stand for new areas of responsibility: environment and climate as well as migration and integration.
The twelve specialist committees should deal with the problems that people over 60 years of age struggle with. Among other things, with the spread of digitization. “As the Seniors’ Advisory Board, we see one of our tasks in making older people familiar with how to deal with this development,” announces Reinhard Bauer. “On the other hand, we also want to protect those who cannot or do not want to participate in this change.”
Günter Wolf has made this task a priority. As head of the “Digitization” technical committee, the trained electrical engineer brings a great deal of specialist knowledge to the table: “Digitization is a social issue,” says the 70-year-old in the red sweater. According to a study, around a third of people in Germany are worried about being left behind digitally.
“Digital offers must reach everyone,” he demands. “Without a mobile phone, I wouldn’t have been able to get a 49-euro ticket,” he says, unless of course he had taken the long and expensive route to get a chip card. Analog is more expensive than digital, says Wolf, which is why the “old people’s and service centers” (ASZ) have to be upgraded digitally. This includes free WiFi, and employees are needed for digital assistance, for example to be able to submit applications. Another problem is that many people aren’t even familiar with the centers, Wolf says in an interview, and they don’t identify with them either. Therefore, Wolf would like to replace the “old” of the ASZ with “active seniors”. “I’m not old at 60.”
Some doctors only accept patients via a digital platform
But from the age of 60, people would already be left behind digitally, he says. Only recently he was approached by an elderly woman who could not get an appointment with her doctor. The doctor only accepts patients via the “Doclib” platform, and some do not know how he or she can create an account. Most people have cell phones, but can’t necessarily use them, he says. Therefore, support is needed in the ASZ.
“Some people simply don’t have a cell phone, can’t or don’t want to – an analog way is needed for that,” says the digitization expert. People without Internet access or digital skills are increasingly disadvantaged, for example when making appointments with authorities or in social housing. After all, it’s also about speed – if you have to drive to one of the citizen terminals first, you’re often too late.