Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
At the moment when society is rapidly digitally transforming, 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 Ageing and Barrier-free Transformation of Internet Applications" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). It was decided to organize a one-year special action on the aging and barrier-free transformation of Internet applications nationwide, and is committed 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 renovation actions will give priority to promoting 115 websites in 8 categories and 43 apps in 6 categories for ageing and barrier-free transformation.
Older people face a "digital divide"
I want to enter a public place, but I have difficulty because I need to show my health code; I went to the hospital to prepare for on-site registration, and I was told that the number source had been booked out online; I was ready to "surf" the Internet to get fresh information, but I downloaded other software because I mistakenly clicked on the small icon that I couldn't see clearly... The diverse and detailed content and services on the Internet have greatly enriched people's lifestyles, 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, about 274 million elderly people in China use mobile phones, of which about 134 million use smartphones to access the Internet. This means that nearly 140 million elderly people in the country may use functional machines or use smart machines but do not access the Internet, and there is a digital gap between the elderly and the Internet.
Lu Shiyu, a senior researcher at Tencent Research Institute, said that China's Internet is continuing to penetrate into the middle and elderly, and more and more elderly people are beginning to touch the Internet and enjoy the convenience brought by 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 digital society must have both speed and temperature. In view of the difficulty of the elderly in using intelligent technology, clarifying the daily Internet use needs of the elderly and focusing on solving the urgent problems of the elderly using intelligent technology are becoming the consensus of regulatory authorities, relevant enterprises and all parties in society.
The "Plan" pointed out that in view of the use habits of the elderly, more products with functional characteristics such as large fonts, large icons, and high-contrast text should be launched. Encourage more enterprises to introduce an interface mode with simple interface and convenient operation, and realize a variety of barrier-free functions such as one-click operation and text input prompts. Improve the ability to recognize dialects and facilitate the use of smart devices by the elderly who do not speak Mandarin.
In addition to the problem of improving the difficulty of interface operation, the "Plan" also pays attention to the related transformation problems of "content aging". In view of the current problem that there are more mandatory advertisements in Internet applications and are easy to mislead the elderly, the old version, caring version and barrier-free version of the Internet website and mobile app after the completion of the transformation will no longer have advertising plug-ins, especially the payment operation will not have any induced buttons, so that all kinds of special groups can use it conveniently and safely.
Liu Liehong, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology actively promotes the construction of information accessibility, and has promoted the transformation of 32,000 government websites to achieve information accessibility, guided the release of a number of national standards and industry standards for information accessibility, and jointly promoted more than 200 smart elderly care products and services.
Relevant enterprises have also carried out anti-aging transformation actions. Mainstream mobile phone manufacturers have adapted the aging transformation of mobile phones and their functions, providing "elder mode", including large screens, large fonts, large volumes, large battery capacity and "remote assistance" and other functions, which are convenient for the elderly to use simple and easy-to-use intelligent services such as health codes and payment codes. In view of the problems such as the difficulty of daily taxis for the elderly, didi Chuxing, Meituan Taxi, Dida Travel and other enterprises have successively launched services suitable for the elderly to take a taxi, such as a taxi hotline for the elderly, a one-click taxi call, and additional cash payment functions to improve the travel experience of the elderly.
In order to help the elderly quickly integrate into digital life, Douyin Public Welfare released a series of courses on "Helping the Elderly Cross the 'Digital Divide'", which explained to the elderly user group how to use smart phones and how to prevent fraud and other knowledge through a series of easy, concise, and easy-to-understand short videos for the elderly. At present, the series of courses has launched 22 episodes, with a total of nearly 5 million plays.
Work together to make the old man use it smoothly
The barrier-free construction of information is conducive to making up for the shortcomings of people's livelihood, enhancing people's livelihood and well-being, and enhancing the happiness of the masses. In the face of the urgent need for the elderly to integrate into the digital society, it is not only necessary for the active cooperation and active learning of the elderly groups, but also for the participation of the whole society and multiple subjects such as government authorities, relevant enterprises and platforms, communities and families and children.
Liu Liehong pointed out that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will continue to supervise and guide the information and communication industry to pay attention to the construction of information accessibility while maintaining rapid development, and establish a long-term mechanism to promote information accessibility through measures such as technology evaluation and credit evaluation, so that enterprises can change their hearts and special groups can use it smoothly. On the one hand, during the special action period, the Internet accessibility level will continue to be evaluated, and the Internet websites and mobile apps that meet the requirements will be awarded information accessibility labels; for those that do not meet the requirements, timely guidance and supervision will be given to their improvement; on the other hand, comprehensive consideration of the relevant Internet applications to adapt to aging and accessibility level, information accessibility work mechanism, enterprise assistance to the elderly and the disabled and other aspects of the results, for enterprises with outstanding performance, in the "enterprise credit evaluation" additional points. Widely mobilize the enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in the construction of information accessibility.
"The role of the family cannot be ignored." Lu Shiyu said that the influence and drive of children is an important reason for the elderly to start to contact digital tools, and children should pay more attention to and tolerate the elderly, and support the elderly to embrace the era of digital intelligence.