i believe we should run the video [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] can we run the second video colleagues [Music] the world is digital and its population is aging for the first time in human evolution people aged over 60 have outnumbered children under five years old and are predicted to reach 2 billion by 2050 older persons have always been an asset to their families communities and societies nevertheless they have been perceived as a vulnerable group dependent on younger generations the digital world can no doubt enable older persons to participate and contribute to society turning this misconception of vulnerable into valuable [Music] in an interconnected world information and communication technologies or icts can empower and contribute to healthy independent and fulfilled lives of present and future older adults icts if provided in accessible and user-friendly formats and platforms can be valuable enablers for older adults helping them to overcome more easily age-related limitations including hearing dexterity and visual impairment for example accessible smart televisions allowing users with hearing aids to enjoy all types of entertainment content with their families use of virtual assistant technology to obtain all types of information and access online services use of zooming features to increase the font size to facilitate reading the digital context reduces distances and avoids isolation and loneliness it also facilitates active participation in all aspects of today's society therefore by building accessible and inclusive digital environments all users can adapt technology to their specific abilities and needs for instance they can buy products more easily using the e-commerce process manage their finances and payments through e-banking continue lifelong learning thanks to opportunities offered by e-learning platforms contribute to society including sharing their experiences and enhancing constructive dialogue between generations moreover in 2020 the global coalition on aging estimated the global market value of older adults the so-called silver economy at 17 trillion us dollars and growing there is a huge business opportunity for this untapped market to help member states create accessible and age-friendly ict environments the international telecommunication union itu has developed the report aging in a digital world from vulnerable to valuable the report not only raises awareness of the trends and good practices but also provides concrete guidelines to ensure healthy happy and valuable aging and empower older persons as active participants in their digital communities and societies for more information on itu's work and resources on digital inclusion please visit www.itu.int [Music] thank you very much good morning afternoon and good evening to all distinguished speakers and participants thank you for joining us today at the swiss forum 2022 high-level dialogue on icts and digital technologies for healthy aging moving together from why to what and how my name is roxanna vickmariesko i'm senior coordinator for digital inclusion and focal point for ict and older person topic at itu and i have the big honor to be your moderator and facilitator for today's dialogue today's high-level dialogue celebrates the conclusion of this year with this forum special track on ict an older person held this week from the 2nd to 6 may and these weeks even attracted an unprecedented number of organizers collaborators and participants across a wide diversity of topics and sectors the dialogue convenes subjects such as technologies of health social isolation and loneliness the world of work ai technologies and digital collaboration for healthy aging this events also highlighted some key priorities for diverse stakeholders which i would like to share with you including for governments to prioritize a topic in their political agenda and develop policies strategies and tailored program based on concrete data and research and jointly with end users for the private sector to respond to the significant business opportunities in these areas by developing products and services in line with the needs of this untapped end-user the older person for the academia to develop educational programs and collaborate with other stakeholders to build older person digital skills and capacities in the use of technology for cyber society to continue advocating for and with older people to ensure that developed solutions truly respond to older people needs and requirements and finally for us the u.s system to continue to raise awareness engage governments and bring diverse stakeholders together to jointly advance the global implementation of this important topic this year with a special track on ict and older person is particularly special the special track as you know was established in june 2020 but this year we also celebrating the 2022 world telecommunication and information society day on 17th of may which for the very first time had a theme on the topic of digital technologies for older person and healthy aging in the context of course of the undecade of healthy aging 2021 2030. so this year while building on the significant momentum that has developed in this area particularly after the last year un international day of older person and within our efforts to build back better from the kavit pandemic this is an opportunity to continue catalyzing collaborative action to improve the lives of older people of their families of their communities including through the development and use of icts and technology in this dialogue we are privileged to have the participation of global leaders from across the un system the government's cyber society and private sector as well as academia for a truly cross-sectoral conversation to ensure that ict and digital technologies are developed and used in ways that create accessible and age-friendly digital environments supporting and enabling current and future generation of older people to continue their active social political and economical participation stakeholders have worked to identify and emphasize why we should address the two global mega trends of accelerating digitalization and population aging together now is time to action it's time to identify what should we do to harness digital technologies to support and empower older people and how should we do to jointly achieve these goals of this decade of healthy aging finally our event has been designed to be interactive and encourage as much as conversation is possible on the topic of working together to use and develop digital technologies for fostering healthy aging please join the dialogue by using the zoom question and action function to ask the question which will be answered in writing or during the discussion portion of today event and starting conversation with fellow participants using the chat function also you may share your thoughts and comments on social media by using the hashtag addinglive to years and also please note that this session will be recorded so all speakers bio will be posted also in the chat to kick off this high level dialogue i have the immense privilege to welcome mr malcolm johnson the deputy secretary general of the international telecommunications to give us a few remarks on the crucial importance of acting on the two global mega trends of population aging and accelerating digitalization together mr johnson the floor is yours well thank you very much roxanna and thank you for that introduction so good morning good afternoon good evening to everyone welcome to this high-level dialogue on icts and the older persons and healthy aging when it comes to technology our world is moving fast but unfortunately not everyone is able to keep up so today we shine the light on those people over 60 years old and there are one billion of them across the world and they are a global force to be reckoned with and a growing force older persons have a huge contribution to make to society providing their given access to digital technologies can afford them find these technologies attractive know how to use them trust them and feel empowered and safe when they go online and that is where itu comes into play as the un specialized agency for icts we are committed to ensuring that everyone regardless of age gender or ability can equally and equitably make use of digital technologies that includes improving accessibility and ensuring universal design by developing standards for example like the recently approved standard for accessible telehealth systems and services which itu developed jointly with the who as a result of the increasing telehealth reliance during the covet 19 pandemic itu's commitment to older persons also means developing a range of resources such as toolkits training courses and reports i encourage you to consult our latest aging in a digital world from vulnerable to valuable report and to take free online self-paced training courses on icts for better aging and livelihood in the digital landscape older persons face a lot of challenges from age-based discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere to financial inclusion but we can only fight what we know so i'm very pleased that this year's world telecommunication and information society day on the 17th of may is dedicated for the first time the digital technologies for older persons and healthy aging and i hope you'll all be able to join the day's celebration to raise awareness of this issue and to build momentum behind initiatives promoting healthy aging i now our increasingly digital world this is an all year round effort to promote digital inclusion for all ages and i encourage all whis's stakeholders to get engaged at the national regional and international level the wisest forum is all about collaborating so this is the chance to make an important contribution towards the un decade of healthy aging the visit forum has organized an ict is an older person's track since 2018. today's high level dialogue concludes this week-long track which brought together more than 550 participants from all over the world i was very pleased to note that women's participation was 65 in total the special track ran a series of nine workshops from addressing social isolation and loneliness amongst older persons through digital interventions to tech solutions for age-related diseases this year we have also introduced the wisses forum healthy aging innovation prize which recognizes how various products services and platforms can improve people's ability to function as they age and we've launched a wishes multi-stakeholder alliance on icts and older persons with working groups in key areas of design and accessibility capacity building and education cyber security and innovation there are many opportunities for everyone to contribute all public and private sector stakeholders are invited to join us to ensure that we could move forward to ensuring that this technology can bring a healthy and happy aging for older persons to today and tomorrow so we have a great panel uh for this session i would like to thank them all for joining us we'll provide a work map out of this session that can strengthen existing initiatives and frameworks and commitments to inspire further action worldwide so i wish you a very enjoyable and fruitful session thank you very much roxanna thank you mr johnson for opening this important dialogue with such a strong statement on itu commitment and work to enable present and future generation to harness the power of ict as well as reiterate the call to continue collaborating to ensure everyone has a chance to fully participate in today digital society and economy i have now the privilege to welcome miss daniel abbas director of the division for inclusive social development at the u.n department of economic and social affairs i'm personally delighted to be hearing from you ms bass to learn more from you and perspective on how we can continue to work together to ensure that ict and digital technologies are harnessed in way that both support and include current and future generation of older people miss buzz from the under perspective and based on your experience in advocating for the inclusion of all people what are your thoughts on the topic of today discussion the floor is yours um thank you very much roxanna i hope you can see me my screen is dark but let me first begin by thanking the organization itu and other organizers for for this invitation and i would like to really to congratulate you all for this timely event and allow me also to thank my colleagues in this case miss rafe and miss ono for their incredible work with the itu and also in supporting me in preparing me for this event today now population aging and the acceleration of the digital transformation of our societies as as it has been brilliantly said are two of the most impactful mega trends of our times and both are predicted to bring important socio-economic changes worldwide look at what happened now with the with coveted 19 pandemic i mean no other times but these have shown the potential of a ict and how important it is to keep people connected and this digital revolution has changed the lives of millions of persons who work get informed and receive education and at the same time though when digital changes outspace the abilities of societies to adapt then these technologies can widen and reinforce existing inequalities create new ones and exacerbate social exclusion of some groups including those persons who are above the age of 60 who might not be literate in technology in technology and in this new language so we really have to close the gap in terms of uh lack of broadband in terms of um having an access to these means also in terms of financial access and at the same time be trained to be able to speak this new language so older persons are a very heterogeneous group but on average average they suffer to a greater extent than other groups from this digital divide in the access to use and benefit from these digital technologies and in general are less digitally connected than other age groups and age adds to other factors such as gender socio-economic background education attainment profession and location among others to explain the different levels of digital technology adoption across and within generations so we really have to harness the potential of both population aging and digitalization to bring more opportunities to current and future generations of older persons older persons of yesterday are not the same of today nor are going to be the the future ones and we have to reap the benefits of the longevity revolution with them with them without taking into account age gender ability regardless of culture social economic background or location you know we all have to have a right to access icts now for all of these reasons i really would like to emphasize and then i'm i conclude the important role that um is played by wsis by this forum in bringing more evidence best practices and recommendations in this field and we also welcome the emphasis that the decade of healthy aging has put on digitalization in its interlinkages with other areas of healthy aging in 2021 the u.n international day of
older persons which you know you know days that we organize but everyone celebrates was dedicated to digital equity for all ages and in this uh in that occasion the united nations secretary general reflected on the role of digital technologies during the pandemic and on the challenges faced by older persons and called for more inclusive policies strategies and actions to achieve digital equality for people of all ages and of all abilities and i really hope that this event is a step forward in that direction roxanna very very much miss bass for your brilliant remarks regarding the importance of ensuring digital equality and equity and with this in mind i'll say that the work to develop and implement digital technology in a truly inclusive way to improve the lives of older people their families and communities during this decade cannot be done without the collaborative action of the member states their governments across all levels of work from the national to the city level and now we are honored uh to welcome two representatives from the government of city of buenos aires in argentina miss camila varela age friendly city digital director and mr alain kangberg age friendly city operational manager ms varela and miss kangber mr kanberg could you share with us what are the social effects of the two mega trends on aging and technology in the city of buenos aires especially in a post-pandemic context and what response can public management offer from ict and digital developments thank you remarks roxanna and the organization for the invitation i'm going to start talking about a short demographic diagnosis according to the last available national national census argentina had about 6 million people over the age of 60 years 14 of the total population its capital city buenos aires is one of the three addictions with the oldest population in the country over 22 percent of its inhabitants were 60 years or older and this trend continues in greece both the diagnosis and the future projections are in line with one of the identified megatrends the progressivation of the population the ministry of health under the buenos aires city government answered to the social dynamic with the creation of an area that is the inte that is for integral welfare focuses not on not only on the well-being of vulnerable sectors but also bring these public policies to the general population inside of this area is a specific one which main objective is to design and implement policies for the general accessibility social urban integration and digital inclusion for the older persons during the last quarter of 2021 following the guidelines of the who vancouver protocol we conducted a series of focus groups in each of the 15 communes that composed buenos aires city among the main results we should mention the almost universal prevalence of whatsapp and a very high demand for icts and digital capacitations so from these meetings we we've also verified the second method the acceleration in the demand for technology in our particular segment now i'm going to introduce some of our projects that we work for in this area one is digital inclusion workshops the second one is a chatbot especially for older's body mass in place called in buenos aires in third place a content platform that is especially creative for older persons and at last a volunteering app that we are developing i thank you all uh for being here it's a pleasure to to present our results and our work here digital inclusion workshops it's a mainly uh a capacitation face-to-face training in the use of smartphones guided by specialized trainers in the first class they both what what they want to learn they want to learn gmail they want to learn whatsapp how to turn on on or off their cell phones we have different uh dynamics in each class so they participate and they choose what they want to learn and then we invite them to the following a digital breakfast that we we make once a week so we can continue learning then about bottima simply it's a whatsapp based chatbot in buenos aires city it won't it has one popularity during the pandemics because via what's up you receive the kobe testing and all the vaccine appointments but this uh attached to the the fact that other people are using what's up even more and more we thought it was a good idea to implement a menu only for other people where they can access to different activities uh now we are we're making a survey in in argentina so they can make the survey digitally different workshops and they can chat with an operator a real person here in this in the in our place of work where they can deliver all the demands for the government and make a follow-up of each case this project called comunidamas it's the evolution of another program we have it was called massimble that they were a we raffle a lot of tablets for elderly and it was very good in 2015 because it was a first approach to technology less or so the 50 of the people who received a tablet was the first meeting with technology with a smart device but nowadays and due to the magnet pandemic the majority of older people knows how to use whatsapp and the cell phone so we are we're migrating this idea of ma simple to community mass community plus uh that's it's mainly uh an interface a platform where you can see everything you need in the city being an older people so you can access um different you have different functionalities workshops to read the newspaper to have a calendar and many functionalities were working on maybe in september we are launching a first approach of this application and then we have this other the fourth itc's initiative is a volunteer app and we saw and we we feel a deep loneliness feeling of loneliness in elderly people this is not only required by the the older people but also in the health centers we see a lot of people making appointments only to chat with somebody so we are thinking in this app that is made to connect one a older person that was want to chat wants to have a support and assistance with our volunteer from all over the country so we are making this app and we think it is going to be successful we have different initiatives here in buenos aires made by ngos so we want to make a link and work together to improve this this initiative so that's mainly what we what we prepared thank you miss varela and mrs mr gunberg thank you for all your inspirational insights and perspective on the social effects of these two mega trends on aging and technology in city of buenos aires and in particular on how the city of buenos aires is leveraging digital technologies to create more inclusive and age-friendly environments for older residents particularly in these challenging times another key partner and those who tirelessly work for and with older people our cyber societies cyber society organization are often among those who are closest with older people and some thousands or even tens of thousands of cyber society organizations around the world are already making efforts to foster healthy aging including through the development and use of digital technologies i'm now privileged to welcome miss silvia pereira levin she's chair of the ngo committee on aging in geneva who is joining us to share the cyber society perspective on this topic miss paralevin considering your advocacy work for the last eight years a chair in the ngo committee on engine in geneva with a strong focus on the human rights of older person what are your thoughts on how digital technology can be developed and used to establish inclusive digital societies and environments the floor is yours thank you roxanna after eight years as chair i am really happy to announce that as of this week we have a neutral person in geneva and that is kelly fitzgerald but so i am very happy to finish the week with these events and after so many years that we haven't interacted that interacted as well we have had this week so many examples of attempts to reach other persons and doing things for us we don't want to simply adapt to technologies that somebody has decided what we need icds and artificial intelligence have indeed the potential to improve the well-being of older persons as long as technologies enable us to maintain our autonomy and independence to fully participate in society to access services and to either opt in or out with full informed decisions making regarding what technology suits or doesn't suit us i endorse the calls to include all the persons in the design training and use of new technologies we are not just users we are not just on that market we are call designers we are co-producers or we can be the inter-general relations is usually raised in this context yes it is of course very important but not if it implies if it implies that older persons can only be taught and supported by the young as if we knew nothing people working in high tech developers programmers also grow old and can be takier than many young that many young people even if they were born in the digital world so i find i have in fact witnessed peer support a lot of it all the person teaching other persons and younger persons as well on how to use icts and other issues too the organization is seniors in paris for example that's just that older persons creating an organization to support older persons our member alejandro took an online course to webmaster his organization grey cells website we can do it i learned i learn how to organize webinars and help all the members of our community with the tools to connect and have meetings during cloud during lockdown it is not difficult just need a bit of patience and understanding of what each person needs and wants there is an increasing number of other women bloggers and podcasters an enormous number of them i would say i have seen amazing online art exhibitions by older persons or gym classes by older trainers and trainees strop stop treating us like technological inept just listen to us i have seen organizations that create to create new and high tech solutions in response to specific challenges of persons with disabilities of any age tikkun la makers network or researches and co-creates and then make the innovation solution open source that is social innovation living labs enable people to test products for long periods in their living environment for real life feedback but we know that many other persons have either less or no access to icts or may not have opportunities to develop the skills idu's commitments working within u.n agencies with a human rights-based approach is critical for the decade of healthy aging to succeed technologies should be available accessible and acceptable without discrimination digital literacy goes also beyond just operating devices it is also about online media literacy the ability to identify reliable information prevent you abuse and scams and combat ages attitudes and policies ethical concerns were also discussed this week and need more attention as do gender issues and intersecting inequalities older men older women who are either excluded from promotion and training at work or drop out of work in order to care for family members of all ages they find themselves outside the technological constant changes not only icts can support kirby giving but also can support us in maintaining our financial autonomy and independence as we learn to use online banking for example or all public services let us challenge the prejudice that because we are old we cannot learn or understand technology we have the right to learn to enjoy life to live independently in the community and be supported to do that whatever our condition wherever we live and i look forward to discuss this further afterwards thank you roxanna thank you so much miss sparrow levin for this powerful remarks and concrete example and how much there is to learn from cyber society in terms of how we can continue leveraging digital technologies in ways that include all the people as co-creators and co-designers now when talking about digital technologies and icts we can never forget to mention the private sector which has a significant dr has been a significant driving force in terms of the innovation and rapid expansion that we have seen in this area at the same time companies businesses and other are also realizing the economic and social benefits of specifically addressing the needs of older people through digital technologies to tell us more about the perspective from the private sector in this topic i'm pleased to introduce dr michael hodden is a ceo of the global coalition on aging an organization that has been a key partner for the wisest forum initiative and activities in relation to older people so dr the global coalition on aging has been an active participant and supporter of the whis forum work to promote digital technology for older person based on your holistic experience in this topic including in the convening of the private sector what are your perspective on existing and future action in response to this topic the floor is yours thank you roxanna and thanks to all for this great panel today and the participation of so many people over the course of the last week here we are on friday many parts of the world including that in asia it's already evening and it's the conclusion of this week dedicated to digital technology and older persons we started this three years ago in its full measure as we see it today a global coalition on aging has been delighted to be a partner and as all of us know over the course of the last five days and including today both the global coalition on aging our panels the world health organization panels and others covered multiple topics a number of health topics ranging from alzheimer's and bone health to vision health the needs for adult immunization cardiovascular health and one understands the relationship between needs around healthy aging in all those areas and the role that digital technology can play and sylvia as you just said the co design in all this is so critical we're seeing more and more of this but also we covered financial wellness and topics around the relationship between digital technology and financial management for individuals we also covered caregiving and the relationship between digital technology and elder care and the way in which digital technology will help us to expand the capacity to care around the world which is so critical so it's been a great week we still have some important topics on the agenda including our uh healthy aging innovation prize which will be announced sometime i believe it's going to be later in the end of may or early june but we had 115 submissions from over 40 countries around the world we now have our 10 finalists and several of you have been kind enough to be the judges so everyone should stay tuned for that as well so roxanna let me now take the specific points of today's topic the why the what and the how to help answer your question the why it's this huge mega trend of aging not only longevity the billion moving to two billion of us on the planet over 60 but the more old and young as every society modernizes and interestingly and in a way mysteriously this megatrend however huge it is is under recognized and in many ways underrepresented uh in many policy forms uh and with people themselves around the world so the why is we have this huge global mega trend when you add it to digital technology you have a huge opportunity the what has already been alluded to and i will simply emphasize the decade of healthy aging i started at the who moved to the u.n uh thank you daniella and others all of your colleagues at eval is with us uh the un proclamation but now also married with partners at itu at unesco and others and so the what is we now have this framework to enable a healthier and more active aging and how well that comes to this particular role that perhaps global coalition has with bringing in different stakeholders and business in the private sector is a stakeholder so let me suggest three actions number one we invite everyone to continue to think of business as a stakeholder in this enterprise that we all have to achieve healthier and more active agent i one way to think about that is that business based on its employee population families of its employees and its customers represent tens of millions maybe hundreds of millions of people we all have roles that relate to business and the decade of healthy aging can help bring in business as one of the stakeholders secondly and this has been alluded to one of the core competencies that we see from the business community and we see this from our global coalition on aging members every day is the role of innovation to achieve new products and services to help achieve a healthier aging but it's not only the innovation itself because an innovation in the lab or in an academic setting is a good start but it has to be brought to the market it has to be brought to people and so the ability to scale that nationally and globally including our friends from buenos aires through age-friendly city communities is a wonderful opportunity and then thirdly to recognize that we can draw on all of the stakeholder communities together where business i can tell you wants to play a role not only in the context of direct interest around that 17 plus trillion dollar silver economy that was alluded to in the video but also in terms of working with people on a regular basis so we invite everyone to work with this private sector business role uh on healthy aging we offer ourselves as a partner and a collaborator uh as an important stakeholder working with all of you to help frame a healthier more active aging for everyone so thank you for this opportunity and congratulations to all of us for a successful week of engagement on healthy and active aging thank you very much dr harding for your valuable insight on the golden circle questions why what and how and for the concrete forward action including bringing together all stakeholders and privacy jointly with the private sector to collectively leverage population aging as an opportunity for social transformation for the better finally our collective efforts to ensure that the way we design develop and use digital technology for older people are inclusive accessible and effective will not be successful without the partnership and considering research work of academia to respond the academic voice i'm now happy to welcome dr anthony janomez associate professor for the oslo metropolitan university and internationally recognized expert in universal design on information and communication technology icts he's also our one of our vice laboratory in ict accessibility topic in itu dr janomez you bring with you a wide range of experience in inclusive and universal design as well as in issuing around digital accessibility from your academic perspective how do you see the role of ict digital accessibility requirements principles standards in all stakeholders work to ensure all the people can access and use digital product services and solution the floor is your anthony thank you so much roxanna and it's just an absolute pleasure and an honor to be here and speak with everyone about these uh really incredibly important topics one of the frameworks we like to use at least here in norway at my university to try to understand a little bit better about how people can approach and use and adopt technology in as easy a way as possible is through universal design and that was mentioned at the right that they outset and some of the key themes of universal design have been coming out in each of the commentators presentation so i just want to dig into that just a little bit more because i think this is the critical juncture that we face and how we enable everyone to have access and use of technology so universal design is just the basic kind of utopic vision that everyone should be able to use technology equally but it doesn't just deal with design of technical interfaces it deals with design in a holistic way so we look at things like the design of social systems health care systems educational systems we look at design from a policy perspective so who's in the room creating those policies we look at design from an organizational perspective so business design and things like that and then on down through product design and then finally user interface design so when we take that more holistic approach we can start picking apart where are the critical junctures that we can leverage to enable more and more older people to have access and use of technology now that's just a starting point really universal design comes down to four key concepts key principles that are important for us to keep in mind as we're trying to adopt universal design as a concept into practice and whatever sphere we want to adopt it into those four principles come down to number one equality and i think this is what is missing in a lot of maybe computer science education engineering education there's not a fundamental understanding of issues around social equity diversity inclusion and things like that so we need to do a better job at educating our bachelor's degree students master's degree students all the way up the line in basic principles of social equity second principle is issue of diversity and i want to kind of go back into something silly had said earlier about the intersectional identities of individuals who have a right to access and use technology when we're talking about older people that's kind of just a very one way of looking at someone but sylvia already brought out the issue of gender so if we look at an older woman with a disability for example she will experience a barrier or challenge accessing and using technology not just because of her age but also because of her gender identity and also because of her disability and so we have to look at the person holistically and not just look at an individual attribute in isolation third key principle is accessibility and usability we often hear these concepts of like user friendly or easy to use but there's a specific definition that we can kind of attach ourselves to to understand a little bit more about what it means for an older person to be able to use a piece of technology that definition comes down to is it effective is it efficient and is it satisfying and we can measure ways in which people interact with technology to understand better how usable it is now the final and fourth principle which is the most important one of the things that came out earlier is this idea of co-design we call it participatory design and that means that it's not enough to drag a couple of older people in at the end of a design process and give them a cookie and say oh tell us what you think and then more or less ignore everything they say we have to bring older people and all relevant stakeholders especially older people who hold intersectional identities in at the very beginning of the design process and continuously involve them throughout that's the only way we can ensure universal design and enable everyone to access and use technology equally well thank you so much for for all this um i would say inspirational and very practical and concrete example on how and what to do to to ensure that older people can can access digital technologies um as you you can see i'm a very bad time keeper in particular when it comes to a subject that i'm very passionate about and i couldn't stop any of this intervention i would like to to ask uh if possible my colleague from wa to who kazuki amada who kindly supported the organization and development of this session i am very thankful for him if we have a burning question from the audience kazuki yes i actually have a question from susan summers who um is talking about um the government's role in promoting intergenerational solidarity especially in addressing ageism potentially when thinking about this this topic because ages obviously so close to the to the issue of older people and um icts maybe not just government's role in promoting interjection solidarity but maybe all of the sectors who are represented here what are their role in reducing prejudice discrimination stereotype in the way we adopt icts for for for and with older people [Music] do um one of our distinguished panelists may wish to to complement to respond to to this particular question do you want to call somebody like i mean oh daniella wants to please feel free thank you thank you very much i'm still seeing my my screen all black but i hope you are seeing me um i just wanted to say that one element that may help decision makers is the data i believe that for policymakers to appreciate the relevance of the topic we have been discussing today we know about it but we have to demonstrate also with the data disaggregated data that's one suggestion and the other one we have something so important it's an instrument that has been recognized by by the members of the united nations organization and i'm making reference here to the madrid international plan of action on aging so we have to ensure that the topic of digitalization is considered in the fourth review and appraisal of the plan which has identified the digital technologies as an emerging issue so that's another instrument international one at this point together with data can support maybe um improving policies vis-a-vis the topic we have been discussing today thank you thank you thank you very much uh miss bass for for this intervention so um i would like to take this opportunity to remind you that through this swiss forum 2022 special track on ict and older person even if it's now coming to a conclusion the conversation on the topic is not ending here so we'll have on 70th of may the celebration of the world telecommunication and information society day and i invite you to attend but also the ministerial dialogue on this topic that we will have on 30 may in the last week of wishes and we invite you of course everyone uh are here today to also join this celebration and before we formally conclude i would like now to invite each of our panelists to give us some let's say parting words what is in one word or one sentence that you would like us to take away from today dialogue and allow me please to begin with mr malcolm johnson malcolm please the floor is yours thank you roxanna and thank you all panelists for very very interesting presentations and exchanges uh so many interesting points have been made that we need to reflect on um but i think uh the point that um i would like to emphasize is the need for inclusivity um there was talk about and then the importance of universal design for example so in itu i introduced a checklist on accessibility just to be looked at at the start of any new work on a standard also we have to make sure that persons with disabilities participate in the development of these standards so inclusivity is very very important in all these discussions whether it's technical policy regulatory so this is why we're very very keen to encourage more elderly persons to join the discussion and it's been so nice to see so many uh like myself elderly persons joining the discussion uh this week and this is what we need to to further encourage thank you very much thank you mr johnson miss bass one word or one sentence on the takeaway um thank you very very much roxanna now i am a woman i'm going to be 61 in june and i happen to have a disability so allow me to use a motto that was created by persons with disabilities many years ago and now it has been adopted by youth and i think this applies also to older persons nothing about us without us thank you thank you very very much so now from mr varela and mr kangsterberg yes thank you we think uh improving well-being for all the people through technology as a tool we think technology is not an end it's a tool it's a mean and the final goal needs to be inclusion and prevent loneliness and we think that behind technology needs to be real people and to promote real experiences not only in the digital and technological world thank you very very much miss pearl 11 yes well i think that we all agree that icts are not a luxury but a fundamental tool to enable the full enjoyment of our human rights and a human rights-based approach is the only way the only way to ensure that technology is a means for inclusion rather than a tool for further stigma and in exclusion and governments will go a long way by adopting a human convention on the rights of older persons who will that will include specific recommendations and obligations regarding the access the access to new technologies by older persons thank you thank you very much mr harding my take away point is that every business on the planet should have an aging strategy they should have an energy aging strategy as part of their business growth development that will benefit themselves and people and secondly as you develop that aging strategy recognize that a relatively healthy active and engaged 79 year old might be a little different than a perhaps more unhealthy challenged 62 year old so in this demographic of a billion going to 2 billion people there's a lot of diversity and that's why the points about uh co-design and co-production are so critical thank you very much and finally anthony please the floor is yours sure so uh one of the things that i get uh i get pushed back a lot from businesses is that oh it's gonna cost it's gonna cost this is gonna cost that and i tell them over and over and again for universal design the only the only price you pay is the cost to change your mind and if anybody wants to know more about universal design they can check out the website universal.design
there's a fundamentals of the universal design course on there and you can learn all about it thank you very very much so with inclusivity and accessibility as a key word to continue our policies and strategies was keeping in mind nothing about us without us with ensuring that ict are widely used to ensure inclusion inclusion to all also that icts are a fundamental tool to ensure the human rights implementation and of course every business should have an aging strategy to benefit everyone and um of course i also have here the universal design cost is to change our minds so thank you very much to all of our extraordinary speakers and of course to our audience who join us today and throughout the whis forum 2022 special track on ict and older person we look forward to collaborative action during this year decade unhealthy aging including in our work to ensure that digital technologies are people-centered enabling everyone regardless of age gender or ability to be empowered and contribute to creating a world where all people can live long healthy happier lives and with meaning and dignity thank you very much and wish you all a great weekend thank you [Music] you
2022-05-21