On 2024-01-15 11:01, Don Tai via talk wrote:
The ostracization of the non-tech in society was quite evident at the
start of the pandemic, and then it got even worse. The elderly at my
gym could not book immunization appointments for pharmacies because
they refused to book over the phone and told people to book
exclusively through the web site. They were forced to go to city
sites, which were much further away and inconvenient, where at least
the City of Toronto had a phone number.
Further, during the pandemic the City of Toronto opened up workout
gyms to those that need medical physiotherapy (doctor's note
required), but to go you needed to book an appointment time
slot..online..or call the city. This turned out to be quite a task for
the elderly.
Grocery fliers are now not being delivered in my area of Scarborough.
Retailers are pushing people to go online, but the elderly cannot
handle a computer much less navigating an online flyer. Therefore the
elderly do not know when certain items go on sale. Specifically
NoFrills made a change where if there was a flyer printed, it was an
abbreviated version of the online flyer, so even the elderly did get
to see a printed flyer, they were unable to see all the sales.
There are a lot of elderly, and with each year this will accelerate,
but it seems the ostracization has not been noticed. We must
accommodate for such a large and vulnerable chunk of our society.
Their cases are certainly not corner use cases.
I get your point and as a senior myself I see a huge part my generation
and older that never had to deal with computers and just don't get the
technology.
That being said my 95yo mother-in-law has a computer and has all her
bills e-mailed to her.
She is starting to have memory and comprehension problems but when she
gets to the point where she cannot deal with her computer she may not be
able to deal with phone based services at that point either.
She grew up in a home with no phone and the idea of a phone in every
home is a idea that is much less than 100 years old.
We get use to a technology and forget that some time ago that was a new
technology that people were having problems with.
Ostracization is a bit of an exaggeration.
It is more an issue of lack of understanding or caring.
All these services are now being managed and developed by people who are
largely between 20 and 50.
They assume that everybody is like them with the cell phone attached and
can only be surgically removed.
Also remember phone services that are not just a fancy IVR require
people to answer phone lines and a place for them to be setting when
they are answering those lines.
Where do you put those people and phones and computers when your in a
lockdown situation.
A web site is likely the best that can be done in the time-frame with
the resources available.
Fliers... Now there is something I hate.
Any we get goes directly in to the recycling in and the same is true of
my mother-in-law.
Its just killing trees for little return.
They also cost the retailers a significant amount of cash that is going
directly into the recycling bin.
Although they are not a recent thing the volume of "hate mail" has gone
up since the postal service decided that it could make money delivering
the stuff.
So the volume has been around for a long time and we have come to
consider it as "normal".
--
Alvin Starr || land: (647)478-6285
Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133
al...@netvel.net ||
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