Developing Technologies for the Elderly: To Whom Are We Really Developing?

The increasing number of older adults worldwide boosted the proposal of applications specifically targeting their needs. While the elderly serve as the target audience, this article argues that in many cases they are being treated as any other age group, disregarding their unique characteristics and expectations, which might eventually result in applications that, despite being used by the elderly, are adapted applications to cope with their disabilities, instead of approaches that leverage their abilities and views. As a first step of this discussion, this article aims to show how, in different stages of design and development, we are jump-starting the whole process putting our own assumptions and views where those of the elderly should be.