Digital literacy for older people is a key policy area for Age Action and we have campaigned for increased supports from Government to enable more older people in Ireland to access the benefits of getting online.
We already know that there is a high demand for digital literacy training amongst older people in Ireland from our experience in delivering our Getting Started over the last 14 years, which successfully trains over 3,000 over 55s annually in basic digital literacy skills through face-to-face, one-to-one training.
We also see that once older people can access supports to remove the barriers to gaining digital literacy, such as being anxious about trying to learn to use the internet, lacking confidence and having a fear of failure, having a negative experience of traditional formal education and ageism, they can achieve amazing results and every year our Silver Surfer Awards highlight their achievements online (https://www.ageaction.ie/about-us/age-action-silver-surfer-awards).
One of Age Action’s Silver Surfer award winners, Margaret Byrne, maintains a craft blog, provides online tutorials, and shares knitting patterns online, as well as co-founding an online support group for survivors of mesh implant complications, and actively campaigning on the issue
Tautan