In a report published on Wednesday 13 September, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) expresses its concern about respect for the rights of the elderly at a time when an increasing number of public services are available online.
Risk of digital exclusion
The FRA notes that only 1 in 4 people aged 65 to 74 in the EU have basic digital skills. They “may be deprived of their fundamental rights, such as access to healthcare or pensions, in our digital societies”, she laments.
All the more so because, according to the Agency, the risk of “digital exclusion” is not always taken into account in the legislation of EU countries. Only four Member States (Denmark, Slovenia, Spain and Greece) have provisions to protect the right of older people to access public services online. Only nine of them explicitly recognise the importance of maintaining offline alternatives (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal).
Combating ageism
To remedy the situation, the FRA is calling on all EU countries to “provide explicit legal protections at national level to safeguard older persons’ equal access to public services that are undergoing digitalisation”.
It also encourages them to combat discrimination against older people (‘ageism’), in particular by involving them in the development of digital tools. Not only will this change the image of ‘seniors’, who are reputed to have limited computer skills, but it will also reduce the “barriers” to their use of these tools, it explains.
It also calls on the Member States to develop digital training for all ages... while specifying that “public administrations should always provide other access channels [to public services] for those citizens who cannot, or do not want to, acquire these skills”.
Finally, the Agency points to information gaps, particularly concerning the over 74s, and suggests reviewing the ways in which data is collected on this subject.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/8qd (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)