Gray matters: where are the technical communicators in research and design for aging audiences?

Author

Lippincott, Gail

Volume

47

Issue

3

fYear

2004

Firstpage

157

Lastpage

170

Abstract

The population of older adults is growing rapidly worldwide, but technical communicators have not accounted for the needs of these audiences nor drawn from the wide range of research on aging. This article suggests four challenges practitioners, educators, and researchers must undertake to accommodate older adults´ physical, cognitive, and emotional needs: refine the demographic variable of age, operationalize age to enrich current methods of audience analysis, investigate multidisciplinary sources of aging research, and participate in research on aging by offering our expertise in document design and communication strategies.

Keywords

demography; gender issues; professional communication; socio-economic effects; accessibility; aging audience; communication strategy; disability; document design; gerontechnology; older adult population; technical communicator; usability; Aging; Cultural differences; Demography; Economic forecasting; Gerontechnology; Global communication; Government; Internet; Senior citizens; Usability; Accessibility; disability; document design; gerontechnology; older adult; usability;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Professional Communication, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0361-1434

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPC.2004.833687

Filename

1331588