The Potential For Elder-Friendly Skies

At the Gnomedex conference, I began my presentation with a small demonstration of what it’s like to use a computer while contending with normal, age-related sight and motor skills decline.

With homemade equipment, it didn’t go so well, but now there is a video with professional equipment to simulate old age. You’ve probably seen fat suits; now Boeing has an old age suit.

According to a report from Seattle’s KING Evening Magazine television program, Boeing is researching what airline travel is like for old people to help improve it in coming years for the burgeoning number of old travelers.

So they can do more than guess what difficulties elders run into, young people are given equipment to simulate macular degeneration, hearing decline and muscle deterioration. Some of what they are learning was reported from my own experience in a recent post here titled, Elders and the Unfriendly Skies, but they found other issues that I haven’t experienced. Yet.

Take a look at the video. It’s an eye-opener and it is not a stretch of the imagination to apply some of these lessons to computer use too.

Congratulations to Boeing with the hope that they will begin implementing changes to help old folks travel more easily - sooner rather than later.

[At The Elder Storytelling Place today, a first-hand account of the people who may or may not be protecting Osama bin Laden titled MEMOIR: My Pashtun Friend.]

Comments

[Paul @ Elders Tribune]

This is great to give the engineers some ideas of what to look for. But wouldn't it be better if they just ask/study real elders?

[Mage]

This little video was an eye opener. I do hope the experience altered some engineering thinking. Thanks for letting us view it.

[Nancy]

Thanks for the video. I am flying to Florida in 2 weeks. I haven't flown in two years since the incident I told you about when they took my husband's artificial leg away and didn't bring it back for ages.
He isn't going this time. It's a female reunion, so maybe the security won't affect me so much.
We'll see......

Ronni, thanks so much for this post and the earlier one on Unfriendly Skies. Having traveled by air several times this summer, I can sure identify with what you wrote about. I'm a perky 70 year old, too, so I can only imagine how difficult it must be for those who are less mobile than I am.

In Seattle in August, I was going through security and the woman in front of me, probably in her 50s, was in leg braces and using a walker. The poor woman reported her husband recently divorced her and she was adjusting to being totally responsible for herself. She took off her braces and had to hang on to things to get through security. No one seemed remotely helpful except one young man, but he was in a rush to catch a flight. By then the walker was going through the detectors and she ultimately hobbled through security and found a chair to sit in to get her braces back on. A TSA person told her that next time she should ask for "special treatment," but the woman replied that she had done it twice before and it ended up being a nightmare; she once missed a flight because they couldn't process her in a timely fashion.

I had been feeling older than the hills because I was carrying on a suitcase and my laptop and those ramps seemed endless. It was damned hard work, but I stopped feeling sorry for myself after speaking with her. Those business warriors and pushy people who need instant gratification aren't always that helpful. But some are. I always ask someone to put my carry-ons up for me in the overhead compartment and people are always kind when I ask.

I flew smaller planes this summer that did require two flights of portable stairs, but I'll admit that the Jet Blue crew in particular were extremely helpful. I love Jet Blue!

Then there is the airport shuttle from the outlying parking lots. I'm frugal by nature and park my car and do the airport shuttle when it will save me money. I can't get my own suitcases up in the bus anymore. Private shuttle drivers are usually very helpful because they know they will be tipped, I guess, but the LAX public shuttle drivers are not helpful at all.

Sometimes I take taxis to and from the airport (or bug someone to take me if I'm leaving/coming at a decent hour). Most taxi drivers are very helpful, but I had one really difficult man this summer who gave me attitude. I can't help but think it was age discrimination. I do tip well, but I got the distinct feeling from this guy that he thought the old lady was going to stiff him.

My two living sisters, both in their 80s, have stopped flying and/or traveling at all, even on the tour buses they used to love. It just takes too much energy, they say--and I always project and wonder what I'll be like when I get to be their age. Yet, I know other older people who bite the bullet and keep on traveling.

I am going to Greece and Turkey in late fall, with a tour company and I know a few of the people I am going with. I am assuming that the company will handle all the difficult things--thank God. I haven't been across the ocean since 1990.

No renting a car, for instance. I am sick and tired of driving all over heck and gone in places where I don't know where I am--all by myself. That's the downside of traveling alone and I'm divorced. Some people find driving fun; I do not. Now--if I were rich, drivers would take me everywhere. I have some really rich friends, with drivers and a few with private planes. Money passes hands and everything becomes very easy.

But, I also believe in the power of positive thinking--and feeling my fear and doing it anyway.

As long as I'm whining, however, one more thing. I used to bounce back to work the next morning after returning from travel. Now it takes me a few days to fully get my energy back.

But, hey, I woke up on the right side of the grass today and I do have the resources to travel. I imagine there are a lot of seniors who would travel if they could. Why does so much of life depend on money?

[travelinoma]

As an elder traveler I am grateful every trip that I don't have little kids. I watched one young mom carrying a crying baby, balancing a fully loaded stroller and yelling at her runaway toddler who was going down the escalator as she was going up. Every age has it's challenges, but I'm glad that when I finally plop into my seat I don't have to entertain anyone.

[Natalie Brierley]

It sounds like a good video - but there must be a secret to turning it on; a secret that I don't know.

[Darlene]

Natalie, I had the same trouble. I use Firefox and it won't open the plug in. Arrrrgh!

[Jean Browman--Cheerful Monk]

Great post.

About whether or not they should have just asked elders...I don't think that would have generated enough compassion. This is something the engineers had to experience for themselves.

[joared]

This is an excellent video and cudos for the companies who invested in this sensory experience for their engineers. They're definitely the ones who should be having this sort of simulation.

BTW, I have Firefox and didn't have any difficulty playing the video -- took a bit for the pictue to come up was all.

[Elaine of Kalilily]

There is nothing more effective in generating empathy than walking a mile in someone else's shoes. At my former workplace, I was on a task force to make the State Museum more accessible to people with disabilities. As we tried maneuvering through the exhibits in wheelchairs, we were able to actually experience where the problems were. I sure wish we had one of those "old suits" back then!