One
profound change that has been observed in India during recent years
is the gaining popularity of smart phones. According to a survey
carried out by Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights ( an alliance
between Nielsen Holdings N.V. and Informate Mobile Intelligence.) in
2012, there were 27 million Smart phone users in Urban India,
constituting 9 percent of all mobile users in urban India that year.
It is expected that this percentage would change radically within a
span of just one year.
Mary
Meeker, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and
a former Internet analyst estimates in her latest report released in
May 2013 that India will have 67 million smartphone subscribers by
the end of 2013, recording a 52% growth Year on Year. However, total
number of mobile subscribers have been increasing so rapidly that
even with this growth rate, smart phones will account for only 6% of
the total subscribers.
Out of
this huge smart phone subscriber base, almost 90% people, use the
phone for social networking with Apps like Facebook, Twitter and
Whatsapp. As expected, the 18-24 age group has the highest incidence
of smartphone users. But that does not mean that others do not use
it. A huge number of Senior citizens including Senior ladies now use
smart phones for making phone calls and for social networking.
China
would have the highest number of smartphone subscribers by end 2013
with an estimated 354 million subscribers, recording a 31% Year on
Year growth and 29% penetration rate. Globally, there are an
estimated 1.49 billion smart phone subscribers as of 2013, recording
a 31% Year on Year growth and a 21% penetration rate.
One
salient fact, missed by many is that a large number of people have
been introduced to internet only through smart phones. These people
probably would have never accessed internet if there were no smart
phones. Senior citizens probably constitute the largest part of such
people. I know many seniors, who were always afraid of touching a
computer but now access the internet with least effort, because of
the ease with which a smartphone can be handled.
All
this is fine, but I have two basic questions: is the Internet ready
for a generation of elderly netizens? Do these senior citizens with
their visual, auditory, mental or physical impairments, find using
internet an easy task or they fumble? Unfortunately answers to both
these questions are simple 'No.' Internet is becoming more and more
central to social integration and basic tasks like banking, shopping
and interfacing with Government agencies, therefore the problem of
web accessibility for the seniors, is becoming a major issue.
Even
when operating computers and tablets, which have essentially much
bigger screens, elders face many difficulties. Many elderly people,
have poor vision and require larger font sizes and stronger contrast
between text and background colors. Others have difficulty in
operating a mouse, and require sites that allow them to navigate
through their keyboard. The on screen key boards are usually a
nightmare as seniors do not have nimble fingers.
With
smart phones, the problems of accessibility become very acute. I can
say from my own experience, that even though I have used a computer
key board for last 15 to 20 years, I find typing a user name and a
password on a smart phone screen with on screen keyboard a very
challenging task, leave aside typing an e mail. I just can not do it.
Some may think that this accessibility issue may not be as serious
as being projected. I found some data about Hong Kong. In this city
of 7 Million people, there are roughly a million elderly people and
300,000 people living with disabilities. Not only that, by 2050, one
in four people in entire Asia-Pacific will be 60 years or older,
leave aside only Hong Kong.
Obviously,
web accessibility is bound to become an important problem of the
future. This problem can be further divided into two aspects. First
aspect is about the design of the Phone itself. The display, icon
sizes, operating buttons, size of on board keys and ease with which
this phone can be connected to a charger become all important. The
second aspect of the problem is about the web site design. Web sites
are becoming increasingly complex. Simple tasks like paying your
electricity or credit card bill involves many steps, which many
seniors find back breaking. There are issues with pop up
advertisements, inability to remove photographs and videos.
Some
Governments have been taking steps to make web more accessible.
Singapore government has adopted the World Wide Web Consortium’s
Web Content Accessibility guidelines as a standard. However a survey
has found that just 5% of Singapore’s top 100 met the guidelines
for inclusion on their websites. Companies have a legal
responsibility in Hong Kong under the Disability Discrimination
Ordinance to ensure that their services are available to everyone,
which includes information and services provided through websites.
Unfortunately
no such rules or regulations exist (at least to my knowledge) in
India and every web site is free to do what it feels best. Government
has made it mandatory that Income tax returns to be filed on-line,
above an income baseline of five hundred thousand Rupees. However,
the web sites can hardly be considered as conducive for the task.
With a
rapid increase in number of senior people accessing the internet for
tasks that are of essential nature, it is high time that some kind of
order is brought in and all web sites as well as web apps are made to
offer, mandatory options, by which a simple version would become
available for seniors that can be easily operated by Senior citizens.
5th
August 2013
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