Institut Arbeit und Technik Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Institut Arbeit und Technik Wissenschaftszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie The situation  Older people are newly-discovered as an economic factor and the relevancy of ICTs for elderly people is an important topic for the government.  But in spite of many awareness rising campaigns and projects the market of potential "Senior Citizens" is yet not realised in an adequate manner. 30% of the German unemployed and 50% of the long-term ones are older than 50.  Furthermore most of the projects aim at accelerating the access to the Internet for older and disabled people, whilst other ICT-based applications are discussed to a lesser extend. Germany

Institut Arbeit und Technik Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Institut Arbeit und Technik Wissenschaftszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie  Policy on supporting all citizens to take an active part in economical and social life:. the "Nationaler Aktionsplan zur Bekämpfung von Armut und sozialer Ausgrenzung " ("National action plan on fighting against poverty and social exclusion ")  The German "Bundesanstalt für Arbeit" ("Public Employment Office") has implemented a working group for elderly employees. This working group deals with image upgrading and further education to make elderly people interesting for the labour market.  A lot of education training courses concern ICT in order to compromise elderly people at a growing labour market.  Instead of early retirement from the labour market, the primary objectives of labour market policy measures should include in future increased employment of this group of persons, prophylactic prevention of unemployment and reinsertion of those who are already unemployed.  A central element in improving the employment opportunities of older workers is to involve this age group more intensively in further training in companies. The partners in the alliance agree that further training in companies is a primary task of undertakings and of workers themselves. Some actions for supporting elderly people:

Institut Arbeit und Technik Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Institut Arbeit und Technik Wissenschaftszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie Legislation: with regard to older people the majority of the legislations are integrated into the general Social Code, unless they are special regulations concerning care. The ICT use:  Constructional equipment, means of transportation, technical objects of utility, systems for information diffusion, accoustical and visual information sources and communication institutions have to be created without barriers.  The Federal Government is working towards the creation of websites suitable for disabled people by commercial suppliers as well.

Institut Arbeit und Technik Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Institut Arbeit und Technik Wissenschaftszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie  "Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Seniorenorganisationen" BAGSO representing first of all older people organisations. The BAGSO stands up for the interests of older people in Germany and the main focus is on creating basic conditions to guarantee older people a self-determined way of life. In total, 78 associations, organisations and initiatives are consolidated in the BAGSO and altogether more than 10 million older people living in Germany are represented by the associations combined in the BAGSO.  One special party dealing with the interests of older people called "Graue Panther".  Every large party in Germany has got a special working group for older people. These are, just to mention a few examples, "60plus" of the SPD or "Senioren-Union of the CDU. All these working groups are mostly members of the BAGSO. The main objective of "60plus" is to represent older people both inside and outside the SPD. Some German associations representing the special interests of older and disabled people:

Institut Arbeit und Technik Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Institut Arbeit und Technik Wissenschaftszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie

Institut Arbeit und Technik Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Institut Arbeit und Technik Wissenschaftszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie Some German stimulation programmes and projects at the various policy levels:  Within the project " Man- Technology- Interaction in the Information Society" the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) together with the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology (BMWI) support R&D projects with the objective of developing interdisciplinary systems solutions for user-friendly technologies.  Project "MORPHA - Intelligente Anthropomorphe Assistenzsysteme' aims to develop components and systems for communication, interaction and co-operation through intelligent mechatronic systems. Amongst other things the systems are tested in scenarios 'robot assistent" in household and care.

Institut Arbeit und Technik Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Institut Arbeit und Technik Wissenschaftszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie  The Berliner Institut für Sozialforschung (BIS) is realizing different R&D projects regarding "elderly people and ICT", but mostly on local or regional level: 1."Seniors on to the network": Project together with the T-Berkom within the framework of the initiative ' Fit into the information society'; 2.Assessing the Application of the 'Design for All' Approach; 3."Technology and living for elderly people"; 4."Smart Home for elderly and disabled people"

Institut Arbeit und Technik Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Institut Arbeit und Technik Wissenschaftszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie  Furthermore the Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF is running a programme within the framework of the nursing care insurance (Pflegeversicherung) called "Model-program to improve the supply of people with need of care" The main objective of this programme is to realize forward-looking ideas in the German insurance system and in our opinion there are possibilities for the implementation of new technologies in the care system. Main emphasis lies on the development of fundamentals dealing with the provision of people who are in need of care.  The project "Integrated domestic technique for elderly and disabled people" within the framework of the EU- research programme TIDE is undertaken by the "Fraunhofer Institut Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation".

Institut Arbeit und Technik Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Institut Arbeit und Technik Wissenschaftszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie A range of projects regarding older people and ICT were launched in the last years and brought a lot of interesting results. Moreover, it was the special merit of ICT–projects for older people, that the topic became more and more interesting for representatives in the social and political field. They had to realise that old people are interested in ICT-application and that they can really have a benefit using it. The project-time was over before really sufficient solutions were found and the practice implementation could not be supported anymore by those, which had the experiences. Beside adequate project duration times, there often is a need to implement applied projects in a larger scale, to test the use of ICT also within networks of older people.