Habits of the Elderly Regarding Access to the New Information and Communication Technologies

Abstract

The Humanities-498 research group from the University of Almeria created the European project entitled: “Improving Digital Skills of European Citizens Seniors and Disabled: a Work Program. DSSD: Digital Skills for Seniors and Disabled” in collaboration with six other countries: Holland, Hungary, Greece, Italy, the Slovak Republic and Romania. The purpose of this article is to describe the basic ICT skills of elderly individuals from different social involvement centres in Almería. A transversal, descriptive study using a sample of 322 elderly individuals in Spain. Their socio-demographic characteristics are described and a questionnaire was used to determine their basic ICTS skills. 57.4% of the participants were female; the mean age was 72 and 36.6% had some sort of disability. Results were presented in terms of their knowledge of information systems (hardware and networks, software); operating systems; Internet searches and information selection; inter-personal communication and collaborative work in networks: Internet, mobile phones; image treatment; expression / multi-media creation; creation of statistics calculations and graphics, among other topics. This data may serve as the basis for the design and experimentation of an educational program, based on a green practice model, with the participation of elderly individuals, distinct experts and leaders in social policy.