Home for a Lifetime

A friend recently pointed out an article about website accessibility to me. The author made an effort to send an e-mail to each website they encountered that wasn’t compatible with screen readers and then wrote a blog post detailing the responses received. The results were… well… depressing. Over the course of 7 days none of the 26 companies said “Oops, we’ll see what we can do fix it.”

For me, this was a reminder that for many companies, accessibility is an afterthought. When setting up their business they don’t ask themselves if they’re reaching the widest possible customer base by including people with disabilities. They’re not thinking about diversity. They’re thinking about math; specifically the kind of formula that gets them the most by doing the least.

What they forget to consider is that accessibility can increase the numbers in those formulas. When your place of business isn’t accessible you lose more than 1 person’s business. You lose them, the family members they might bring with them and any friends they might recommend you to. This applies to businesses in cyber space as well as in the real world. If people with vision impairments can’t use your site, they’re not going to order from you or recommend your site to anyone.

So, even if none of those 26 businesses took the hint, I think it’s important that someone complained. But one person sending 26 e-mails to different companies isn’t going to cut it. I think it’s going to take more than that. If you come across a website or a place of business that isn’t accessible – take a minute to let them know. And if you don’t like the reply you get, write a review of the company online. Let other people know. If the company is a local business, get friends and family in on the action. Let businesses know just how many people are affected when they skimp on accessibility.

As the webmaster here at Dynamic Living Inc, I read a number of marketing newsletters throughout the week. Recently I received an e-mail with an article entitled “5 Myths About The Youth Market“. When I was done reading the article my first thought was “Do we really need to tell people this?” And then it occurred to me that yes, maybe we do. I’m sure that there are a TON of companies out there who are stuck in their ways and need a push in the right direction. But what about boomers and seniors? Where is the list dispelling the myths that about marketing to them?

For instance, let’s take the myth that only young whipper snappers shop online. I don’t have any studies to quote, but I have plenty of anecdotal evidence to share proving that plenty of seniors are in fact using the Internet. Or more specifically, the people in our warehouse are kept busy shipping out that evidence every day.

And yes, sometimes people call us because they’re not comfortable putting payment information into the site, but I find people who have experienced identity theft already are just as likely to call as someone new to Internet shopping. And I can assure you that it isn’t age that makes them relieved to have a real person and not a recording answering the phone. That’s a universal truth.

I’ve also heard a number of people say that social networking is only for teens. Well, I don’t need the Pew Research Center’s report to tell me that older adults have started using Facebook and Twitter more. The number of my friends that complain about their parents bugging them online was my first indicator. (I don’t complain, I like that I can leave messages for my mom on her Facebook wall. It’s convenient… Hi Mom!) My grandparents aren’t quite ready to take the plunge, but I know other people’s grandparents are already on there.

And while we’re at it, let’s discuss the myth that older people don’t know how to use computers. This is a really silly stereotype because the people who made home computers possible are probably in their 50′s or older. Home computers were in production in the late 1970′s and Bill Gates (who is 55 years old as I write this) introduced Windows in 1985. I don’t think computer literacy is dictated by age, it’s based on interest and experience.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are people of all ages that live up to the stereotypes, but it’s not fair to judge anyone based on simply their age. Don’t assume that your 10 year old can program your DVD player just because they’re 10. Don’t assume a 90 year old isn’t interested in Twitter just because they’re 90. And don’t assume you can’t do something because of how old you are. Who cares what anyone says, just get out there and try.

My previous two blogs briefly covered the way Smart Phones can be changing the way healthcare is delivered. But there’s much much more to Digital Healthcare. There are opportunities for communication between providers and insurance companies that can streamline the way work flows between doctors, agencies, hospitals and insurance companies, reducing data entry and preventing errors.

• Electronic Health Records (EHR) have been talked about a lot over the last few years, but have not yet materialized to reach their potential. A few benefits include:
  • You don’t have to fill out the same patient history for each of your doctors, potentially leaving out important information.
  • Your insurance company, keeping the most accurate records on file, will become an important resource for doctors who want to understand what has preceded their treatment. Information from one specialist can inform a completely different specialist. This is especially important in emergencies when you may not be seeing your regular physician.
  • Your treatment, successful or not, may (without your personal information) become important statistical information about what works and what doesn’t.
  • Your EHR can include an accurate listing of all your medications. When inquired by a pharmacist, drug interactions can be caught before there are problems.

  A lot of industries have benefited from this kind of reduction in data entry. When you are able to organize a lot of data in the same way, there are common functions, like billing and record keeping that become cleaner and easier to manage. Even errors in the data can be fixed faster if they’re not populated in hundreds of places. It doesn’t take long before clever people find ways to make use of the data, allowing for opportunities that never existed before.

• Everyone knows about the miserable handwriting that most doctor’s suffer from (I swear they take a class on writing illegibly!) At the conference, Walgreens described their push to encourage doctors to prescribing digitally. E-prescribing cuts down on prescriptions that can’t be read, increasing accuracy and decreasing the time spent check up on “Did you really mean…?” calls to the doctor’s office. It also won’t be long before the pharmacist can integrate the E-precription into the insurance carrier’s database, reducing the cost of distributing the drugs.
• One more use for the amazing technology we now have at our fingertips; education and on-the-spot training. The Army is using smart phones as ‘Hip Pocket Training’ It reminds me of the movie “The Matrix,” where the characters are plugged in and data is downloaded into their brain so that they can fly a helicopter or use a particular weapon. In the health arena, medical information is only a few clicks away so that soldiers can receive immediate first aid in the field that could save a limb or a life. Remotely located doctors can help walk a non-medical person, with accompanying video through simple procedures, just like they do in the movies.

The Healthcare industry is ripe for change. Everyone is clamoring for it. Electronic Healthcare Records are one way to reduce costs while improving the care we receive.

Read Part 2 of this series: My Cell Phone Cares About My Health