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Designing for the Life Span Segment 4

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Slide 16 of 78

[D]

Slide 16 Content

The Independent Elderly Living with Disabilities... There is a strong relationship between older Americans in the lower socio/economic segments of society and the frequency of disabilities. When these older people require changes in their environment and assistive technology to meet their needs, they acquire through barter and benevolence. As a market, these Americans are the hardest segment to reach through consumerism.

• Human Factors: Moderate to significant disability, problems with activities of daily living, chronicity, many in the population requiring assistance.
• Population: 15% of the middle-old to the oldest in the cohort groups of older Americans, independent home owners, low level of personal mobility but users of automobiles.
• Manufacturing: Self-help, use of the barter system for goods and services from a network of friends and relatives.
• Marketing/Distribution: Home medical equipment dealerships, specialty catalogs serving the needs of people with disabilities (Sears/J.C. Penny's), occupational therapists, other formal and informal caregivers, purchases made from specialty catalogs and small goods outlets, also acquire purchases through subsidized state and non-profit agencies.

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Not every group of people that can be described as having characteristics in common can also be described as a market. For a sizeable group of older adults - 12 to 15% - their characteristics don't really make them a market in the traditional sense of consumerism. This group may have a higher degree of disability - but they are remaining independent. They are less likely to have the discretionary income of other groups of older adults, but they are likely to be living in an aging house that they own and they are likely to be living alone.

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