Digital inclusion for the elderly

The fundamental aim of this research is to describe the propensity of elderly people to adopt technology, in relation to their perception of digital inclusion. Various theoretical approaches have sought to explain the process of acceptance and adoption of technologies by individuals. These include the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Technology Readiness Index (TRI), the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and a recent approach, the Technology Adoption Propensity Index (TAPI), which contributes to analysing the empirical evidence in this study. The descriptive-qualitative field research used 16 interviews with elderly people aged between 61 and 76, whose content analysis with a priori and a posteriori categorisation was carried out in an effort to triangulate researchers. The results made it possible to conclude that the propensity to adopt ICTs includes inhibiting factors - dependence, vulnerability and perception of inadequacy - to a slightly greater extent than contributing factors - optimism, proficiency and perception of need. However, the elderly perceive themselves to be digitally included today.