Age and gender in gerontechnology development: Emphasizing the need for an intersectional approach

BACKGROUND: The challenges of the digital divide emerge with new technologies being created to address the needs of the increasing older population. This divide is influenced by the social dimensions of age and gender, often resulting in impaired participation of the affected demographic groups. Gerontechnological designs in which inadequate attention is paid to gender and old age easily run the risk of reproducing gender-specific and age-specific stereotypes. An approach to counteracting the digital exclusion of technology users is the introduction of co-creative methods of participatory design (PD). As there are diverse challenges when putting these methods into practice regarding their claim to be more socially inclusive and democratizing technology development, it is necessary to investigate the effect that age and gender could play when considering PD in gerontechnology. OBJECTIVE: This article aims to shed light on the intersection of age and gender as dimensions of horizontal inequalities in gerontechnology development to support the further development of co-creation practices. CONCLUSION: The PD approaches can be regarded as suitable methodologies to descript age and gender in technology development as long as they are enhanced by a critical awareness of gendered and ageist patterns in society and technology development. The intersectional approach can contribute to further understanding of how current gerontechnology development practices promote the reinforcement and challenging of dominant discourses on old age and gender.