Be sure to notice the comment from the man at the community-based computer
program.  He says that he can't provide accommodations such as screen
magnification software because he cannot locate grants or additional
funding.  The fact is that under the Americans with Disabilities Act he
must provide access from his existing budget.  Computer accessibility
should have been part of the initial planning of the center and purchase
decisions of software and hardware.

kelly


THE SENIOR CLASS: Growing numbers of older people surf theNet but encounter
their own set of problems in going online
( The Dallas Morning News )
March 16, 1999

The computer solitaire lesson had gone well, and instructor Jean- Paul
Peretz was winding up his last lecture of the course when a tiny voice of
protest leapt from behind a huge monitor.



"Jean-Paul, we don't want to play games," grouses 64-year-old Bernice
Campbell. "That's for the grandchildren. We want to get out there and find
travel bargains. We want to plan our trips, write letters to people. Just
when do we get to that, anyway?"



Another course, another time, Mr. Peretz says with a smile. But Mrs.
Campbell had made her point. She and the rest of her class of older people
assembled at the Treemont Retirement Community's Lifelong Learning Center
are champing at the bit. They've heard about this Internet stuff long enough.



"My grandchildren say, 'Grandma, you better get with it!' " says Mrs.
Campbell. "That's just what I'm trying to do."



With classes such as those at Southern Methodist University's SeniorNet and
the Lifelong Learning Center in North Dallas, growing numbers of seniors
are striving to master modern computer basics.



Although they must overcome barriers that sometimes make learning
difficult, senior citizens say their needs are real and their drive is
strong.



"Once they catch on, it's like a big light that goes off in their heads,"
says Mr. Peretz, president of the Lifelong Learning Center.



Health professionals say simple e-mail contact with others can dramatically
overcome feelings of isolation and loneliness. Senior chat rooms are
booming. There are reports of marriages and all manner of newfangled
compu-mingling.



A recent Microsoft study proclaims seniors "one of the fastest- growing
groups of users on the Web." Those few institutions specializing in
computer education for seniors are reporting rapidly swelling numbers of
eager applicants.



But today, in the midst of the Department of Labor's Older Workers Week,
many computer professionals still find a gaping need for computer education
of older Americans.



"When we began looking at 'digital divide' and at different groups around
the world, one of the things that came up very quickly was the lack of
participation by seniors," says Craig Spiezle, director of the Microsoft
Senior Initiative, the company's group devoted to the issues of older people.



Usage decline



As age increases, PC ownership and usage drastically fall away, Microsoft
found in a survey last year of 600 adults. As a result, the very people who
could benefit the most from the Internet communications revolution are
being left behind.



The Microsoft survey found that 37 percent of those in their 50s owned and
used computers, about the same as for 40-somethings. From there, computer
ownership dropped steadily with age. Only 4 percent of those in their 80s
had a PC.



"People a lot of times don't even know what they can do with a computer,"
says Mr. Peretz, a former software designer who regularly conducts free
computer orientation lectures for seniors. "That's where it starts
clicking: 'Oh, I can shop! I can travel!'"



Of course, other factors play into the statistics.



Eyesight often diminishes as people age, making computer navigation all but
impossible. Mr. Peretz says expensive equipment - Braille printers and huge
monitors, for instance - can help but says he knows of no outside source of
funding to help his center get it.



Arthritic hands often struggle to control computer mouses. At his classes,
Mr. Peretz keeps a huge track ball handy for them.



Many seniors, too, aren't mobile enough to attend classes such as those
conducted at SMU by SeniorNet, a nonprofit organization that has
established more than 140 computer learning centers with cash, software and
equipment from firms including Microsoft.



Mary Margaret Clark, a 61-year-old computer learning center assistant at
SeniorNet in San Francisco, says each center she helps open reinforces her
opinion that seniors are ready for more.



"There are always a lot of questions, there's a great deal of excitement
and usually way too many students," Ms. Clark says. But organizers are hard
to come by, she says.



In Texas, SeniorNet has opened centers in Dallas, Austin and Nacogdoches.
With assistance from local sponsors such Southwestern Bell and Texas
Instruments, Plano and Fort Worth learning centers are scheduled to open in
April.



But none exists in Houston - the largest city in the state and No. 4 in the
nation - because neither an appropriate facility nor an able leader has
been found.



For seniors fortunate enough to have computers and mobility, the technology
sometimes proves daunting, and getting help can be difficult.



Charles and Kathy Fink of North Dallas, for example, were one of the first
couples among their acquaintances to adapt to a digital lifestyle. Their
home near Brookhaven Country Club is testament to an intense interest in
electronics.



In one bedroom, Ms. Fink, 67, has set up shop with her 233 MHz Presario PC,
radios and television. There, she works on her "great American novel,"
dabbles at free-lance journalism and has created a wedding "gift book" now
being considered by a publisher. She also edits her church newsletter using
a CD-ROM of biblical scripture and other electronic tools.



Nearby, Mr. Fink, 70, labors in his own office on his newest acquisition, a
$2,000 Gateway 400 MHz machine. He's trying to tame it for a variety of
uses, including video conferencing with their son, Larry, in Seattle.



Ms. Fink had some work experience with word-processing and says she's
content with that function and her Presario.



"Most of our friends are well-enough acquainted with computers now from
their children and whatever, so it's not like outer space that we have
these machines," she says. "But it does kind of put us in a different
category with them."



Technical difficulties



Mr. Fink owned Apple computers in the 1970s.



"I had a lot of friends back then I could talk to," Mr. Fink says. "But
when I got into the PC end of the business, I couldn't find anybody" with a
computer.



"None of our friends did," he says. "Some said they never would own one."



Without counterparts with whom to share computer experience, Mr. and Mrs.
Fink have suffered through long, confusing, expensive lessons in
purchasing, use and repair.



A former industrial customer-service executive, Mr. Fink is disabled with
back problems and recurrent headaches. When equipment acts up, he finds
that help desks and service personnel don't have time to explain everything
to his satisfaction. And taking a machine in for service is getting harder,
both physically and mentally.



Mr. Fink has encountered major system errors in each of seven brands of
computers he has tried. A look at his Windows 98 desktop provides hints to
the cause.



The system task bar is brimming with more than a dozen programs the machine
vainly attempts to launch simultaneously at each start- up. Shattered
shortcuts litter the rest of the visible screen.



"I've never really had anyone who gave me any pointers," he says. "I've had
to learn everything myself."



For Mr. Fink and many of his contemporaries, a machine designed to perform
a function had darn well better or it's going back for a refund. With
modern electronics, that's not a policy always embraced by retailers.



"I wanted to get a dependable computer - one that would work day in and day
out," he says. In his hands is a sheaf of screen shots from his various
computers, each illustrating the alarming Windows system error messages he
repeatedly encounters.



"I would expect any computer to give you occasional errors. Even a car will
give you trouble now and then. But not 10 times in one day.



"You have to pick yourself up off the ceiling sometimes."



Frustrated, Mr. Fink has returned several computers after less than two
weeks. Service people have evidently grown leery of him and weary of his
complaints. One paid him full value with a check just to get the computer
away from him.



"Another fellow said they'd spent over 500 hours with me trying to satisfy
me with this other machine," Mr. Fink says. "I had to go to Denton to get
another like it. They wouldn't sell me another."



He's also had mobile service companies sell him expensive motherboards for
brand new machines and tell him things were broken that he knew were fine.



At the same time, the Finks have experienced incredible exhilaration from
mastering e-mail and Internet surfing. A video camera installed in Mr.
Fink's computer once even allowed a connection with Larry.



"It was neat to see the grandkids," Ms. Fink says. "That was the first time
we've seen them in over a year. To see them like that was just something
else."



Says Mr. Fink: "I got it working once, and I couldn't believe it. People
all over the world have these little cameras like this. You find them out
there. I mean, I tried to talk to this one guy in Australia one time. But
it hasn't worked regularly, and I just haven' t been able to find somebody
I can talk to."



Computer and Internet companies see tremendous potential in the Finks and
people like them. Seniors possess vast reservoirs of untapped capital. Once
comfortable with the medium, seniors have proved adept shoppers and
bargain-seekers.



They are intensely interested in services such as estate planning,
genealogical research, health information, financial transactions and stock
trading. Many control family fortunes.



Convenience factor



"If you took the proportions of people shopping online, I'd bet you seniors
are a big part of it simply because of the convenience, " says Mr. Peretz
of the Lifelong Learning Center. "The boom of online e-commerce will really
be fueled as more and more seniors have access to the Internet."



The new technology's ability to reduce or eliminate travel for transactions
and goods makes it a natural match with the age group. Given just a little
tutoring, many older Americans such as the Finks could remain useful
members of the workforce with computers at their sides.



In fact, hope of securing employment is the No. 1 reason given by seniors
in the Microsoft survey for purchasing computers in the first place.



"These seniors state the benefits of socialization, making a contribution
and feeling needed - as well as the opportunity to be around and mentor
younger people - as key factors inspiring them to work," the study says.



E-mail, the Internet's killer app, has proved a key motivator for computing
in the golden years. Cy and Ethel Gaiser of Dallas say a computer purchase
was becoming unavoidable.



"So many of our friends are always talking about their e-mail, " Ms. Gaiser
says. "We wanted to be up with the group. I figure it' s not just the
coming thing; it is the thing."



Adds Mr. Gaiser, 80: "I've got a friend who has all his banking operations
on his. It looks like a very good way of keeping track of things. I haven't
gotten that far. But we can talk back and forth pretty well with that
e-mail operation. It's great to keep up with our son in California."



But the overwhelming majority of seniors, says Mr. Spiezle of Microsoft,
can't see any advantage to an electronic lifestyle.



"My father was like most," he says. "I bought him a computer, and he kept
saying, 'I don't have a need.' He was a very successful architect and
engineer. And I was able to find a picture of a building he designed up on
the Web. That was the silver bullet for him. All of a sudden, he wanted to
know more - 'What else can we find?'"



After that, Mr. Spiezle's father quickly migrated to e-mail and beyond.



"When they invented radio, it took 38 years to gather 50 million users,"
Mr. Spiezle says. "For TV, it took only 14 years to reach the same level
when people were saying, 'I don't need television; I have a radio.'



"In only four years, the Internet has made it that far, and people are
still saying, 'I don't have a need.' In seniors, that initial reaction is
enhanced by a high level of intimidation by the technology."



Change in the air



Some things may be changing.



Companies such as Symantec are providing donations of software designed to
avoid many of the technical problems that routinely annoy elderly users.
SeniorNet, for example, receives free copies of Symantec' s
NortonSystemWorks for its volunteers and learning centers.



The newest Windows and Apple operating systems have been imbued with
numerous setup options that can help customize desktops for seniors'
specific needs. Microsoft reaffirmed its long association with SeniorNet
last fall by donating more than $1 million in cash, software and equipment.



As for Mr. Fink and his computer woes, a computer professional recently
volunteered to help clear up the operating system problems that have driven
both him and his PC "nearly batty."



"They ought to have some way of explaining their products better, seems to
me," he says. "I don't think many of these companies are going to be around
very long if they don't get better at that."



PHOTO(S): (1-2 The Dallas Morning News: Evans Calage) 1.
A Senior using a computer. 2. Instructor Jean-Paul Peretz of the



Lifelong Learning Center at Treemont Retirement Center helps Kay



Beges learn to operate a computer. He specializes in computer



classes seniors. CHART(S): (SOURCE: Dallas Motning News research)



Resources For Seniors.


(C)1999 The Dallas Morning News All Rights Reserved

Doug Bedell / Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News, THE SENIOR CLASS:
Growing numbers of older people surf theNet but encounter their own set of
problems in going online., The Dallas Morning News, 03-16-1999, pp 1F.


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