We are living in a unique period. Never before in the history of our planet has the world contained so many older people—or such a large percentage of them.

Design as an Agent of Change

AS WE ENTER THE 21st CENTURY, designers and marketers will continue to shape the environmental context within which millions of today's consumers will live, work, and play as members of tomorrow's aging society.

The question, however, is will they continue to design products and living environments that discriminate against age and disability, or will the growing demands of an exploding "silver market" spark a conscious effort to eliminate those potential barriers that have, for too long, deprived too many—of all ages and abilities—their freedom and dignity.

It is ironic that the very technology which has prolonged the life of so large a number of our aging friends and relatives has also produced an environment that has become the source of increasing frustration; robbing many of their status, their roles, their independence and their self-respect.

For too long, people of all ages and abilities have had to adapt both body and mind to many "cool," but callous, youth-oriented products and environments designed to dispense short term pleasure and status at the cost of human- sensitive, long term, physical and sensory accommodation.

The design community carries a pivotal responsibility for correcting the problem. As it begins to shape the next generation of homes, products, and environments, a new priority —'transgenerational' accommodation—must augment the past's "aesthetics only" concern that still drives much of today's unseemly design and marketing energy.

A New Consumer mind-set

WE'RE ON THE THRESHOLD of a new design era that acknowledges and addresses the aging population's search for environmental equality. A ground swell of demand for intelligent user-friendly design is being heard throughout the world, and it's signaling the beginning of the end of descrimination by design.

Today, 50 million middle-aged Baby Boomers, the driving force behind yesterday's youth culture, are racing toward the threshold of senior citizenship.

Their collective demands for age-accommodating products and environments are sparking a dramatic transformation of our products and environments, houses and workplaces, transportation systems – even our playgrounds and recreational facilities.

The key issue is persuading designers, architects, manufacturers and home builders to design and provide transgenerational products and environments.

Ending Discrimination by Design

TOO MANY OF TODAY'S HOMES and household products discriminate against advancing age and those with physical or sensory impairments. Designers and marketers must address the reality that millions of people, of all ages and abilities, reject discriminating designs that stereotype and patronize by inferring old age or disability.

In contrast, attractive transgenerational designs accommodate rather than discriminate; sympathize rather than stigmatize; and innovate rather than replicate. Such designs appeal to—and accommodate—young and older users. They do this by:

• bridging the transitions across life's stages
• responding to the widest range of individual differences and abilities
• helping people of all ages and abilities remain active and independent
• adapting to changing sensory and physical needs
• maintaining one's dignity and self respect
• enabling us to choose the appropriate means to accomplish our activities of daily living.  

This is why transgeneratonal design is so important. It removes environmental barriers, extends independent living, provides wider options, offers greater choices, and extends the quality of life for all—and at no groups expense.

How can you help?

1. Refuse to promote, support, and reinforce the past's insidious and erroneous myths about age and aging.
   
2. De-emphasize any design's association with such terms as "old people," "disability," or "the handicaped." Such demeaning or stigmatizing connotations cause such product or service to be avoided or rejected by the very group they are intended to attract and serve.
   
3. Expand the potential of transgenerational design to include such wider societal and environmental issues as recreation, communication, public housing, mass transportation, indoor air quality, lighting and noise control.
   
4. Reject suggestions that transgenerational design comes only at a premium. There should be no, or very little, difference in cost between a product that works for all and a product that only works for a few.
   
5. Establish design for all ages and abilities as a core value throughout the professional design community and a required element of design education.
   
   

Competition to attract this market will intensitify. We can help you compete successfully!