Inclusive Ageing in a Digital World

The Inclusive Ageing in a Digital World cluster explores how digital technologies are influencing the daily lives of older people. Digital tools and services can improve health, wellbeing, and independence, yet they can also create barriers when access, confidence, or support are lacking.

Assumptions about older people’s abilities often influence the way technologies and services are designed, which can contribute to exclusion, particularly for those living with dementia.

Our research is interdisciplinary, drawing on expertise in Dementia and Ageing, Marketing and Retail, Health Psychology, and Computing Science. Current doctoral projects reflect this breadth. One study explores how older people experience the introduction of smart meters and what this means for wellbeing and consumer choice. Another investigates how conversational agents could be designed with older adults to support brain health and reduce dementia risk. A third focuses on game-based learning as a way of improving digital skills and confidence with self-service technologies in everyday settings.

By connecting lived experience with policy, practice, and technology design, the cluster contributes to the University’s missions of Spaces, Places, and Lives. We work closely with older co-researchers, the local community, and international collaborators to create more inclusive digital futures.