Connecting Bay Area Seniors and Disabled Adults to ‘Devices They Need’

Brown: Technology can play a key role in improving the lives of older adults and people with disabilities. However, these populations face unique barriers to accessing and utilizing technology. Hello, I'm Dara Brown, and this is "Getting Connected," powered by "Comcast Newsmakers." We're on location at the Net Inclusion 2024 Conference in Philadelphia. Joining me is Karla Suomala. She's the Co-Director of the San Francisco Tech Council. Karla, thank you so much for being here.

Suomala: Thank you for having me.

Brown: What are some of the specific barriers that these communities face?

Suomala: We're a multisector collaborative. We bring together organizations across the city, so government agencies, nonprofits, the private sector, and we come together and we try to tackle these problems together. And the problems that we see, especially in under-resourced, underserved populations, is the high cost of internet. It is just too expensive for many older adults and people with disabilities, and that is even with programs that reduce costs. The second thing that we see is a lack of digital skills. Many folks just don't have the tech experience to be able to use the devices that are available, even smartphones. The third thing that I would say is devices. Most older adults and people with disabilities are using smartphones, but they're not always aware of all of the options that these devices provide. And many don't have the kinds of devices they actually need, whether tablets or Chromebooks, to be able to do a really good telehealth visit, for example.

Brown: And how is your organization addressing these issues?

Suomala: Well, we work on a couple of different levels. We bring people together to coordinate tech support popups around the city of San Francisco. This is new since the pandemic when we realized that people really didn't have a place to go to ask their basic tech questions. They didn't necessarily want a class but they had burning questions. So at libraries, community centers, and other community-based organizations, we show up with a team of volunteers speaking the languages of the neighborhood, usually Chinese or Spanish. And we -- people line up, and we assign them to a volunteer, and they have a chance to ask those questions over the course of half an hour or an hour until we close down.

Brown: And how are these communities responding?

Suomala: They love these kinds of opportunities. They love the one-on-one contact. Isolation and loneliness is a huge issue among these populations, and just having that attention and that focus, especially with a multigenerational volunteer force, is really, really important.

Brown: And how is your organization measuring success?

Suomala: Well, what we see is that people keep coming and they want more of this. So we're really focused on helping the organizations -- we have 25 member organizations and partners across the city. We're really focused on helping them become resourced in the way they need to be to serve these populations. And we do that through helping with grants and coordinating grant applications. Providing information about funding opportunities. The most recent was California's State Digital Equity Planning process and helping people get involved.

Brown: Karla Suomala, thank you so much for your time today.

Suomala: Thank you.

Brown: And thanks to you, as well, for watching. For more conversations about digital equity and broadband expansion, visit gettingconnected.com. I'm Dara Brown. ♪♪