THE TAKEAWAY

This forum left no doubt that mobility needs redefining so older adults can continue to participate in public life. One of the achievements of this evening was that three very knowledgeable presenters from very different disciplines and backgrounds heard each other and talked to each other.

The other achievement was that we had two eloquent and very informative expert users on the panel who ‘drove the message home’ – that it is demeaning to have to prove every year that you are still disabled when you are an older person and things do not get better but normally get more complicated and that it makes a difference when the conductors on Caltrain are personable and care for their riders.

Some points which stuck – please add to them!

• Paratransit does not consider hearing loss as disability
• Embedding older adults with younger ‘maker’ and ‘design’ people makes sense for all.
• Travel Ambassadors already exist in some cities.
• All stake holders have to be part of the solutions in order to initiate real change (how will Dan Gillette involve BART in his co-design studio?)
• Learning a public transit system is very challenging for older adults who had to give up their car.
• How and where people travel in the City is part of their life’s story and influences their life story.

Thank you to Richard Weiner with Nelson Nyygaard, Dan Gillette with Citris at UC Berkeley, Jarmin Yeh, doctoral candidate at UCSF, Dr. June Fischer, Barbara Beskind and Gretchen Addi, IDEO and our audience for a great level of discussion and exploration.