Older South Africans’ Access to Service Delivery through Technology: A Process Overview

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter introduces a process designed to support older individuals’ inclusion in technology and access to information. This process informed the development and dissemination of our technology artefact for providing information about local services to older South Africans. But essential baseline data of their cell phone use was lacking. In 2014, for the first self-funded study iGNiTe: Older Individuals’ Cell Phone Use and Intra/Intergenerational Networks, a questionnaire and qualitative interview questions were developed. Student fieldworkers were trained to obtain information and facilitate older individuals’ engagement with technology. Older participants (n = 128) completed the questionnaire, and qualitative data came from 52 participants. In 2017, we obtained funding and launched a second, broader project we-DELIVER: Holistic service delivery to older people by local government through ICTs―with its own logical framework. Older participants across research settings responded to a revised questionnaire (n = 302) and provided qualitative data, and student fieldworkers (n = 160) reflected on their interactions with the participants. The findings from both data-collection initiatives informed the development of the Yabelana (‘sharing of information’) ICT ecosystem (website, app and Unstructured supplementary service data code [USSD]), which was disseminated to older participants and stakeholders in a workshop and policy brief.