Prof Jonathan Hassell

About

Prof Jonathan Hassell has been leading the adoption of digital accessibility, the technical element of diversity & inclusion for people with disabilities and older people, for over 20 years.

He’s a globally recognised thought leader, identifying new directions and challenges in digital accessibility, finding best practice process and technology solutions, authoring international standards such as ISO 30071-1 and two best-selling books on its application, and presenting accessibility innovations and best practices to conference audiences across the world.

He leads Hassell Inclusion’s team of accessibility experts providing strategic accessibility transformation services worldwide, who has supported over 10,000 people in over 140 companies to make their digital technology accessible to all.

He was shortlisted by the National Diversity Awards for their prestigious Lifetime Achievement award for his work in 2022.

Pledge

In all the years I have worked in digital accessibility, the needs of older people have rarely been considered a priority. Given the rate that our populations are ageing, how we are working longer, and the fact that over-70s are the UK’s most online adults after twentysomethings, with considerable spending power, I have long been mystified by this omission.

I believe we need to confront the degree of ageism behind this, as well as the misconception that older people cannot or choose not to participate in the digital world. At present, our research finds that younger creators of technology don’t really know, or want to think about, how they might be affected by ageing until they get there themselves.

The irony is that while digital technologies like Smart Homes can empower and enable us to live more independently later in life, a lack of design for conditions such as deteriorating eyesight, poor hearing, memory issues and lack of fine motor skills can make using digital technologies more challenging as we age.

As ageing will affect us all to some degree, if companies fail to address the needs of older workers and consumers in their technology choices, it is to the detriment of us all.

Changing this is our aim at Hassell Inclusion, which is why I’m proud to be an Age Irrelevance Ambassador.