Products and the older consumer

Date

21 October 2008, 1 pm.

Venue

Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) Ltd
3rd Floor
40 Bernard Street
London WC1N 1BY

Speakers

Help the Aged, Association of Train Operating Companies, Royal College of Art, British Telecom

Overview

This half-day seminar was hosted by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) in central London.

Speakers/Agenda

Mervyn Kohler, Head of Public Affairs at Help the Aged, welcomed attendees and introduced the speakers. The presentations were followed by a round-table discussion focusing on the needs of the consumer and the legislative requirements to make products more accessible to the older consumer, not only in design but in delivery also.

David Sindall from ATOC opened the seminar with an overview of the National and European Legislative Framework on Product Inclusivity.

Rama Gheerawo from the Royal College of Art gave an overview of commercial case studies of Product Inclusivity. Rama discussed the fresh challenges of implementing a people-centered design approach.

Jacqueline Esquivel from BT discussed delivering inclusive products to the market place. Jacqueline described the journey they made over the previous three years to engage the product community and embrace inclusive design.

Louise Parkes from Help the Aged discussed an accreditation process, soon to be launched, that will measure and scrutinise products as to how inclusive and accessible they are to older people.

As this was a round-table discussion, spaces were restricted so members were limited to one attendee per company.