MY PARENTS ARE both in their seventies. Dad treats mobile phones like they’re radioactive waste, but mum is remarkably tech-savvy – and not just, dare I say it, ‘for her age’.

Still, as year-end comes around and mandatory admin needs doing, I’ve watched her confidence crumble as she grapples with online systems that are difficult to navigate for even the most digitally native amongst us.

Whether it’s managing taxes and pensions, submitting health expenses, or booking an NCT – many essential services are now digital by default and leaving many older people feeling locked out of their own lives. The problem isn’t that they can’t adapt; it’s that the rest of the world hasn’t bothered to help them make the transition.

Locked out by design

This systemic failure is compounded by a deep-seated cultural hypocrisy. On social media, I’ve seen older people patronised for content – like when they’re photographed, without permission, eating dinner alone in a restaurant.

Yet, when a loved one asks for help navigating technology, I have seen them met with eye-rolling and impatience, or infantilised by the very helplines being paid to support. This flip from affection to irritation turns a simple request into humiliation and reinforces the cruel stereotype that they’re a burden for needing support.

To make matters worse, essential websites are often fundamentally unfit for purpose – portals crash repeatedly, demand specific browsers to work, or log users out after a matter of minutes.

The commercial world has also traded genuine customer loyalty for data. Traditional clubcards are being replaced by mandatory smartphone apps, locking out millions.

For the digitally hesitant, the process of downloading and registering an app is like wading through quicksand. If someone doesn’t own a smartphone, the barrier is absolute and they’re excluded from benefits by default.

Even some restaurants have gone digital, swapping paper menus for QR codes. None of this is fair, and worse, no one seems to care.

The most overlooked form of discrimination

The stats tell the story. According to the CSO’s 2024 Internet Coverage and Usage in Ireland report, 41% of people aged 75 and over have never used the internet. Age Action estimates as of 2023 that 62% of adults over 65 are digitally excluded, either because they lack access or basic digital skills.

Behind those numbers are real costs – anxiety, poorer health outcomes, lost independence, and the slow erosion of confidence that comes from being shut out of daily life.

This isn’t progress. It’s blatant discrimination dressed up as efficiency.

I work in tech, and none of this is to deny how extraordinary digital progress can be. It has never been easier to speak to loved ones abroad, access information, pay bills, or navigate cities from the comfort of your phone. Technology has brought connection, efficiency, and choice – but only for those with the skills to keep up.

The rest are left behind in a system that mistakes speed for fairness. Digital tools have transformed our lives, but somewhere along the way, we stopped designing them for everyone.

Older people are not second-class citizens. We should be asking why we tolerate a world that works so well for some but leaves others behind.

The irony is that ageism is the only form of discrimination that is guaranteed to eventually affect every one of us who lives long enough. If we keep designing systems that overlook our parents and grandparents, we’re building a future that will one day shut us out, too.

Leaving nobody offline

The solution to digital ageism cannot happen solely through individual effort; it demands a radical, systemic shift. The Government’s Digital for Good roadmap rightly promises that “digital by default” will never mean “digital only.” However, this has already proven hollow – even standard passport renewals have moved entirely online – the in-person service is for urgent cases only.

This is further exacerbated by a failure of resourcing; the reality is that current funding and resources don’t match the scale of the challenge. Small, time-limited grants can’t close a divide that affects hundreds of thousands of people.

“Universal Design” must be the standard, not the exception: government portals that are simple to navigate, apps built with input from older users, a guaranteed network of government-funded digital hubs in libraries and local centres, and sustained, targeted funding for digital literacy.

Policymakers should make accessibility a basic requirement, not an afterthought, mandating an ‘offline guarantee’ for all essential public services. The tech industry should, in turn, see designing with dignity not as a niche feature, but as a moral imperative, the foundation of equitable progress.

Accessibility is not simply a necessary cost, it is a core investment in human dignity and social equity. Our ambition must not be ‘digital first’ but ‘citizen first’; when we exclude even one person, we fail our fundamental civic duty to all.

Fiona Daly works in technology and public policy, with a focus on digital inclusion and community engagement.