Seniors Protest Cuts in Technology Funding
Seniors Protest Cuts to Technology Budget
Vernice Jarvis, 72, stood on the steps of City Hall wearing a leopard print dress and a cloth bone in her hair. She held a club and a sign that read, “Technology Good!” More than 30 people stood around her. Some held signs that read, “Stone-age Bad!”
They gathered to call attention to the need for computer classes for senior citizens. Mobility often decreases with age as bodies and health deteriorate. For seniors the Internet can serve as a connection, even a life-line, to an outside world that is increasingly hard to get to. The problem is most seniors don’t use it.
“Just one out of three seniors is online today,” said Tom Kamber the Executive Director of Older Adults Technology Services (OATS). Seniors did not grow-up using the internet and some don’t know how; plus many live on fixed incomes and can’t afford computers. Overcoming obstacles of technical-savvy and money can be challenging. OATS provides free computer classes to seniors and organized this event to, in a time of fiscal crisis, put a human face on a program that gets government funding.
The group gets most of its money through discretionary funds doled out by individual city council members, but was affected by recent city budget cuts. Despite this Kamber said he still feels strong support from within the government. The message of today’s rally Kamber said, “is don’t take your foot off the pedal.”