Abstract
The objective of this panel session is to discuss the roles of human factors engineering with respect to the area of gerontology. The focus will be on two elderly subpopulations, the well and active elderly and the debilitated, sick elderly.
With respect to the well elderly, the discussion will center around the increasing numbers of elderly people in the labor force and how human factors engineers need to provide for this population in the design of jobs, equipment and work environments. General trends in employment patterns for the elderly population will be discussed and statistics will be given on the number of elderly in the population, the types of roles the elderly are assuming and where the elderly will be employed. Since the use of computer technologies is pervasive across occupational settings, there will be an emphasis on aging and the use of computers. This part of the discussion will focus on software design, equipment design and training.
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