This article begins with an overview of cognitive psychology research on the effects of aging on literacy and suggests the additional complications facing older adults who consume and produce text within the frame of technology, particularly on-line usage. From an overview, the text moves to patterns corporations are using to target older adults, namely as consumers and as producers. The text then explores the use of philanthropy in the corporate literacy initiatives and suggests that there are complicated issues at hand in attempting to integrate the knowledge of aging and corporate strategies into our technical writing classrooms because we enter this discussion concerned about non-traditional students, older adults who are challenged to participate in contemporary literacy initiatives, and ourselves as aging participants as well. The article ends with suggestions of possible ways of addressing concerns regarding aging.
SelfeC., Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: The Importance of Paying Attention, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 1999.
3.
StreetB. V., Social Literacies: Critical Approaches to Literacy in Development, Ethnography, and Education, Longman, London, 1995.
4.
StuckeyE., The Violence of Literacy, Boynton/Cook Heinemann, Portsmouth, 1991.
5.
TaylorD., Toxic Literacies: Exposing the Injustice of Bureaucratic Texts, Heinemann, Portsmouth, 1996.
6.
FoxT., Defending Access: A Critique of Standards in Higher Education, Greenwood-Heinemann, Portsmouth, 1999.
7.
LordeA., Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, Freedom California, Crossing, 1984.
8.
Van HeesM. M. W., User Instructions for the Elderly: What the Literature Tells Us, Journal of Technical Writing and Communications, 26: 4, pp. 521–536, 1996.
9.
SalthouseT., The Processing-Speed Theory of Adult Age Differences in Cognition, Psychological Review, 103, pp. 403–428, 1996.
10.
StineE. A. L., Aging and the Distribution of Resources in Working Memory, in Age Differences in Word and Language Processing, AllenP. A. and BashoreT. R. (eds.), Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 171–186, 1995.
Agelight, On Web Design, http://www.agelight.org/webdesign.htm, December 22, 2000; A Guide for Web Design Usability for Users of All Ages Agelight, May 1, 2000.
13.
WordenA.WalkerN.BharatK., and HudsonS., Making Computers Easier for Older Adults to Use: Area Cursors and Sticky Icons, CHI 97: Electronic Publicationshttp://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi97/proceedings/paper/nw.htm, December 22, 2000.
14.
GernsbacherM. A. and FaustM. E., The Mechanism of Suppression: A Component of General Comprehension Skill, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 17: 2, pp. 245–262, 1991.
15.
HultschD. F.HertzogC., Short-Term Longitudinal Change in Cognitive Performance in Later Life, Psychology and Aging, 7: 4, pp. 571–584, 1992.
16.
DixonR. A.HultschD. F.SimonE. W., and Von EyeA., Verbal Ability and Text Structure Effects on Adult Age Differences in Text Recall, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 23, pp. 569–578, 1984.
17.
MeyerB. J. F. and RiceG. E., Prose Processing in Adulthood: The Text, The Reader, and the Task, in Everyday Cognition in Adulthood and Late Life, PoonL. W.RubinD. C., and WilsonB. A. (eds.), Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 157–194, 1989.
18.
GordonL. D., Gender and Higher Education in the Progressive Era, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1990.
Charles Schwab and SeniorNet Join in Bringing the Online Investing Revolution to Older Americans, September 23, 1998. http://www.seniornet.org/press/980923.html, December 22, 2000.
RudavskyS., They're Surfing Seniors, So You Might E-mail Your Grandparents, http://www.herald.com/herald/content/docs/051506.htm, published Sunday, April 16, 2000, in the Miami Herald accessed on-line December 22, 2000.
MizukoI.AdlerA.LindeC.MynattE., and O'DayV., Final Report: Broadening Access: Research for Diverse Network Communities (NSF #9712414), 1998, http://www.seniornet.org/research/9911.shtml, December 22, 2000.
Microsoft and National Council on the Aging Announce Grants Totaling More Than 400,000 to Help Disadvantaged Older Adults, September 4, 1998, http://www.seniornet.org/press/980904.html, December 22, 2000.
42.
MortensenP., Illiterate Sorrows: Misrepresenting Literacy and Intelligence, paper presented at CCCC Convention, Milwaukee, 1996.
43.
BartonE., Interpreting the Discourses of Technology, Literacy and Computers: The Complications of Teaching and Learning with Technology, SelfeC. L. and HilligossS. (eds.), MLA, New York, pp. 56–75, 1994.
44.
LeBlancP. J., The Politics of Literacy and Technology in Secondary School Classrooms, in Literacy and Computers: The Complications of Teaching and Learning with Technology, SelfeC. L. and HilligossS. (eds.), MLA, New York, pp. 22–36, 1994.
45.
FaigleyL., Beyond Imagination: The Internet and Global Digital Literacy, in Passions Pedagogies and 21st Century Technologies, HawisherG. E. and SelfeC. L. (eds.), Utah State University Press, Logan, pp. 129–139, 1999.
46.
Laubach Way to Reading, New Readers Press, Syracuse, 1989.
47.
CrowA., Aging Literacies: Image and Identity Reconstruction. Computers and Writing 2000 Conference, Fort Worth, May 2000.
48.
HaylesN., The Materiality of Informatics, Configurations, 1: 1, pp. 147–170, 1992.
49.
TurkleS., Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1995.
CrowA. and AmyL., Shaping the Imaginary Domain: Strategies for Tenure and Promotion at One Institution, Computers and Composition, 17, pp. 57–68, Spring 2000.
52.
CrowA., What's Age Got to Do with It?: Teaching Older Students in Computer-Aided Classrooms, Teaching English in the Two Year College, 27: 4, pp. 400–406, May 2000.
53.
CrowA.O'NeillP., and BurtonL., Field of Dreams: Independent Writing Programs and the Future of Composition Studies, Utah State University Press, 2001.
