Helping the elderly lead active lives




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Helping the elderly lead active lives

by Okihiro Kamiizawa, the Yomiuri Shimbun

December 1, 2003

"If it continues this way, we won't be able to live comfortably in our old age," Chika Sekine said.

The problem to which Sekine was referring was the need to make Web sites and information technology equipment easier for elderly and disabled people to use.

Sekine, 45, is president of UDIT (http://www.udit-jp.com), a company she founded in 1998 to achieve these goals. Sekine said the firm's name encompasses the concepts of Universal Design and IT.

The inspiration for her mission to make the computer world more accessible for elderly and disabled people came when she was working for IBM Japan, Ltd. In 1988, her husband was posted to Los Angeles for two years, and Sekine accompanied him.

While she was in the United States , she was moved to see the disabled and elderly living active lives.

After returning to Japan , she explained what she had seen to the president of IBM Japan and was given the go-ahead for a number of projects.

These included developing software that reads the contents of Web sites aloud, a special-needs center within the company that offers counseling for disabled people and an exhibition space that teaches techniques to make computing easier for disabled people.

When Sekine founded UDIT after leaving IBM Japan, it was a one-person business. She now employs five full-time employees and 130 contract employees.

Sekine said Japan was six or seven years behind Europe and North America in computer accessibility for elderly and disabled people when she founded UDIT. But the country is now catching up, as society and businesses are realizing its necessity.

"The area in which Japan is the furthest behind is schools. There are few chances for disabled children to study with able-bodied children, so there's a lack of understanding of universal design," Sekine said.

Elderly and disabled people are not the only ones who benefit from universal design.

"If buttons are easier to operate, or text is bigger and easier to read, a product is easier for everyone to use," she said.

Referring to the fact that some high school girls are now using cell phones that originally were developed for elderly people, Sekine said, "That's the way it should be."

Her accomplishments and ideas have resulted in lecture requests from around the country.

"From now on, not just within the IT field, but by applying IT, I want to advance universal design in society and our lifestyles," she said.

Sekine said her dream is to spend her old age calmly relaxing at hot springs .

She is hoping for a society in which she and everyone else can live a rich, active life.