Personalised tablets aim to make technology more accessible for older people

Breezie is a personalised service for older people in the UK, who are not digitally literate, with people given a simplied version of a tablet with all its content and apps pre-installed.

Breezie is being supported in its venture by Age UK, which has voiced concerns that older people are being digitally excluded and with more and more services and shops going online, they run the risk of being cut off from the rest of society.

Statistics from the Office of National Statistics released in 2013, showed over six million of UK adults over the age of 55 have never used the internet before. More than half of these UK adults are over 75.

It is also a problem in care homes with statistics from carehome.co.uk showing only 3,982 of care homes give residents access to the internet. There are over 20,000 care homes in the UK.

So this device aims to tackle digital illiteracy and make technology more accessible to older people.

Jeh Kazimi, Breezie’s founder and chief executive, who came up with the idea after trying to teach his parents how to use Skype, says: “Humans shouldn’t need to get more technical, it is technology that needs to get more human. Until now, there has been no solution for using the internet that perfectly addresses the needs and concerns of an older, less digitally comfortable audience.

“Our goal was to design software that makes the online environment considerably more accessible for people with little or no technological nous, and to do so without patronising or limiting them. Breezie is about giving people a solution that works straight out of the box and lets them see the universal and immediate benefits of being online.”

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Android touchscreen tablet alters the usual operating system interface to hide clutter and complexity from popular everyday applications such as Skype, Facebook, Gmail and Amazon.

The service also provides a facility for Breezie’s support team, or family members of its users, to remotely support and troubleshoot, add contacts and services, reset passwords and choose from a wide range of apps and content.

The Breezie-enabled tablet automatically adapts according to users’ digital literacy and preferences.