Older adults get access, instruction on technology thanks to Triad organization

Oprah Winfrey once said, “Every year should teach you something valuable. Whether you get the lesson is up to you.”

More than 1,000 older adults in the Piedmont Triad are taking that advice: they’re learning vital computer skills with the help of a community foundation.  

“We didn’t have computers when I was in high school,” he says. “When I was in college and the military, a server may take up a room the size of an auditorium almost to meet the needs of computerized services, where now we know our smartphones pretty much are computers.”

Realizing that older adults need a larger screen than the standard phone, Dr. Merritt and the Organization to Provide Equal Access to Technology, or OPEAT, stepped in to bridge the digital divide. The program invites anyone over the age of 50 to come in and learn computer skills at all levels. Some need to start with learning how to turn the computer on.

Ingrid Hooper entered the program to refresh her skills after retiring from the workforce. “Your kids may not always be around, so whatever you can learn, you know, it would be to your advantage to do that,” she says.

A $10,000 grant funded by the Tri-County Health Fund hosted at the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro helps make OPEAT’s SilverTech computer classes available. Dr. Merritt, the Executive Director of OPEAT, says people who go through the classes will leave with basic computer skills, an email address, and knowledge about making virtual calls as well as virtual doctor’s appointments.

That’s something he says will be vital in the future. “In the next three to five years, 85% of what you do with your medical will be done virtually, and so if you don’t know how to use a computer, if you don’t have the telehealth log in and platform, you’re going to be left behind, and as you age, we need more medical attention.”