For 484,000 NYC seniors, digital divide complicates vaccine access
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A City Council hearing Friday did a deep dive into the senior digital divide. Photo courtesy of Aim/Oasis Adult Day Care Services
By Rachel Vick
David Dring spends hours on the phone each day with participants at a Brooklyn senior center, trying, sometimes in vain, to help them book appointments for COVID-19 vaccines.
Dring is the director of innovative programs for older adults at the Bay Ridge Center and said many of his clients have struggled to access appointments, especially if they try to do it online. The issue underscores a much larger problem, he told councilmembers Friday.
“We are only reaching a fraction of those who could benefit from low-cost, high-speed connectivity,” Dring said during a Council hearing on internet access for older adults. “There is a need and there is capacity in the city to provide that, I believe.”
The hearing, hosted by the Committees on Aging and Technology, was intended to identify problems with web access for New York City seniors, including complicated online tools and costly internet plans.
Some 474,000 older New Yorkers live in households without internet access, according to the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging.
The coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated the problems they face, as business and socialization goes online, said Councilmember Robert Holden. .
“Ability to access and confidently navigate [technology] was important before, but it is crucial now,” Holden said.
Holden described the Department of Health vaccine portal as a “glorified store finder” that directed users to different sites, with signup processes that force people to scan documents and use an email address. The requirements further confuse constituents uncomfortable with technology, he said..
Councilmembers grilled officials from the Department for the Aging on how they are fostering online access for seniors, especially when it comes to signing up for vaccine appointments.
“You can't tell us what is the master plan from DFTA to help seniors gain access to the vaccine — that should be the priority. Centers could do it, so it’s outrageous that a year into the pandemic we can’t pivot” Holden said.
“If the mayor’s not listening, we need to make him listen because our seniors are dying because vaccines are not getting onto their arm fast enough,” Holden added.
DFTA Deputy Commissioner Michael Bosnick said the agency understands the need for better internet access and skill-building and said the city has made those a “continued priority.”
Bosnick also discussed DFTA’s work examining 100 senior centers to determine whether they could serve as vaccine sites when supply increases. Each location must meet size, refrigeration and electricity requirements, he said, but the decision is ultimately up to the Vaccine Control Center.
Councilmember Margaret Chin said the agency needs to demonstrate a concrete plan so the city is not caught flat-footed when more vaccines arrive.
“We can't continue to plan, plan, plan, we need to get things in motion,” Chin said. “Even if we don't have the vaccines now, do we have a plan in place? I don't see coordination, I don't see the urgency.”
