Creating Online Environments That Work Well For Older Users

Published: Smashing Magazine
November 4, 2019
2150 words

With the single exception of my 94-year-old mother, I don’t know a single person over the age of 65 who doesn’t have a smartphone, computer, or tablet, and usually all three.

I’m well past sixty, and have worked my way through punch cards, a C-64, many versions of Windows, Apple and Linux. I know at least a few people over seventy who have a programming background or who have spent a lot of time doing graphic design and computer music composition on various machines.

That’s why I’m always amazed to read comments like these:

“Amazon Echo has been particularly popular with the older generations, as it allows them to interact with technology and the Internet in a natural, personal way, rather than via a computer.”

Read the full article.

Postscript: an edited version of this article was re-published at Considerable.com.

Grant Application Workbook

Published: Community-Media.com (pdf)
Writing and design Barry Rueger and Victoria Fenner
2014
28 pages

Beginning in 2004 under our Community-Media.com name, Victoria Fenner and Barry conducted a successful series of workshops teaching non-profit managers and volunteers how to write successful funding applications.  With a focus on the Ontario Trillium Fund, the workshop walked participants through the process of assembling needed information, developing a clear project for funding, and preparing the full application and supporting documents.

As part of this workshop participants were provided with a copy of the self-published “Grant Application Workbook.”  A sample page is below. The full handbook can be downloaded in PDF

CFMU Radio Volunteer Manual

Published: CFMU Radio (pdf)
October 2003
28 pages

CFMU Radio is the campus/community radio station located at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.  In 2003 Barry handled the design and layout for their first ever Volunteer Handbook. It marked Barry’s first use of Adobe Pagemaker, at the end of the days when such work was done by sticking printed text and images onto “flats” using an electric waxer.

Wavelength

Published: Canadian Society for Independent Radio Production
1999 – 2002

From 1999 to 2002 Barry was editor, designer, and contributing writer of Wavelength, a newsletter published by the Canadian Society for Independent Radio Production (CSIRP).  During that time he worked closely with radio producers and writers in Canada and the US.  Links to PDF copies of all nine issues are posted below.

Wavelength Issue 1 – January 1999
Wavelength Issue 2 – June 1999
Wavelength Issue 3 – October 1999
Wavelength Issue 4 – April 2000
Wavelength Issue 5 – October 2000
Wavelength Issue 6 – February 2001
Wavelength Issue 7 – Summer 2001
Wavelength Issue 8 – Winter 2002
Wavelength Issue 9  – September 2002