Co-developing an educational platform against ageism with older adults: A use case from Switzerland

Despite urgent calls for action to counter ageism, research-based initiatives in Switzerland are still scarce. To close this gap, the authors of this paper are building an interventional online platform aimed at (1) raising awareness and providing educational materials about ageism, (2) collecting real-life experiences from older citizens, and (3) fostering a community to combat ageism, leveraging the advantages of scalability and accessibility of digital solutions. This research note reports on a co-development process with a sounding board of seven retired adults (Mage = 69.71; four women), highlighting needs and concerns with regard to each of the online platform's aims. Across June-October 2024, four focus group meetings and an online survey was conducted. Qualitative framework analysis identified major needs and concerns for the platform's aims: For aim (1), empowerment of older adults and linking educational resources to actionable guidelines was highlighted. Moreover, avoidance of victimization was identified as a major need. For aim (2), needs for sharing ageism experiences, such as anonymous reporting, were brought up. Difficulty of recognizing ageism in everyday life was found to be a key concern. For aim (3), the need for various online and offline interaction opportunities and active involvement in working toward educational and social objectives, including fostering intergenerational exchanges was stressed. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating older adults' perspectives to address needs and concerns in developing digital intervention approaches combating ageism. We discuss raised issues regarding implications for real-life data collection and educational initiatives.