Position of the elderly in Singapore LL : literacy assessment of the Singaporean elderly

Abstract

Past researches show that the elderly face several problems living in urban areas, including problems with physical infrastructure and inaccessible information. In Singapore, elderly care policies involve the improvement of physical infrastructure, but the lack of information has caused underutilization of policies implemented and inconvenience to the elderly. A way to solve this problem is by improving information accessibility. This study aims to find out the problems illiterate Singaporean elderly face in understanding the written messages on signs around them. However, the paper takes the assumption that classification of literacy based only ‘literate’ or ‘illiterate’ is insufficient. Therefore, in conjunction with the study on understanding LL by the Singaporean elderly, a literacy test incorporating the understanding of signs is designed. An interview using the literacy test carried out on 25 illiterate elderly shows that most of them do not understand written words on signs and had to rely on familiarity with signs to help them understand the messages conveyed better