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QoLT  is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center

QoLT is an effective platform for industry/practitioner/academic researcher interaction and for engaging the general public in technology research.

The technologies that the QoLT ERC develops will enable older adults and people with disabilities to more independently perform activities of daily living and give them opportunity to participate in society longer and more fully.

Having more people gainfully employed and reducing the need for or delaying the onset of institutionalization will have an even more profound impact on the national economy. QoLT will transform and eventually subsume the present assistive technology industry, one that is fragmented and composed primarily of very small companies serving a small market, into a space with a large consumer base including the soon-to-retire Baby Boomers.

Through a holistic, human-centered design approach, the QoLT Center works with real people in the real world to ensure our technologies are sustainable, acceptable, and support a person's place in their community as well as society at large. Our long-term goals are to:

• Increase employability and productivity across the life span
• Expand the range of environments in which people will be independently and safely mobile, increasing community participation
• Expand the number of people and number of years that they can live independently at home

Quality of Life Technology Center
5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(412) 268-5543
http://www.cmu.edu/qolt/index.html

The FloH Club is Florence Henderson's tech-support hot line designed for older adults who want to become comfortable using the Internet and electronic devices such as smart phones -- but aren't exactly sure how.

Florence Henderson, made famous as the Brady Bunch mom, was motivated to start a tech-support service for aging adults after facing the fact that she didn't know how to use the power of her cellphone, other than to make a phone call.

Now, as a proficient grandmother who uses text-messenger, Skype and Facebook, this proficient grandmother and communicator wants to help others learn to do the same.

Her company, The FloH Club, set up a partnership with an online computer-support company, Support.com, to staff the hot line. It is open seven days a week, 8 a.m to 2 a.m. Eastern time.

Members can call with any type of technical issue, from dealing with frozen screens and sputtering systems to configuring a new printer, figuring out e-mail mysteries and even backing up a hard drive.

Memberships to the FloH Club run $25 per month or $250 for a year. In addition, the service offers one-time, dedicated training sessions for $50 covering a number of topics, including learning how to download pictures from a digital camera and setting up a Facebook account.

Currently, the service is only available for Windows-based operating systems. But if the demand is there, the FloH Club will expand to Mac operating systems. 

"Now you can stay connected with your family," Henderson said. "And you don't have to feel embarrassed or stupid about asking for help."

Sounds like  the motherly advice Mrs Brady would hand out to learners of all ages!