## 4 Discussion
### Call for Deconstructing Stereotypes about Aging and Technology  
It is essential to adapt the technology to the needs of older persons and promote a change in attitudes towards aging, older persons, and their technology use [46]. Stereotyping (how we think), prejudice (how we feel), and discrimination (how we act) based on age are referred to as ageism. Ageism is not new and remains in effect to this day. In 1969, [PERSON] [46] first coined the term 'ageism' to describe 'prejudice by one age group toward other age groups' (p. 243). Ageism differs from other forms of oppression, such as racism and sexism, in two significant ways. First, it is the one source of disadvantage that all people are susceptible to experiencing, should they live long enough. Other '-isms' involve bias against relatively stable subpopulations that do not vary across the life course. It is also more subtle, accepted, and challenged less often than other '-isms.' However, it is more pervasive than sexism and racism across 28 countries in Europe. In addition, because our culture is ageist, we learn this form of bigotry from the time we are born. As a result, we ultimately oppress ourselves [47]. Ageism affects technology access and use by older persons: Older persons are often stereotypically portrayed as incapable and technophobic. These stereotypes toward aging are behind the development of prejudices (feelings), such as that older adults are not able to learn how to use new technologies. This will lead to discriminatory behaviors such as offering them fewer opportunities to learn new technologies or excluding working older persons from responsibilities and projects that have a heavy focus on emerging technologies. Seemingly, these discriminatory situations would contribute to the internalization of age stereotypes, and older persons would show a reluctance to adopt different and new technologies and underestimate their performance or technology skills. This way, this stereotype of older adults as technophobic is reinforced and the digital generational gap is widened. The culture of age stereotypes can also affect older persons' perception and understanding of their capabilities, and hence contribute to self-directed ageism in which an older person believes that they are too old to use technology. Ageism has the power to act as a self-fulfilling prophecy by deepening the original stereotypes and widening the digital divide. Fighting ageism has to be brought to front in all efforts to promote services and better quality of life for older persons, including technology access and use. Here are some stereotypes we need to deconstruct about aging, focusing on technology access and use:  
Aging brings changes in ability rather than a disability: Currently, when designers, developers, and researchers focus on older persons' functional limitations, they often consider them as separate disability boxes such as vision, hearing, physical, and cognitive [14]. We risk underestimating their ability to function without accommodation when we do this. This may undermine their independence and make them feel negatively labeled as 'persons with disability.' The reality is that when we age, it is likely that all of these abilities will decline to a lesser or greater extent. However, aging is not a synonym of disability. Some abilities (e.g., those related to semantic memory) do not decline until very late in life. Aging has to be thought of as a process that brings changes in ability rather than a disability. The focus here would be on a usability approach that considers older persons' abilities, challenges, and preferences and has a deeper and more inclusive understanding of the aging process and decline in functional abilities. Older persons are able to learn new skills and technologies: Various studies pointed out that older adults can learn new skills as well as their younger counterparts and can perform some tasks equally well as younger persons do. [PERSON] et al.