Work, Aging, and Vision Report of a Conference (1987) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 Context for Change
3 Context for Change
Pages 38-48
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 38... ...
The first is the effect of government action to encourage the retention of older workers, which can be seen in the Age Discrimination In Employment Act amendments of 197S, recent changes in social security retirement benefit provisions, and the recent changes in mandatory retirement laws. The second and opposite pressure is the ongoing trend toward early retirement being fostered by the practices of business, labor, and older workers themselves.
|
From page 39... ...
Conferees described new directions for research to meet that challenge. These include increased emphasis on research related to basic visual processes for performing visually guided tasks, developmental or life-span research related to vision, research to promote suitable vision screening procedures for older workers, and further research on retirement decisions and employer practices.
|
From page 40... ...
Examination of the literature regarding aging and cognitive functioning suggests that there are age-related declines in efficiency of information processing. For example, most of the research examining memory functioning suggests that proficiency in remembering declines with age; deficits in primary memory appear to be marginal.
|
From page 41... ...
Exceptions are time delay in optic nerve conduction manifest as the Marcus-Gunn pupil or the analogous Pulfrich phenomenon, time delay of glare recovery in macular disease, and the focusing time inertia patients complain of in early presbyopia.~ Results from research on automobile driving provide the clearest indication of the types of screening procedures that might be suitable to estimate the visual capabilities of older workers. The issues associated with licensing, license revocation, insuring, and tra~ning/retraining older drivers provide a highly informative test bed for an examination of the broader issues associated with assisting older people in remaining productive in the workplace.
|
From page 42... ...
Research on Factors Affecting the Retention and Retirement of Older Workers The major factors that affect the degree of retention of older workers in the workplace may be classified into at least three categories: economic, social/psychological, and health/work capacity. Harold Sheppard told conferees that if these three broadly conceived factors are taken together, the ideal conditions for cont~nued employment would consist of: a high demand for labor, inadequate pension expectation, rejection of public images assm elating chronological age with diminishing work capacities, high job satisfaction, aversion to lengthy full-time retirement, and good health.
|
From page 43... ...
Research on Technological Change Research wiD yield answers to many questions regarding the role of vision functions that change with age and worker performance. The results of those research efforts can be expected to
|
From page 44... ...
As Arnold Small told conferees, The consideration of workstation design includes the effective matching of machine and environment compatibly with older worker charactermtics including vision. The environment includes warnings, instructions, and visual communication overall" clearly indicating a proper role for equipment manufacturers in meeting the needs of older workers.
|
From page 45... ...
Given the seemingly inexorable trend to early retirement in many companies, strategies to promote work-life extension through overcoming vision problems need to be targeted to those kinds of organizations and to those segments of the work force in which either retention of older workers or the rehiring of retirees is recognized as an econorn~c advantage. Since policies regarding the utilization of older workers depends in part on employer perceptions of the relationship between age and job performance, Parnes observed that it is obvious that negative perceptions function as a disincentive among employers to retain or to hire older people.
|
From page 46... ...
of 1967, which generally prohibits discrimination in personnel practices on the bash of age except Where age is a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business." Recent Supreme Court Sections indicate that the BFOQ ~ a very narrow exception to the general rule that age discrimination is unIaw-£ul.
|
From page 47... ...
CONCLUSION The aging of the human eye involves a series of changes in visual performance that can be readily detected in the healthy adult. Viewed in the context of employment, reduced visual functioning need not have any effect on job performance.
|
From page 48... ...
To the extent that manufacturers produce the devices used by older workers at the job site, attention should be given to the development of new technologies or improvements in exiting technologies to meet the vision needs of older workers. Portable work units might permit the introduction of appropriate lighting levels by older workers, for example, and keyboards and panels offer greater contrast between symbob and their backgrounds than is presently found to benefit older if not all workers.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.