The Intersecting of Aging and Disabilities

Abstract

The estimated number of elders with certain lifelong and later‐life disabilities is already quite substantial. These numbers are on the increase (e.g., increasing to 11 million hearing impaired elders by the year 2000), and many elders have multiple impairments. Gerontologi‐cal educators and researchers are relatively inexperienced regarding elders with impairments, and need to learn more about these elders, the disabilities services systems, concurrent changes in American lifestyles that affect caregiving, and basic strategies for action appropriate to meeting the needs of elders with lifelong and later‐life disabilities.