Critical Gerontology

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of aging that critiques the dominant biomedical framing of later life and foregrounds structural, political, and cultural influences on older people's experiences. Critical gerontology rejects the "discourse of decline" in which aging is reduced to cognitive and physical deficit requiring technological remediation, and treats older adults as active agents with diverse capacities and desires. It provides the theoretical foundation for age-inclusive accessibility research and resists deficit-focused HCI framings.