This project involved working with older adults to create short, thought-provoking video clips that could prompt action from the physical activity industry — the businesses and services in charge of the opportunities and facilities that help us all to stay active — to create more inclusive environments.

Older adults tell us that some of the factors holding them back stem from negative stereotypes of ageing. Although often unintentional, these can leave them feeling less welcome and not catered for by the services and products that help younger people to stay active.

The videos we created show some of these factors with testimonials from older people, and set out some ideas for how businesses and services can be more inclusive. We also worked with people in the industry during the editing process to make them as impactful at grabbing attention and making people think differently as we could.

We created three video clips aimed at different audiences:

• people running gyms
• local authorities
• anyone working in leisure and physical activity settings

We also created an amalgamation of all three, which can be accessed on this web page. All three videos — made up of footage submitted by the individuals and their families — show the great potential for changing attitudes and behaviour in the ways that we had aimed for:

• In student workshops, young people revised their initial stereotypical views of older adults as ‘frail’ and ‘inactive’, and were able to see they had many experiences and preferences in common – particularly among those who are less fit or confident themselves.
• In our survey of people working in the physical activity industry, 90% thought the video clips relevant to their business, and 69% said they stimulated specific ideas about how to work differently with older adults in future.

Project team

• Professor Fiona Gillison
• Dr Elisabeth Grey
• Professor Julie Barnett
• Rebecca Hurwitz
• Ella Burfitt