Do Hiring Managers Consider a Prospective Employee’s Non-work History?

For the last year I’ve been looking for work in my life long profession, software development. I’m now in my 60’s and, because my wife had Alzheimer’s and Dementia for the last 20 years, I’ve got a substantial break in my employment history. During the last year I’ve been interviewed exactly one time, out of hundreds of positions I’ve applied for. And, regardless of my extensive background (over 35 years with full life cycle software development), I’ve been overlooked, excluded and told I should look for work in another field, all from recruitment firms and agents who believe I can’t possibly be productive with this size break. They seem to consider that, because I haven’t worked for nearly 20 years, that I’ve forgotten everything I knew and that the tech has left me behind.

In all the years I was working I spent many hours in training. Most (I’d say all) classes, I would become support for the teacher by helping others in the class to understand what was being taught. In all my years I’ve been able to remember every program I’ve ever developed, and could describe how each one was produced. In every position I’ve held I was able to improve the software environment, and thus improve the business productivity of each corporation/agency. In most cases saving them time and money (sometimes thousands of dollars per month) by streamlining the processes and/or making the processes work better/faster.

None of this matters in the process of looking for work because I’m not being presented to prospective employers. My knowledge of computers and software is not being passed along to them and, I’m at a loss as to how to remedy this situation.