What is Digital Inclusion? According to the Bureau of Internet Accessibility, a company offering consulting to corporate clients on the subject, it is the attempt to bridge the digital divide between “those who have ready access to computers and the internet, and those who do not”. Reisdorf and Rhinesmith (2020) argue that digital inclusion should be framed as a core component of social inclusion, given that our lives are increasingly lived in the context of our abilities to access, adopt, adapt and use emerging digital information and communication technologies (ICTs). As they write, digital inclusion “includes reliable access to internet at adequate speeds, access to digital devices that meet the users’ needs, access to digital skills training, technical support, and content, apps, and software” (p.133). According to the U.S.-based National Digital Inclusion Alliance, at the most basic level, a digitally literate person “Possesses the variety of skills – technical and cognitive – required to find, understand, evaluate, create, and communicate digital information”. This also involves actively using these skills to participate in and contribute to society.
Access requires a capable device and a sufficiently strong and reliable connection to the internet – the widely accepted standard to take part in a wide range of activities on the internet is known as broadband. The based National Digital Inclusion Alliance defines access as “speeds, quality and capacity necessary to accomplish common tasks”. In Canada, the national telecommunications regulator, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) defined broadband as speeds greater than 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps) in its 2017 report (p. 256). Starting in 2016 their stated goal — or “Basic Service Objective” — for broadband access and availability is a minimum speed of 50 Mbps to all Canadian households, including those “hardest-to-reach Canadians”. To support this objective, the CRTC and the federal government are providing significant funding (over $2B) through initiatives such as the CRTC Broadband Fund and the Universal Broadband Fund.
The reasons behind the digital divide include economic and geographic factors that reflect the size of Canada and the concentration of infrastructure in urban centres. However these problems are also shaped and perpetuated by systemic biases in commercial, government and societal institutional as well. For example, on the one hand, the Government of Canada is funding projects to improve infrastructure so that all Canadians are able to take advantage of the benefits of being online. On the other hand, discrepancies in digital access require a comprehensive approach that includes initiatives from industry, advocacy groups and educational institutions as well as government.
As pointed out on Digitalinclusion.org “Digital Inclusion refers to the activities necessary to ensure that all individuals and communities, including the most disadvantaged, have access to and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)” an approach which requires strategies that address the cause of the those disadvantages as well as closing the technology gaps.
Suzanne Smythe, professor and researcher in digital learning, equity and access, shares examples of some of the challenges faced by people who lack digital literacy and access when trying to access social services in Canada in her 2015 article “Where is Canada’s digital inclusion strategy?“. She points out that while the cost of internet access is rising the government is simultaneously taking ever more of its services online. Helping the disadvantaged increasingly left out of the benefits of the move online will require a local strategy that addresses their specific needs as well as a national one.
Reisdorf and Rhinesmith’s 2020 article Digital Inclusion as a Core Component of Social Inclusion (which was cited above) looks at digital inclusion as a global issue and an important aspect of an equitable society, reviewing the literature on the topic with the aim of better understanding what practical actions can be effective. They analyze research that addresses particular aspects of digital inclusion and note that there is “relatively little work on what kinds of initiatives are trying to address these digital inequalities and inequities, who they work with, and whether they have the intended impact” (p. 2).
One prevalent and persistent issue that perpetuates unequal access to ICTs is systemic racism. In 2020 the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism felt that it was an area of such importance that they put out a call for input on the topic of New information technologies, racial equality, and non-discrimination.
RightsCon is an international convention that began in 2011. It focuses on human rights in the digital age, and its organized by the 2009-founded Access Now, a non-profit organization who’s mission is to “defend and extend” peoples digital rights world-wide.
Human rights can be threatened through surveillance, through manipulation or suppression of news information and they can be threatened by access to digital communication, education and health technologies. So while the OHCHR called for a moratorium on the sale of surveillance tech and protection for the rights of protesters they are also concerned with equality of access to ICTs regardless of race, economic status or gender.
The efforts above show how human rights issues have adapted to and proliferated in the digital realm, finding new manifestations of old injustices. On the other hand, the way people can come together to confront injustice leveraging digital technology to their advantage offers new possibilities.