Digital exclusion - are we missing the point?

This article is only an article because my Friday morning post got a little out of hand on the wordcount front! And I wanted to do it justice - hope you enjoy - Liam

I've been involved in a lot of discussions, activities and research recently that has touched on the topic of Digital Exclusion - you'll no doubt have heard the term in various forms if you have anything to do with public services and digital.

Something that has recently been at the back of my mind has been that whilst this term Digital Exclusion is wielded like a flaming buzz-wordy sword of justice, or representation, there are very few discussions around the complexity of what we actually mean.

Most commonly, the use I hear is around making sure we are serving those who can do digital and who can't receive the digital solutions, activities or experiences we implement. This feels rather binary, and even exclusive in how it's presented, and I must admit that I have some concerns around the narrative I see and hear. Below I've listed a few that often spring to mind.

Binary - in or out, can and can't

Across the system we seem to be increasingly thinking about those who can and those who can't, rather than those who could with support. Just because someone can't currently do something it doesn't mean they couldn't with the right support. Let's think about capability building.

I remember during COVID a nurse stated in a meeting that "it's not our job to train patients to use technology", which is a comment I often cite in my talks and that comes to mind. If technology as an intervention can directly improve outcomes, then like any other care intervention there needs to be an orientation towards capability building, and it's likely that it is going to become every clinician's job to help patients use technology.

Let's try to take the binary out of our thinking and consider who currently can, who could, and who possibly couldn't for other factors.

Digital Exclusion is NOT ONE THING

I think that often we find people talking about digital exclusion who may not really have a solid grasp of digital itself. Whilst you don't need to have a PHD in it, it can be hard to understand the nature of the problem that results from something you don't fully understand, and in teaching about digital I frequently hear and challenge views that I know could get in the way of addressing exclusion, or improving accessibility.

Digital exclusion is NOT solely about individual skills and abilities, and there are many other factors that could help reduce this exclusion if people seek to understand digital itself.

Skills & tech - firstly, yes yes yes, if people don't have a smartphone and know how to use one then it's hard for them to interactive.

Design factors - BUT we often point to the above when we design shitty systems and interactions. With no training my young son can navigate our TV, and (worryingly) my phone, because they are designed to be simple and intuitive. Whereas if I put him in front of the average work IT system he'd be clueless. We need to look in the mirror on what we put in front of people.

Financial factors - digital skills have definitely gone up over recent years, but with a cost of living crisis, I've had services tell me that a new demographic of patients just can't afford their WIFI or credit to do the interactions we want. Could we factor this into our thinking about social prescribing? Or more widely Norway treats internet access as a universal basic right.

Physical abilities - sometimes people are capable of digital and tech interactions ONLY if they are supported to help overcome specific physical barriers. In a recent piece of research work I heard some great examples of where people with physically limiting conditions were able to benefit from digital because they had been supported with hardware accessibility. If Stephen Hawking can write a book with severe physical limitations then maybe our service users can achieve significant independence with a little creative thinking.

Cognitive or learning factors - there is clearly a big spectrum on this one, but ultimately this in many cases comes back to capability and design. I'm currently mentoring a fab charity called the Shannon Trust (who are being supported by the fab dev and design agency Yalla Coop) who are using digital tools to support people with low literacy levels. What's striking is that firstly digital can clearly play a role in helping learning that can unlock other capabilities, but also our default to expecting everything to be designed with text is a design flaw. We live in an age where people with different or more complex learning needs can access sound, videos and pictures IF we choose to represent them in what we design or how we help them to get to a point of that greater capability.

TLDR - Digital and digital exclusion is multi-faceted - let's expand our thinking.

Digital exclusion is not separate to other kinds of exclusion.

Digital as a concept - using devices, apps, web-based services etc. might have different characteristics to other forms of interaction and access. It might be relatively new vs other forms of interaction where we consider accessibility, but exclusion is exclusion.

I worry that by being treated as a totally separate thing we miss two opportunities - firstly from tapping into our learning around other forms of exclusion, but also from seeing how digital is not just access or no access, but potentially an enabler or route to driving inclusion elsewhere:

Digital can be inclusion; if it's not exclusive

If we follow this route of thinking digital can even offer an avenue to alleviating other forms of exclusion if properly thought through, and considered together. Digital at it's core is about increasing our abilities to do different things that we can't do in analogue.

Language is the most obvious one but for learning needs and styles (as above) we can provide efficient and effective mediums to support physical, psychological, cognitive and learning capabilities, and many others IF we seek to think about those needs in our design. Let's make sure that our thinking around exclusion don't create missed opportunities for inclusion.

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The above isn't a comprehensive piece of work, solely a selection of thoughts that have increasingly been in my mind, and that I wanted to put down in prose.

What other considerations do we need to have when thinking about digital inclusion or exclusion? Do you like the term? How are you addressing it? I'd love to hear your experiences in the discussion.

Liam Cahill is the founder of?Together Digital. For more articles, ideas and insight please?follow or connect with Liam here.

My other reads:

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• Digital success requires pirates, rogues and rebels. Here's 5 things you can do NOW to start unleashing them.
• To get digital right we properly need to start talking about the C word.