Martha's Mission - digital inclusion

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Created on Monday, 21 September 2009

10m people in the UK have never used the internet. Of those, 4m are also socially and economically vulnerable.

I believe that by not taking action to help this group learn about the web, we are rapidly creating a sub class of people who are unable to have the same choices in their lives as those who are web literate.

With so many government services now being delivered online you are at an acute disadvantage if you are not able to search for health information… or do your CV… or look up schools… or do your homework… or fill in your tax return via a computer.

In addition, research shows that net of the cost of the computer and of the connection, people using the web save £276 per year.

I do not think it is acceptable that there is a community amongst the poorest people who are not enjoying the same access to information and the same access to savings as those who are more technically savvy. Why should I be better informed and have more choices in my life just because I am happy using the internet and have had the luxury of money and time to refine my skills?

Most of us strive to live in a more equal society and I strongly believe that digital skills are now part of creating equality. I recently said that you would not be able to be a proper citizen if you were not online – I think that the stakes are that high. Therefore, we now need to start a wide-ranging national effort to ensure that as many people as possible are brought into the digital world.

The reasons for the lack of take up are well researched – affordability, accessibility, skills and motivation. Clearly as a technology becomes more entrenched, views become hardened and people take a default position that there is nothing in it for them. With good peer to peer training and mentoring and with more mainstream stories of the transformative effects of technology that help to bring the computer alive I think the UK has the chance to become a real digital leader and close the dangerous digital divide once and for all.