ABSTRACT. The NHS is committed to delivering information and services digitally wherever appropriate. However many of the people who could most benefit from digital services in health and care are the least likely to be online. They are likely to be older, less educated and in poorer health than the rest of the population. The NHS needs to take active steps to combat digital exclusion if we are to ensure nobody is left behind in the digital health revolution. From 2013-16, the NHS carried out a major national digital skills programme (called Widening Digital Participation) working with the Good Things Foundation. Evaluation of the Widening Digital Participation programme was encouraging, with positive outcomes for patients and for the NHS – including greater self reliance for minor ailments leading to reduced GP visits, and time and cost saved through making appointment bookings and prescription requests online. When renewing the programme from 2017 we took a fresh look at its focus. Phase one had been primarily a digital skills programme, and we were not convinced that this was still the major barrier. And we wanted to sharpen the focus on populations where the need was the greatest – “reaching the furthest first”. So we started with data analysis – mapping areas with high levels of digital inclusion against those with high levels of health inequality to prioritise localities where we would work. With our delivery partner, Good Things Foundation, we have been working with local “furthest first” groups in these localities (including homeless people, travellers, people with long term conditions) to explore their health behaviour and co-design solutions to digital exclusion. And, recognising that skills and attitudes of staff can be a barrier to digital inclusion, we have undertaken a discovery programme with NHS professionals, leading to production of a Guide to Digital Inclusion for Health and Social Care, launched in April 2018.

ABSTRACT. This paper analyses the degree of accessibility of the websites of the Spanish local administration for people with disabilities in the context of the Spanish Transparency Law of 2013. Local corporations are the most direct form of relationship between citizenship and public administration (Bonsón, Torres, Royos, & Flores, 2012). In this sense, as pointed out by Campillo (2012), citizens must be informed and have access to all the information on administrative actions that may affect their situation. In this scenario, Law 19/2013, of December 9, on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance was published in Spain. Despite this, the administration’s compliance with the law has not been uniform and there continues to be a problem of lack of facilities for users to access this information intelligibly. We present a novel methodology based on the definition of 16 indicators that allow to analyse whether the web pages of Spanish city councils conduct a good practice regarding the access of citizens with sociodemographic limitations or physical disabilities, which were applied to the websites of the 62 Spanish municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Based on the data obtained, there is still a significant percentage of websites that violate some of the guidelines set by AENOR (2012), which makes it difficult for citizens with visual, auditory or motor difficulties to access information. In addition, the indicators related to the groups included in Law 34/2002, of July 11, on Services of the Information Society and of Electronic Commerce (LSSICE), which regulates accessibility provisions for people with physical disabilities and elderly people, are the ones that, in a greater case, are not met. The results show that the Spanish local administration does not fully allow the digital empowerment of these citizens, hindering their right of access to information and accountability.

References AENOR (2012). Internet para todos: un desafío global, una exigencia legal, un compromiso de todos [Internet for all: a global challenge, a legal requirement, a commitment of all]. Retrieved from https:// www.aenor.es/aenor/certificacion/resp_social/accesibilidad_tic.asp#.WdUqcUwrxmA Bonsón, E., Torres, L., Royos S., & Flores, F. (2012). Local e-government 2.0: Social media and corporate transparency in municipalities. Government Information Quarterly, 29(12), 123-132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2011.10.001 Campillo Alhama, C. (2011). Investigación en comunicación municipal: estudios y aportaciones académicas [Municipal Communication Research: Academic Studies and Contributions]. Revista de Comunicación Vivat Academia, XIV(117), 1035-1048. https://doi.org/10.15178/va.2011.117E.1035-1048

ABSTRACT. what was also surprising was that they all mentioned about security issues in internet and how they could be secured, when they use internet. Medlit Researcher, North Greece, February 2018.

Media Literacy for Refugee, Asylum Seeking and Migrant Women is a two year Erasmus + European Funded project running from 1/11/17 – 31/10/19. It involves six partners, five NGOs in Italy, Austria, Malta, Ireland and Greece along with an HE institution in the UK. The goal of the project is to minimize digital inequality by building an online toolkit that can be used across Europe to identify and build refugee, asylum seeking and migrant women’s digital media literacy, specifically low-skilled women. Its foundational premise is in line with EU and UNESCO (2015) directives on the role of media literacy within democratic societies; that is, it is a corner stone of civil engagement and citizenry as well as providing the more pressing or prosaic function of gaining employability skills and avoiding marginalization. In January and February 2018, pilot desk and field research was conducted across the partnership as part of an initial output to build a methodological framework for media and digital literacy skills building. Key themes emerged from partners’ reviews of their specific national landscape in relation to media literacy, migration and gender. Many noted the paucity of national initiatives around female migrants’ digital literacy. The field research involved focus groups and interviews with 58 refugee, asylum seeking and migrant women and revealed a number of commonalities in relation to their access to media, many of which reflected on their domestic and familial roles. Differences emerged in their understanding of foundational terms, such as ‘media’; social media being the primary definition for some and ‘news’ (or broadcast media) for others. There were also compliance issues, whereby some of the participants whom had been subjected to human trafficking, would not sign release forms. This paper therefore speaks to the conference’s core theme of digital inclusion by presenting a case study of a current EU funded HE and NGO project working to increase refugee, asylum seeking and migrant women’s digital literacy.

ABSTRACT. Much emphasis has, correctly been placed on training, motivation & support as a way of encouraging people to go on line, but without basic affordable home access such a policy can only ever produce limited outcomes.

Cost of access, which will inevitably involve a contract and line rental is both a barrier and a source of ongoing budgeting issues for many low income families.

"Air fibre" ISP's need roof space for masts / transmitters. Suitable sites are often owned by Local Authorities and Social Landlords, who, in lieu of rental income from the sites could "digitally enable" their units, for the benefit of current and future tenants. This is the basis of a current project that I am involved with between an "air fibre" ISP, 6G Internexus and Leeds City Council.

The idea of digitally ready social housing is both a practical and cost effective solution to reduce digital exclusion that is largely ignored and little understood.

ABSTRACT. Demographic and cultural factors, such as age, income, education, and understanding of technology, have been associated with inequalities in access, and patterns of Internet use. While attitudes and values of Internet users and non-users have been studied over the years, they have rarely been used to identify the broader cultural meaning of the Internet and its role in shaping digital divides. Earlier research in Britain focused on patterns of values underpinning Internet cultures, and this chapter extends that research to explore the degree to which similar or distinctive cultural values have developed in seven nations around the Internet, and whether and how they are useful in explaining digital inequalities. This study uses data collected in 2017 through a Web-based survey of Internet users in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the US. The analyses show that cultures of the Internet are similar across the seven countries, but they are partially predicted by different individual level factors, such as age, education, and Internet skills. We find that these cultures play a significant role in predicting digital inequalities

ABSTRACT. This paper will discuss the trends in digital capability found by our 1m data sample over the last three years, and the calls to action emerging from the dataset.

ABSTRACT. Presenting emergent findings and sharing best practice, this paper addresses a pressing and previously little-researched area of digital literacy: how to create an ‘authentic’ online self. The need to create online identities via social media is embedded for everyone in our digital age. The Digital Strategy policy paper (2017, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-strategy), for example, puts digitality at the centre of the UK’s future, stating, eg: ‘within 20 years 90% of all jobs will require some element of digital skills’; ‘An estimated 1.2 million new technical and digitally skilled people are needed by 2022 to satisfy future skills needs’. The technical challenges associated with digital engagement alone can exclude citizens. Yet, increasingly, the public and private selves we create via social media are so complex and intermingling that they reveal ‘a transmediated self constituted as a browsable story-world’ (Elwell, 2013) which should also be – to add a further challenge - ‘authentic’ (Adsit, 2015). Scholars such as Kress (2010), Mihailidis and Cohen (2013) and Harper (2015) note the pressing need in education to consider questions of how to create public identities and the corresponding significant pedagogical gap. Taking a teacher-practitioner stance and drawing on an ongoing programme of research (represented by publications inc Barnard 2013, 2016, 2017), this paper presents new empirical data from a pedagogical pilot which was conducted at a UK University Oct 2017-April 2018. The Oct 2017-April 2018 pilot utilised Twitter accompanied by evaluation sheets (to enable qualitative and quantitative assessment) with a diverse group of creative writing students with the aim of testing whether the skills needed to create an ‘authentic’ online self can be taught and, if so, how. Key aims of the presentation are: to provide participants with a toolkit of tried and tested strategies that can be ‘rolled out’ in education and more widely; to reach a new theoretical position on how to measurably aid digital inclusion.

References:

Adsit, Janelle (2015). ‘Giving an account of oneself: Teaching identity construction and authorship in creative nonfiction and social media’ Chap. 9 in Creative Writing in the Digital Age: Theory, practice and pedagogy edited by Michael Dean Clark, Trent Hergenrader and Joseph Rein pp. 105-120. London: Bloomsbury Academic

Barnard, J. (2015) ‘Live and public: one practitioner’s experience and assessment of Twitter as a tool for archiving creative process’, in Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, Writing-PAD (issue 7:3; pp. 493-503).

Barnard, J. (2016) ‘Tweets as microfiction: on Twitter’s live nature and 140 character limit as tools for developing storytelling skills’, in New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, 13:1, Routledge, DOI:10.1080/14790726.2015.1127975, pp. 3-16.

Barnard, J. (2017) ‘Testing Possibilities: on negotiating writing practices in a “postdigital” age (tools and methods)’, in New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, 14: 2, Routledge, DOI: 10.1080/14790726.2016.127802; pp. 275-289.

Barnard, J. (forthcoming) The Multimodal Writer: Creative Writing Across Genres and Media. London: Palgrave Macmillan

Elwell, J. Sage (2014) ‘The transmediated self: Life between the digital and the analog’. In Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Vol. 20(2) Sage pp. 233–249

Great Britain. Commons Select Committee, Culture Media and Support (2013), ‘Written evidence submitted by Josie Barnard [SCE 088]’ in HC 743 Support for the creative economy. London: DCSS, Nov 2012 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmcumeds/writev/suppcrec/m088.htm. Kress, Gunther (2010). Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. London: Routledge Mihailidis, Paul, and James N. Cohen. 2013. “Exploring Curation as a Core Competency in Digital and Media Literacy Education.” Journal of Interactive Media in Education (1):2. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/2013-02.

ABSTRACT. Most approaches to understanding and overcoming digital exclusion have three elements in common: motivation, access and skills. Focusing on enhancing citizenship and counteracting social exclusion, early digital inclusion initiatives in the UK recognised that the lack of motivation to be online was a major factor. Since the financial crisis of 2008, there has been a significant shift in the focus of digital inclusion campaigning towards hard material benefits such as: financial benefits; improving the educational attainment of children; enhancing employment prospects of the unemployed; and improving the wage levels. The background information and research used to justify each of these claimed benefits will be examined and the extent to which these benefits are realised by poorer working age people will be questioned.

In the context the UK government’s “digital by default” policy, digital exclusion has consequences for citizens’ engagement with the state and possible serious consequences for those highly dependent on the state. We therefore argue that academic researchers, practitioners and policy makers need to take seriously a number of urgent actions:

1. Updated and refreshed research on the material benefits of digital engagement for working age poor. 2. Rigorous systematic reviews of the global academic evidence for educational and employment benefits. 3. Rigorous research into the contribution of digital exclusion to broader social exclusion. 4. A review of national and local government approaches to digital inclusion.

ABSTRACT. Abstract

The costs for nursing home and assisted living care have grown at rates higher than overall inflation, whereas the cost of in-home care increased at 1% or less over the last five years, according to Genworth Financial. In 2013, the median national cost for nursing homes grew to almost $84,000 versus about $65,000 in 2012, and costs of in residence care by 2017 approached $100,000 per year. Pew found that almost 90% of seniors want to live at home as they age. However, seniors and especially those with disabilities such as impaired vision and limited mobility have difficulty functioning in home without a full-time caregiver. In 2010, 3.1% of Americans aged 65 or older and 3.2% of those aged 75 to 84 lived in nursing homes, the census found. Almost one-fourth of those 95 and older resided in nursing homes. Today, almost 40% of those 65 or older have at least one disability, the government's December National Institute on Aging Report found, and many of these disabilities prevent the aging from living at home alone. Some families have discovered that elderly parents can be easily trained to use voice command, contact preprogrammed smart phones which empower the aged for socialization instead of isolation. Siri can aid in tending to all sorts of daily needs, including medication schedules, time telling, and obtaining weather forecasts. She can facilitate contact with friends, family and even first responders, all by the spoken word.

This study explores the possibility of smart phones and artificial intelligence as the primary care companion for the infirm and elderly. The research subjects for this study and their families chart the sometimes humorous and frequently touching stories of Siri as the primary helper and information source for the aged, reflecting the potential for independence and personal care that digital technology can bring to the those aging in home. Additionally, this report analyzes the economic benefits gained by incorporating digital technology into the plan for in-home care-giving, benefitting both government agencies and families, and the enhanced life quality technology can bring to the elderly and disabled individuals who choose to live on their own.

ABSTRACT. Digital transformation can be challenging. How do you ensure your customers aren’t left behind in the digital age? How do you improve services, save money, empower and upskill staff and ensure that your customers can benefit from digital delivery? Switch is a unique digital inclusion approach providing: O Local partnership engagement. O A comprehensive Baseline Report O A strategic action plan. O Recruitment and training of Digital Champions. O An evaluation and monitoring framework Citizens Online DIGITAL INCLUSION EXPERTS

We help organisations ensure everyone can access their online services. We’re digital inclusion experts with a unique and resilient partnership approach. An award winning charity with a depth of knowledge and experience built in over 50 communities in the UK since 2000, Citizens Online use an evidence based approach and support Digital Champions at the heart of any change programme. As part of the One Digital consortium we help broker strong local partnerships with a range of different organisations - no single partner can tackle this alone. We’re cost effective, agile, responsive and provide an end-to-end approach; working at the heart of communities to embed online services and digital skills.

ABSTRACT. The internet is increasingly ubiquitous and is playing a central role in many aspects of people’s lives. But that’s not the case for everyone and the picture is really different depending on who you are. This presentation will tackle a number of important questions: • How many people are not currently online? Who are they? What’s the impact of age and class? • What about those who are online? Is everyone using the internet to the same extent? Is everyone able to make critical judgements about the content they consume online? For non-users of the internet we will explore: • the incidence within the overall adult population; • their demographic profile; • whether they have asked someone else to use the internet on their behalf; and • their reasons for not going online. We will also look at the incidence and demographic profile of newer and narrow internet users. Finally, among those who are online, we will look at a range of online activities and behaviours and how these differ by age and class, including: • the extent to which people transact and are able to compare deals online; • use of the internet to access Government or other public or civic services; • whether people understand how online content is funded; • attitudes towards and behaviour around online privacy; • whether people know when they are being advertised to online; • how people decide what content to trust. The paper will present data from Ofcom’s major annual quantitative adults’ media literacy tracker survey, providing data on changes in adults’ media use and attitudes since 2005.

We will illustrate our findings with compelling video footage from Adults’ Media Lives, a unique ethnographic research project consisting of in-home video interviews with largely the same 19 participants every year for 13 years.

ABSTRACT. Digital inclusion is no longer simply a social program giving people access better opportunities through the use of information and computing technology. Digital inclusion is now a civic and economic imperative. Civic leaders recognize that digital equity is integral to their ability to achieve their mission. Better connected cities, town, and states attract more technology-based investment, generate more innovation, streamline supply chains, and generate new opportunities for individuals and businesses. Government leaders at all levels find that investments in digital equity reap benefits across the economy from education to healthcare; from agriculture to transportation; and from tourism to daily quality of life.

We’ll explore five major policy trends that are driving broadband access and digital inclusion in the United States including:

1. Measuring broadband availability and computer and Internet use

2. Including broadband and digital inclusion as an eligible expense in government programs and funding streams

3. Providing digital literacy, hotspot lending, and coding programs at public libraries

4. Creating city-wide, regional, and state-wide broadband and digital inclusion programs

5. Leveraging federal funding to promote targeted private investments in areas with the most need

ABSTRACT. Embedded digital inclusion leaders play an increasingly larger role in anchor institutions to further help develop and expand the capacity of digital inclusion initiatives (home and public broadband, in-person tech mentors, devices, and meaningful and relevant digital literacy education) in the communities they serve. Fellowships and other initiatives allow for disruption from business as usual, an introduction to innovative ideas, and the development of long-standing, sustainable digital inclusion programming. More and more, these positions are becoming permanent. This paper is a case study of the digital inclusion initiative, The Tech League, at the Salt Lake City Public Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The case study will discuss the introduction of a fellowship, launching the Tech League digital inclusion initiative, creating internal structures to support as sustainable volunteer tech mentor project, the impact on the community, highlight key stake stakeholders and community partners, the creation of a permanent Digital Inclusion Coordinator position, and discuss the resulting leadership roles in local, state, and national digital inclusion alliances.This paper will offer new ways of thinking about digital equity, a variety of approaches being applied for information equity across the United States, and recommendations for anchor institutions and other organizations that want to add dedicated digital inclusion staff.

ABSTRACT. Britain’s economy could be boosted by £1.5bn by 2020 if as few as 30 towns across the country are given access to better digital infrastructure and technology. Digital technology can transform towns outside of London and the South East and re-balance the current North-South economic divide.

The Report called “Rebalancing Britain: Inspiring thriving Digital Communities” is based on O2’s Digital Communities pilot in partnership with St Helens Council between October and December 2015. It used technology to tackle poor productivity levels among local businesses, address digital skills shortages and improve access to connectivity.

My Presentation will review this Case Study, assess the impact of the pilot and make recommendations to help fuel Britain’s economic growth and digital inclusion, particularly in the North of England.

ABSTRACT. Digital inclusion: Is telecentre strategy a viable option in Nigeria?

Telecenters have become important strategy for providing universal access to information and communication technologies for personal and national development. Developing countries in Africa, including Nigeria, harness telecentre strategy as response to their chronic lack of infrastructure, to provide basic access to telephone services, internet and other ICT services.

Nigeria maintains the largest economy in Africa and the largest mobile market, with 140 million active subscribers, contributing 9.8 % of the nation’s GDP. Despite the mobile success story, it has been suggested by the Hon Minister of Communications Technology that over 20% of the land mass of Nigeria, with a population estimated at thirty-six million, has no access to basic telephony.

This study aims to ascertain: Adequacy of Institutional framework and universal access/ service law and regulation, gazetted in 2003 and 2007 respectively, in dealing with inclusion matters; 2) Extension of broadband access and internet exchange points (IXP) to unserved and underserved areas of Nigeria; 3) Availability of online access to e-government, e-education, e-finance, e-health and other public services, and the provision of complementary digital literacy to stimulate demand; 4) Existence of independent statutory consumer body to advocate on behalf of the communities.

The study is guided by stakeholder engagement concept, to provide optimal scale for assessing the discourse on digital inclusion. Three-stage methodology is adopted: examine institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks that deal with universal access/service to identify gaps and possible conflict with other policy options; examine feasibility of approach in terms of cost, community engagement and sustainability; and interview stakeholders involved with project adoption and implementation. Internet inclusion is precursor of participation in global economy and hence important in developed and developing counties too.

ABSTRACT. Background:This article explores the relationship between social class and social media use and draws on the work of Pierre Bourdieu in examining class in terms of social, economic, and cultural capital. The article starts from a prior finding that those who predominantly only use social media formed a higher proportion of Internet users from lower socioeconomic groups. Data: The article draws on data from two nationally representative U.K. surveys, the OfCom (Office of Communications) Media Literacy Survey (n ≈ 1,800 per annum) and the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Taking Part Survey (n ≈ 10,000 per annum). Methods: Following Yates, Kirby, and Lockley, five types of Internet behavior and eight types of Internet user are identified utilizing principal components analysis and k-means clustering. These Internet user types are then examined against measures of social, economic, and cultural capital. Data on forms of cultural consumption and digital media use are examined using multiple correspondence analysis. Findings: The article concludes that forms of digital media use are in correspondence with other social, cultural, and economic aspects of social class status and contemporary social systems of distinction.