What Is the Digital Divide?

The Digital Disability Divide

The digital disability divide exists between people with impairments and those without impairments. The digital disability divide is seen in relation not only to access but also to accessibility and usability. For people with impairments, new technological innovations offer solutions for everyday challenges. Such as, finding information, communicating with others and using electronic services.

A lack of societal incentives for the increased inclusion of those with disabilities aggravates the digital disability divide. Government initiatives in regulating accessibility standards and providing support programs are crucial in empowering people with technology to reduce the digital disability divide. The role of assistive technology is to overcome the gap between what people with disabilities want to do and what the existing social infrastructure allows them to do. Societal inclusion is not just about enabling technologies and accessible services, but rather should be more about effective design around real life experiences. That is, education, skills development, and social behaviour must be an inclusive interactive engagement, so as to understand and remove real barriers to close the digital divide.
Digital disability divide in information society: A framework based on a structured literature review, University of Turku

Communication Barriers

Design is all around us, but for the most part it reflects the perception of the designer, and if the product or service fails your need then the design concepts are flawed. So, design is the bridge that overcomes barriers between the delivery of information and the understanding knowledge that impacts life decisions for greater Productivity, Inclusion and Communications.
Web Key IT: Digital Accessibility Perceptions, Expectations and Reality (White Paper)

  • Productivity:
    That enables employees to be productive and satisfied through performance and security design strategies.
  • Inclusion:
    That integrates people, products, and services through multiple means of representation, multiple means of expression, and multiple means of engagement design strategies.
  • Communications:
    That informs people, builds knowledge, and creates confidence through information technology standards and best practice design strategies.

Disability Design Principles

Sustainable business growth is a major challenge in our era of global digital economic transformation, and Accessibility is at the heart of success in a highly competitive business environment. That is, bridging the digital divide is about closing the gap between leadership understanding of Accessibility, and management implementation of Accessibility, through effective productivity, inclusion, and communication strategies. To help create a barrier free society, governments around the world, are implementing accessibility standards based on four core principles.