Digital Poverty Alliance
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Our 25th year and the changing shape of digital poverty
In 2001, the work that would become the Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) began with children who were being asked to learn in a world their homes were not yet equipped for.
The internet was becoming part of education. Homework, research and school communication were beginning to move online. For children without a computer at home, the gap showed up in what they could finish, how prepared they felt, and whether they had the same chance to keep up as their classmates.
Twenty-five years later, too many people are still being asked to keep up with systems, services and expectations that assume access, support and confidence they may not have.
This afternoon at the Royal Institution, the DPA launched the next National Delivery and Advocacy Plan (NDAP) and released our 25th Anniversary Impact Report. Digital poverty began for us as a question of children’s access to technology at home. It now reaches across education, work, healthcare, public services, social connection and almost every route people are expected to use to get help or move forward.
The next NDAP has been developed in that reality, setting out how the DPA will continue working with partners across the UK to make digital inclusion more practical, more coordinated and more closely connected to the way people actually live. Elizabeth Anderson, CEO, Digital Poverty Alliance, was clear that the anniversary is not separate from that work. “Our 25th year is a moment to recognise the work that has brought the DPA here, but it is also a reminder that digital poverty has not stood still,” she said. “The next National Delivery and Advocacy Plan is about making sure the response keeps pace with people’s lives.”
The afternoon included a keynote address from Baroness Armstrong and two panel discussions that placed the NDAP and 25th Anniversary Impact Report in the wider context of national action on digital inclusion. Baroness Armstrong drew the discussion into questions of essential services, participation and access. The first panel examined the UK Government’s Digital Inclusion Action Plan and the next steps for national action, while the second considered how the UK can widen digital inclusion while protecting offline alternatives for people who need them.
Access remains essential, but the afternoon made clear that it is only part of the answer. People need the right device for their circumstances and reliable connectivity, but they also need services they can use, support they can trust, skills that match the tasks in front of them and offline routes when online access is not possible or appropriate.
Original article link: https://digitalpovertyalliance.org/events/our-25th-year-and-the-changing-shape-of-digital-poverty/
