With many services moving online, there’s a risk that today’s “digital default” culture could alienate many users.

Smartline researchers used a range of methodologies to identify the entry points and access barriers to digital inclusion within Cornwall’s communities. Can everyday digital services be adapted to reach wider communities, rather than widening gaps?

Read Smartline’s paper about how digital inclusion can be used for health and wellbeing

Why digital inclusion matters

Services may be going digital; however, ten million people in the UK don’t have the basic tech skills to access them. That’s a lot of people unable to access essential everyday services, from paying bills to booking appointments.

With one in three of these ten million people living in social housing, this community is overrepresented among the digitally excluded. These people are already more likely to experience health inequalities, and reduced access to remote services in an increasingly digitised world could make this worse.

So this is why digital inclusion matters: as more and more services go online, already-existing gaps in inequality will widen.

There are also missed opportunities. Smartline researchers have been working on using sensor data to actively manage air quality within the home. This can have a huge impact on living conditions: however, if you’ve never been introduced properly to things like monitoring devices and dashboards, how are you able to use them?

Smartline’s research into digital inclusivity

Smartline’s researchers worked with their team of 200+ participants, made up from Coastline Housing residents. The work explore if and how digital technology can support these communities?

The research began with a survey into perceptions of digital technology. The researchers wanted to know:

·        What are people’s attitudes towards digital technology, and what barriers prevent people from using it?

·        How does people’s use of digital technology relate to their health and wellbeing?

·        How can designers and service providers ensure that customers do not lose out as digital innovation races ahead?

As well as surveys, the Smartline team held focus groups, interviewed participants, and evaluated specific digital initiatives. These methods combined give us a better understanding of the perception of digital tech among the social housing community.

The findings: just how inclusive is inclusion?

The initial survey of Coastline residents showed that 21% didn’t have an internet connection at home, and 6% didn’t own a smartphone. To put this into context, in 2020, 96% of households in Great Britain had internet access at home.

The expectation that people can access online services can be immediately excluding for these householders. However, wider research showed that the community was broadly positive about new digital technologies, suggesting that access is the greater barrier, not acceptance.

Participants were especially positive about using digital tech to support health and wellbeing services, provided it supplements and doesn’t replace human contact. Another factor came across loud and clear: online services and apps must be easy to use.

What about the organisations (such as health services and housing providers) that hope to increase their online services? Technology can really help service organisations, provided it’s applied effectively throughout the service “pipeline”, with no metaphorical blocks or leaks. A targeted support system combined with joined-up technology can help organisations make the best use of limited resources.

Steps towards supportive technologies

Genuine digital inclusion means that technology on its own isn’t enough. Training and support need to be in place as well as devices and connectivity, and this must be adaptable to individual requirements such as health issues. The generally positive attitudes that Smartline’s researched demonstrated can be built on, along with the “in at the deep end” experience many people had of remote services during the pandemic.

The Smartline project identified a helpful way that can enable organisations design services around user needs. Smartline developed eight personas, based on research among the real-life community of participants. These represent broad groups of people and are a practical way of representing the characteristics of large groups. They can be used to ensure that researchers and developers gather information from a representative range of households.

What happens next?

Digital inclusivity remains an essential question in the use of sensor data to improve indoor air quality. While researchers continue to explore how sensors can be best used to monitor the internal environment, digital literacy is vital to enable householders to access and act on the sensors’ dashboard readings.

More broadly, this piece of work gives a clear picture of current digital skills and attitudes towards technology among a potentially excluded group, social housing residents. This has all sorts of potential for future research into digital health and wellbeing services.

Further reading: Find out more about the digital divide from The Good Things Foundation.