Wales’ Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS) is planning to publish an online directory of sources of support on digital inclusion.
It is currently reviewing what is being done around the country to help get people online and using digital services, and aims to complete the first version of the directory soon after Easter.
This is part of its review of the national digital landscape – outlined in a recent UKAuthoriity interview with the co-heads of CDPS Myra Hunt and Harriet Green – and will include an overview of what organisations are doing across Wales.
Aoife Clark, user researcher on the project, said in a blogpost that the team has spoken with 18 organisations in recent weeks about how they are improving digital inclusion, and presented its work to the Digital Inclusion Alliance Wales, Digital Services for Patients and the Public and the Digital Inclusion and Skills Programme Board.
She said the work so far has shown that digital inclusion is an issue that affects social inequalities but that that there are hundreds of organisations keen to make a positive difference. She cited initiatives such as training courses in libraries and local authority programmes to build people’s digital skills.
Two purposes
“Getting the full picture of digital inclusion work across Wales will help to us to do two things,” she said. “First, we’ll be able to guide Welsh Government policy to get more people online.
“Second, the directory will allow organisations involved in digital inclusion, and the people they help, to find out what else is happening nearby. That will give opportunities to share knowledge and work on projects together.
“The percentage of people who are not online in Wales has dropped from 19% to 7% in the past six years. We believe the digital inclusion directory can help to bring that figure down even further.”
