A new approach to digital inclusion  

About this website

This website aims to raise awareness on the issue of digital exclusion by helping people empathise with the digitally excluded. It is the result of a joint effort by the European Training Foundation (ETF), the EU agency working to support education and training in EU neighbouring countries, and the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO), a UN agency promoting decent work through learning and training. 

The problem is simple: more than 50 years after the internet appeared, and despite the growing number of devices collected to the web, many people are still excluded from the benefits offered by digital technologies, To foster more inclusive digital societies, we have been collaborating on the issue of digital inclusion starting with the Digital Inclusion Summit in July 2021, the publication of "4 to 42 - A digital inclusion handbook" (winner of the Paris Design Award), and the “Becoming e-Quals” poster competition in collaboration with Posterheroes. In a nutshell, we believe that we must work to create a new digital inclusion culture, focussing less on technological headsets and more on innovative mindsets.

 

Resources

Three introductory resources on digital inclusion

• To know more about the state of the art of the digital inclusion movement, read this article by ITCILO.

• To understand the role of digital literacies for inclusion, listen to this podcast by ETF.

• Search for digital inclusion practices and projects in the Digital Inclusion Navigator by the World Economic Forum, in the DigitalInclusion.eu database of the European Commission or in the resources on digital inclusion page by the International Telecommunications Union.

Three resources for inclusive web development

• The W3Consortium has produced an introduction to Web Accessibility

• Discover how to make your websites accessible to all through the Ten Principles of Inclusive Web Design and the Guide on How to Design an Accessible Website

• Explore how people with disabilities use the web in this webpage

Three resources for digitally inclusive education and training

• Browse the Handbook on inclusive digital education by the e-Inclusion project

• Check out the UNESCO Guidelines for digital inclusion

• Go deeper with the article "Rethinking inclusive (digital) education: lessons from the pandemic to reconceptualise inclusion through convivial technologies"

Three resources for digitally inclusive projects and interventions

• See the General guidelines for developing digital inclusion interventions by the Centre for Digital Inclusion of the University of Twente

• Make sure you use the checklist for digital inclusion by the UK government

• Learn how to start and run digitally inclusive programmes through this toolkit

Other resources

• Edison Alliance - Digital Inclusion Navigator

• Good Things Foundation - Doing Digital Inclusion: Disability handbook

Collaborate with us!

This website is a starting point. Whether used with students in school or with colleagues at work, this website may trigger debates and discussions around digital exclusion and inclusion.

To make this happen, we are looking for like-minded partners to promote, translate, and propose new ideas on how this can represent the beginning of new initiatives. If you are interested, please get in touch with us through the contact form below.

Join the Community!

Are you interested in digital inclusion news? Then join our Community of Practice, in collaboration with DigiCo, to participate in events and discussions, have access to our Resource Hub and interact with other members! Please fill in this form; we will grant you access to our Community shortly after.
Thank you for your interest!