Digital inclusion

Why disabled people are at risk of digital exclusion and what the Office for Disability Issues is doing to address this issue

Digital inclusion and disabled people

Digital inclusion provides people with wider choice and empowerment around the major areas of their lives. By ensuring that disabled people have access to technologies such as computers and the internet, mobile personal digital assistants (PDAs) and digital TV, digital inclusion opens up many social, financial and entertainment benefits of the internet.

Digital inclusion can also improve:

employment and learning opportunities
access to services and information, including public services

Digital technologies are becoming an essential part of modern society. However, disabled people face unique barriers when accessing information and services online. These barriers can include:

lack of physical access to computers: disabled people are less likely than non-disabled people to own an internet-enabled computer or use a public terminal
inaccessible websites: standard web accessibility guidelines focus on visual impairments and are less useful at addressing the needs of users with cognitive or motor-control impairments.

Delivering digital inclusion

The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) offers guidance and tools to help anybody working with disabled people make digital information and services more inclusive, including:

guidance for producing inclusive online communications
the ODI Accessible Media Player, available for use across the public and private sectors
the ODI Image Library.

ODI encourages government departments to involve disabled people in their digital inclusion work.

ODI is working with Race Online 2012 to ensure disabled people have improved access to computers and can interact with key public services online. It is also working across government on the e-Accessibility Action Plan to help businesses improve and enhance their engagement with disabled customers.

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Beyond the Office for Disability Issues

Page last reviewed: 04 November 2010