Across Ireland and Northern Ireland, both governments are making an effort to bring more people online. Amidst these sweeping plans, Northern Ireland is now being highlighted as one of the UK’s most digitally excluded zones. This comes after the non-profit, Advice NI, held its ‘Working Together For Digital Empowerment’ event on digital inclusion.

What Digital Inclusion Means

To understand digital exclusion, it helps to know what digital inclusion means. It’s the idea that everyone should have the ability to achieve a high-quality internet connection in today’s digitally enhanced world. Without the internet, there are a lot of services, experiences, and opportunities that people can miss out on.

We use the internet for a myriad of things – most critically, work – since a lot of people require online platforms or search engines to do their job properly. Those who don’t still use social media or online messaging apps to communicate and stay in touch with others. There’s also a lot of entertainment hosted online, from TV streaming services to iGaming sites where users can play casino games. This means Netflix needs the internet to beam its products to its subscribers, as does the online wing of one of the UK and Ireland’s biggest iGaming providers, Paddy Power Bingo. They host digital recreations of slots and many other games on their site, so they rely on that site being accessible to users. Another great example is Amazon — their business model is reliant on users buying from their website. These businesses show how much we use the internet today, and we’ll definitely use it for more in the future.

That’s why governments and private sectors all over Europe are trying to become more digitally inclusive – because they don’t want to leave communities behind. Poor internet today might mean you wait longer to stream a TV show but, in the future, it could lock you out of a vital digital service that isn’t available in the real world. So, it’s best to practice digital inclusivity by investing in properties – typically those in rural areas – so they can access better internet sooner rather than later. In the UK, the ongoing digital inclusivity plan is called Project Gigabit.

Digital Inclusion in Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, Advice NI is one of many non-profits trying to improve the UK’s digital future. As part of their advocacy, they want internet access to be recognised as a human right – something that other organisations and British politicians have called for in the past. For that to happen, quality internet connection needs to be widely available to everyone.

At the ‘Working Together For Digital Empowerment’ event, Advice NI’s ICT Head Patricia Donald further explained digital exclusion by saying: “The move to digital is meant to streamline services and increase accessibility, but for those without internet access, digital literacy, or the devices needed to connect, it does the opposite.”

For Northern Ireland, access isn’t the problem. Every UK constituency tracks internet speed data, producing averages tracked by the House of Commons Library. According to those figures, Northern Ireland has more favourable infrastructure than many parts of Scotland or Wales. However, digital literacy is required to take advantage of the infrastructure in your area.

Digital literacy is an issue that can fix itself with time, as citizens become more exposed to the internet. However, this often creates a stark contrast between older and younger demographics, with the older groups lacking digital literacy skills. Surveys on digital literacy, like those conducted by the Northern Ireland Research and Statistics Agency (NISRA), seem to reinforce this perspective.

Fostering participation in digital skills is difficult, as the affected people are much less likely to access learning resources, especially when many of them are found online. Programmes exist to do just that, however, and should help fight digital exclusion in Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK.