Giving a Voice to the ‘Hard to Hear’ - Informing Digital Futures: Strategies for Citizen Engagement - page 77

5 Giving a Voice to the 'Hard to Hear'
In making the case for citizen engagement, Chapter 3 has already raised
the issue of the digital divide and the potential for new digital technologies
to exacerbate social exclusion. The need to engage with all citizens in or-
der to design ICTs which can be used successfully by the general public
has been emphasised repeatedly. Many of those at risk of exclusion may
for a variety of different reasons, be 'hard to hear' by planners, policy
makers and designers. These groups include, for example, the elderly, the
disabled, young people, ethnic minorities, those on low incomes, the
homeless or itinerant groups. Many governments have stated their con-
cerns and objectives to extend the benefits of ICT to all citizens, including
those regarded as coming from such marginalised groups. Certainly in the
UK, the 'hard to reach' or the 'hard to hear' are attracting increasing atten-
tion, in fact rather more than other citizens. The Digital Inclusion Panel
was set up by UK Government in 2004, bringing together stakeholders
from the public, private and voluntary sectors. The aim was to identify
groups most at risk of digital exclusion, identify future actions that might
encourage digital take-up, and to make recommendations about how indus-
try, government and the voluntary sector can work together to drive a
'digitally United Kingdom'. There have been many other initiatives sup-
ported by other government departments in the UK such as the Home
Computing Initiative (HCI), which encourages employers to loan PCs for
home/flexible working. A number of community-led initiatives (e.g. Access
to Broadband Campaign, Community Broadband Network) also address
social exclusion issues, including geographic isolation. There are thought
to be around 400 such community projects with varying degrees of sophis-
tication and impact.
Internationally a vast number of initiatives, projects and programmes of
varying size, scale and scope are addressing similar issues. Although sub-
stantial resources and efforts are being invested in promoting social inclu-
sion, documentation of the processes involved, the approaches and methods
used and their effectiveness in increasing levels of inclusion is in short
supply. This chapter is intended to inform the proliferating projects and
programmes which have a mission to engage with the 'hard to hear'.
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