The Road to Recovery: Bridging the digital divide
The global pandemic has accelerated our move towards a digital-first world. During lockdown we have been forced to move many aspects of our lives, from work to our social lives, completely online. Public services, employers, schools, business and charities have had to rely on digital channels to deliver their services more than ever before. Local authorities have been at the heart of this.
Whilst for many of us this has meant a change in gear – we’ve gone from doing a few or a lot of things online to nearly everything – for others it has been a completely different way of doing things. Before the pandemic, of the 4 million people in the UK who have never used the internet, 3.7 million (94%) are aged 55 and over including 3.4 million (84%) aged 65 and over.
We know there are multiple and significant barriers for many of those who are not online. Whilst just having the equipment to get online is a barrier for some, we know the issues run far deeper.
