2007 PhD Thesis Final Revised.pdf - Curtin University

3.3 The digital divide and the disability divide
The occurrence of a gap between a section of society which has access to technology
and a section of society which does not have access is often referred to as a digital
divide, a term first used in the USA in the mid-1990s (World Wide Words, 1996).
Examples of a digital divide can include telecommunication facilities between city
and rural areas, computer usage between richer and poorer areas and Internet access
between the able-bodied population and people with disabilities. The existence of a
digital divide suggests that there is currently a lack of equity in the availability of
these vital technological developments. Recent research into potential digital divide
issues found that although computers and the Internet are seen as global phenomena,
there are more computers in the USA than anywhere else in the world. This
emphasises the inequity of technological provision. Furthermore, over 40% of
Internet users are from North America (Digital Divide Network, 2002). On this
basis, the use of personal computing and the Internet can be said to be unevenly
distributed in the world, with a divide between the rich nations and those who are
less well off.
Another aspect of the digital divide concerns specific groups within society
who are not gaining access to computing and Internet-related technologies. In
Australia, the government department formerly known as the National Office of the
Information Economy (NOIE), now known as the Australian Government
Information Management Office, examined this issue to determine which groups in
society suffered the most from a digital divide. The report established that the
groups least likely to access technologies such as the Internet include “…those on
low incomes, aged over 55, with disabilities, without tertiary education, or living in
rural or remote areas, of indigenous heritage” (National Office of the Information
Economy, 2002). The NOIE report confirmed that there is a digital divide between
people with disabilities and the able-bodied population in Australia and this issue is
of national importance. This report indicates that it is not simply about computer
access. The difficulties faced by people with disabilities, highlighted earlier in this
thesis, also contribute to the digital divide issues. Poverty, unemployment and a lack
59