The Road to Recovery: Bridging the digital divide

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.

In this webinar we explored what we can learn from the past few months about how to support people to get online and stay online, and what measures we must take to avoid exacerbating inequalities between the digitally included and excluded. 

Speakers:

• Chair: Jemma Mouland, Senior Innovation & Change Manager, Ageing Better  
• Alice Mathers, Good Things Foundation, Head of Research  
• Rachel Benn, Leeds City Council, Digital Inclusion Coordinator  
• Kristina Leonnet, Senior Innovation & Change Manager, Ageing Better 

Can't tune in to the live broadcast? 

All our events are recorded and are available to watch on our YouTube channel. 

Questions for our panel? Email them to [email protected] 

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