Our Future Depends on Digital Inclusion
As we continue to break down barriers in the tech-world, reaching new heights of innovation day to day, it is nice to step back and marvel at the challenges we have surmounted. Nevertheless, one beast of a challenge has recently reared it’s head, digital inclusion. What is digital inclusion? In the designing of technology, the idea of digital inclusion serves to bring attention to whether or not the design of the technology is meeting the needs of everyone it is hoping to targert. ¹
Companies and designers “inclusion” of digital inclusion is essential to the creation of technology that will thrive and reach everyone across society. The most difficult aspect of this idea is that it is hard to catch. For example, researchers presented a case study in which they analyzed social media from the perspective of underrepresented youth.² Although social media may seem like a place to express individuality and involvement, the opposite has been expressed by underrepresented youth.² Algorithms tendency to promote racist content or inability to express one’s self due to media templates are a few examples of this at work.²
Aside from social media, digital inclusion can be seen at work in other areas as well. Healthcare has it’s own share of disparities due to an inability to reach all individuals they are servicing to.³ There has been concern that there is a lack of inclusion of sex differences in medicine.³ Understanding the effect of sex on the different risk factors and disease symptoms must be incorporated into the artificial intelligence systems.³ The databases and robotics used in healthcare must be acclimated to this factor of digital inclusion or health outcomes could suffer.³
How then do we reach everyone in society through our digital design? The answer is to include those very people in the design. We must be keenly aware of the areas where we lack perspective and then collaborate with those who have a better perspective in that area. ¹ The future of technology depends on digital inclusion.
References
- Campaign. “Recognizing Exclusion Is the Key to Inclusive Design: In Conversation with Kat Holmes.” Campaign US, Campaign, 31 July 2018, www.campaignlive.com/article/recognizing-exclusion-key-inclusive-design-conversation-kat-holmes/1488872.
- Brough M, Literat I, Ikin A. “Good Social Media?”: Underrepresented Youth Perspectives on the Ethical and Equitable Design of Social Media Platforms. Social Media + Society. April 2020. doi:10.1177/2056305120928488
- Cirillo, D., Catuara-Solarz, S., Morey, C. et al. Sex and gender differences and biases in artificial intelligence for biomedicine and healthcare. npj Digit. Med. 3, 81 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-0288-5
