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Supporting Scotland's vibrant voluntary sector

Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Charity registered in Scotland SC003558. Registered office Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh EH3 6BB.

Understanding digital inclusion

Understanding digital exclusion, and how it impacts on people, is the first step in any organisation's digital inclusion journey. Understanding the problem is essential before you start developing solutions. Every organisation is different. We have different user groups, different workforce requirements, different models of delivery and different working cultures. What works for one organisation may not work for another.

Key actions

  • Research digital exclusion and its prevalence
  • Understand your user needs
  • Benchmark your workforce digital skills
  • Create a business case for embedding digital inclusion

What problem are we trying to solve?

Before developing solutions, start with the problem. Digital exclusion can be a complex issue and affects people differently. Here are some of our ideas on what you might want to understand before you start developing your approach.

Digital exclusion in Scotland

Take some time to research digital exclusion. This can be helpful to understand the context of the problem, and how it impacts on the communities and people you work with. Remember that digital exclusion is the absence of motivation to be online, a device, connectivity, or skills and confidence. Different reports may focus on different elements of this. You can find a collection of publications in our digital inclusion research library, but here are our go-to reports to get started:

User research

Now that you've got a broad understanding of digital exclusion in Scotland you can use this to guide some user research. This is essential as digital exclusion affects people in different ways. Some people may have financial barriers, while others may lack the literacy and language skills to navigate the digital world. Others may be suspicious or disinterested in being online. By understanding these user needs your organisation will be better placed to develop a solution that works. In our experience, many organisations have found that including a few digital questions on an intake form a successful way of understanding user needs, or you may want to facilitate a focus group. Questions you may want to consider as part of your user research can include:

  • Do you have any digital devices at home? If so, what kind?
  • Do you have an internet connection at home? If no, why?
  • What do you use the internet for? Why?
  • What don't you use the internet for? Why?
  • Are there things that you don't like or scare you about the internet?
  • Are there things you wish you could do on the internet that you can't do right now?

If you want to do a deeper dive on your user needs you can do the Essential Digital Skills for Life check-up with the people you support. SCVO can help you with this, or you can do the online check-up with individuals and have the results emailed upon completion.

Workforce digital skills

We can't forget that our workforce may be impacted by digital exclusion too. Having a digitally confident workforce is an essential part of digital inclusion. Undertaking a workforce digital skills audit can help understand where your organisation has strengths and gaps in digital skills. The results of an audit can help inform an organisational learning and development plan. SCVO can help you design and deploy a workforce digital skills audit, and we'll even do a lovely report for you (a handy resource for making a business case to your senior leaders or board).

Making a business case for digital inclusion

A business case can help make sense of the research you have undertaken. It’s a helpful tool that can be used to influence others in the organisation and give you a clear mandate for embedding digital inclusion in core service delivery.  In your business case you may consider the following headings:

  • An outline of what digital exclusion is and its prevalence in Scotland;
  • How digital exclusion affects the people you work with (user research);
  • The benefits of embedding digital inclusion for the people you work with;
  • The benefits of embedding digital inclusion for your organisation;
  • The resources you will need to do this (see our section on Resource);
  • Who your stakeholders and partners will be (see our section on Partnership);
  • How you'll measure impact (see our section on Impact).

Need some help? No problem. We can deliver a session with your organisation to help develop your business case through our free digital inclusion sessions. You can also use this digital inclusion action plan template to help guide your process.

How we did it: Carr Gomm

Find out how Carr Gomm used action research methods in their Digital Inclusion Research Project (DIRP) to learn more about the digital needs of the people they support.

Resources

Downloadable template for your planning
by SCVO

A curated library of digital inclusion publications and reports.
by SCVO

Free in-house digital inclusion sessions.
by SCVO

An online tool to check your digital skills.
by SCVO

Last modified on 24 October 2024
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