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?

In this short video, Sophia from Milan Senior Welfare talks about how they explored the needs of the community they serve in Gilmerton, Edinburgh.

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:

• Making digital inclusion everyone's responsibility: a roadmap for Scotland (SCVO) (2023)
• Lloyds Consumer Digital Index (2024)
• Ofcom: Adults' media use and attitudes report (2024)

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?

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).