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.
The way forward
As we’ve set out, digital exclusion is complex and multi-faceted. The nature of exclusion will change over time, as technology changes at an ever increasing pace.
What we know now is that a significant minority of people are locked out of being online and unable to take part in things that most of us take for granted. Digital exclusion is often both a consequence of poverty and a major contributor to people being unable to escape its trap.
We also know that digital inclusion is not something that once achieved lasts forever; any one of us could fall into digital exclusion at different points in our lives.
The unfortunate reality is that digital exclusion cannot be eradicated without eradicating poverty. That is a much bigger and more complex challenge, but we strongly believe that every organisation that delivers services online - or has a desire to reduce inequality - has a responsibility to act to combat digital exclusion.
As a minimum, we must avoid making things worse for people who are already vulnerable. By doing more, digital inclusion can be the key to unlocking life changing opportunities.
However, there are no simple solutions or quick fixes. We need a response that provides the right support, at the right time and in the right place.
No single organisation can achieve this alone. We need everyone to make a commitment – big or small – to address the challenge.
This roadmap is a starting point. SCVO is committed to regaining the momentum to tackling digital exclusion in Scotland. We would love to see other organisations join us on the journey.
To help, our team can provide:
- Support to benchmark and grow the digital capabilities of your workforce
- An assessment of your organisation’s digital inclusion maturity
- In-house sessions to help develop your approach to embedding digital inclusion
- Support to develop partnerships and new place-based approaches in your local community
- Expertise on designing for digital inclusion in policy interventions and service delivery
Get in touch to start helping us close Scotland’s digital divide.