Make your website or app accessible to as many people as possible. Digital inclusion

Digital inclusion is the next step beyond digital accessibility.

Digital accessibility is quite practical. It’s mainly about removing barriers through design and code. Digital inclusion is much broader. How can you make your product or service usable for as wide a group as possible? That is the key question.

Not everyone is equally comfortable using the internet

Digital inclusion means taking into account people who find it harder to navigate the digital world.

These may be people with a physical or mental disability. But they may also be people who find the internet complicated because they have limited digital skills. People who find it difficult to assess the value of information, or people who are quick to distrust information found online. People with an old laptop or smartphone, because a new one is too expensive. Or people who use a computer at the community centre because they don’t have one at home.

There are plenty of people for whom using your digital service or product isn’t second nature – and you need to take that into account.

Digital inclusion is a mindset

Digital inclusion is a mindset that you apply when developing your product or service. It’s about identifying blind spots: who is unable to use our product? And what can we do to address that?

Sometimes it’s as simple as writing a user guide and sending it out. But it’s also about thinking about what you offer to people who don’t want to or can’t use digital services: where can they turn? Is there an offline helpdesk?