“Many Canadians still face barriers that keep them from participating in the digital world,” she says a Deloitte Canada report presented on Tuesday. The company conducted an extensive study to paint a picture of the country’s “digital equity,” or access to the Web and digital technologies, across a variety of criteria.
Its results bear witness to a reality far removed from the utopia of the beginnings of the Internet, which at the time was believed to be accessible to all.
Deloitte surveyed nearly 2,000 Canadians about their use of the web and digital technologies in the fall of 2021 and consulted a panel of experts to define the criteria for the study. This is how they analyzed, for example, access to bandwidth, device accessibility, digital literacy, cybersecurity, online discrimination, among many other topics.
It’s no longer just about access to devices, but also about trust [ainsi que] education
The study shows in particular that some communities, especially Aboriginal people and people of colour, are particularly disadvantaged in terms of access to the digital world.
“Certain demographic groups – indigenous peoples, members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, people of color, new immigrants, people with disabilities and women, for example – are more exposed to economic inequalities due to [d’inégalités] systemic and, therefore, are more likely to encounter barriers to digital equity,” the report states.
The cost of tech devices remains one of the top economic barriers raised in the paper: “Households earning less than $40,000 a year were twice as likely to cite the cost of the devices as a barrier [à l’accès au Web] compared to those making more than $150,000 a year. »
Jaimie Boyd, Partner and National Digital Government Group Leader at Deloitte, said in an interview with The duty, that “it’s no longer just about access to devices, but also about trust and education”. He adds that “if you are an Indigenous person in Canada, you are twice as likely to experience bullying online. Aboriginal people are therefore much less motivated to have social experiences on the web”.
Deloitte’s report shows that “only 44% of respondents under 35 believe their education has prepared them to succeed in a digital economy”, and that “nearly half [47 %] of respondents say they do not know the resources to acquire digital skills”.
Also for this M.myself Boyd would like governments across the country to adopt “a broader definition” of digital equity. “The figures we have found are worrying,” he says, advocating better coordination between levels of government and greater collaboration with indigenous peoples.
