Digital Inclusion Services

Technology access and digital skills are no longer a luxury; they are a necessity to access essential services, maintain social connection, engage in lifelong learning, obtain health and behavioral health services, manage finances, and participate in our democracy.

Despite the importance of technology access and digital skills, many people remain disconnected or lack the skills or financial resources needed to take advantage of all that technology offers. The digital divide is particularly acute for people with disabilities including people with serious mental health conditions.

Vinfen believes that every person should have access to technology and the skills to use it. We need new, intentional strategies and programs to ensure that people who have been left behind can cross the digital divide. Vinfen is working to improve digital inclusion among people with disabilities including people with serious behavioral health conditions. Here are some of the pilot programs we have started that we are hoping to grow and spread across the communities we serve.

VINFEN’S TECH NAVIGATOR PROGRAM IN THE LOWELL AREA

The Lowell Tech Navigator program provides one-on-one support helping people purchase and set up a device, learn new digital skills, and enroll in the low-cost federal broadband program.

Here are some of the digital skills the tech navigator teaches people:

Setting up an email account
Using Zoom to participate in telehealth
Re-setting a password
Setting daily reminders
Downloading health and wellness apps
Logging on to their patient portal
Surfing the internet
Using a mapping program to find a specific service or community event

Meet Justin, Vinfen’s tech navigator serving the Lowell area.

SMARTPHONE WELLNESS PROGRAM AT CLUBHOUSES

Vinfen’s Clubhouses offer digital literacy training to help members learn basic skills such as checking voicemail, connecting to Wi-Fi, and using the camera feature on a smartphone. The program also teaches people how to use their smartphone to support health and wellness goals such as downloading apps (i.e., meditation, nutrition, physical activity), setting medication reminders, and accessing their patient portal.

NEW: FEDERAL PROGRAM TO PROVIDE FREE OR LOW-COST HOME BROADBAND

The Affordable Connectivity Program is a new benefit program that helps ensure that households can afford the home broadband they need for work, school, healthcare, and more.

The benefit provides a discount of up to $30 per month towards internet service for eligible households. Eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers if they contribute more than $10 and less than $50 toward the purchase price.

The Digital Divide is the gap between those who have affordable access, skills, and support to effectively engage online and those who do not. As technology constantly evolves, the digital divide prevents equal participation and opportunity in all parts of life, disproportionately affecting people of color, Indigenous peoples, households with low incomes, people with disabilities, people in rural areas, and older adults. (Source: National Digital Inclusion Alliance)

WHAT IS DIGITAL INCLUSION?

Digital Inclusion refers to the activities necessary to ensure that all individuals and communities, including the most disadvantaged, have access to and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). This includes five elements:

Affordable, robust broadband internet service;
Internet-enabled devices that meet the needs of the user;
Access to digital literacy training;
Quality technical support; and
Applications and online content designed to enable and encourage self-sufficiency, participation and collaboration.

Digital Inclusion must evolve as technology advances. Digital Inclusion requires intentional strategies and investments to reduce and eliminate historical, institutional, and structural barriers to access and use technology.

WHAT IS DIGITAL EQUITY?

Digital equity is a condition in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy, and economy. Digital equity is necessary for civic and cultural participation, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential services.

It is important to note here the use of “equity” vs. “equality.” When we use the word equity, we accurately acknowledge the systemic barriers that must be dismantled before achieving equality for all.

Source: National Digital Inclusion Alliance

WHAT IS DIGITAL LITERACY?

Digital Literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills. A person with digital literacy skills:

Possesses the variety of skills – technical and cognitive – required to find, understand, evaluate, create, and communicate digital information in a wide variety of formats;
Is able to use diverse technologies appropriately and effectively to retrieve information, interpret results, and judge the quality of that information;
Understands the relationship between technology, life-long learning, personal privacy, and stewardship of information;
Uses these skills and the appropriate technology to communicate and collaborate with peers, colleagues, family, and on occasion, the general public; and
Uses these skills to actively participate in civic society and contribute to a vibrant, informed, and engaged community.

Source: National Digital Inclusion Alliance, Definitions - National Digital Inclusion Alliance; Digital Literacy Definition from American Library Association via their Digital Literacy Task Force