Life Matters
The ability to use ICT’s has become the indispensable gammar of modern life (Wills 1999); from sending text messages, navigating facebook and even watching T.V have become routine, mundane activities that our media saturated societies have come to take for granted. However the trouble is that these complex websites and applications are riddled with issues that can completely hinder access of people with a disability. The introduction of new technologies always sees people with disabilities overlooked, omitted, neglected and forgotten. So much so that Natasha Mitch sums it up when stating that excluding disabled people for emerging technologies is “the equivalent of forgetting to build a wheel chair ramp on ABC’s, Life Matters program.
The digital divide can be defined as the gap between individuals, households, geographic areas, and countries in regard to their access to ITCs. However when most people consider the digital divide, we are often effected by a temporary short of tunnel vision that brings to mind a rural, third world country family without access to an internet connection or computer. We do not at first recognise that it exists within our own immediate environments. However the digital divide is multi-dimensional and occurs across many levels of social inclusion or exclusion. According to Norris (2001) these include 1) the global divide pertaining to the gap between industrialised and developing nations; 2) the social divide which refers to the disparity that exists among the population with a nation; and 3) a demographic divide which points to a gap between the individuals who use and do not use ICT’s to participate in public life.