Digital Divide and Technology Access — Prelims Strategy

Prelims Strategy

Treat access indicators as a set of distinct definitions. Household possession of a smartphone is not individual ownership. Use during a recent reference period is not continuous access. A self-reported skill is not the same as performance in an independently administered test. Retain the survey's age group, geography and denominator before comparing percentages.

For policy statements, identify the barrier and the instrument. Digital literacy training addresses capability, accessible design addresses interface barriers and subsidised connectivity addresses cost or availability. The measures can complement one another, but a statement that assumes one solves the others needs scrutiny.

Practise completion calculations. If 600 of 1,000 eligible people start an application and 450 finish, completion is 75% of starters and 45% of eligible people. Neither figure is wrong; the question determines which denominator belongs in the answer. Distinguish an authentication failure from proof of ineligibility, and a database entry from completed service delivery. These are different stages of an administrative process.