22 August 2005

The government's Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) is looking to make the Internet far more accessible to society's most marginalized groups.

With the advent of broadband, the quality of Internet provision is higher than ever, and should be a valuable tool in increasing the social involvement and interaction of those groups that had previously been excluded, such as disabled people, ethnic minority groups and the elderly.

However, a recent report highlighted that many people feel that the Internet is not being effectively utilised in this way, and that the digital divide is in fact growing.

Fortunately, the SEU is now addressing the issue and will make sure that the potential of the Internet to make numerous services far more accessible to everyone is realised, according to the eGov monitor.

The SEU has promised to "champion" any schemes that will utilise the Internet to address these groups' needs and "work to mainstream the benefits in national programmes."

In order to do this, the SEU will also be looking to remove unnecessary barriers preventing different departments sharing information with each other about service users.

This new report is being undertaken presently and will be published at some point this autumn.

© Adfero Ltd

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