Embedding inclusion thinking into digital transformation
Tackling inequalities in health and social care requires a multi-level and multi-disciplinary approach. One way to reduce the potential negative impact of digital transformation is through Inclusive People Centred approaches. Adopting inclusive methodologies in the design, development and dissemination of digital services/products/tools with people with protected characteristics is a cost effective approach which maximises reach.
Problem statements you may want to address
How can codesign with seldom heard communities support us to tackle inequity?
What strategies should we adopt locally, regionally and nationally to address digital exclusion?
What are the ingredients needed to maximise adoption and uptake of digital services by groups resistant or less likely to engage with our offers? (workforce and community)
How do we democratize access to health and social care and ensure equity of uptake and adoption?
An approach you may want to use
Principles of an Inclusive People Centred Approach
- Actively seek and listen to voices that are underrepresented.
- Engage with people at a local level and where possible bring local knowledge to regional and national level.
- Piggy-back on good work that is already established.
- Share good practice with other teams, localities, regions, sectors.
- Strive for services and products grown together with the communities you serve.
- Aim to create agency rather than designing products that are passively bestowed upon communities
This is just one approach that I am sharing to bring pragmatism into this space. Many of you are grappling with HOW to do inclusion and this a way of building digital services, tools and products that have maximum reach. Good tech should be designed alongside communities most at risk of exclusion. If it works for these communities, it will benefit the maximum number of people.
Reach out to grassroots organisations, community leaders, local authorities and service providers catching these communities every day. The way forward requires collaboration, openness and respect. Make sure that you include people from the start and you share power. Act upon what you hear and don’t forget to go back to the community and tell them what you did as a result of them sharing.
With over 11 million adults self-assessing as digitally excluded, a further 11.5million functionally illiterate and 1.2 million people living with a learning disability, we have a moral imperative to build inclusive tech with public funds.
I have developed inclusive services, programmes and tools for over 15 years. It works! Don’t just do tech, do good tech that is fit for purpose.
