Measuring Digital Inequality in Australia: the Australian Digital Inclusion Index
Main Article Content
Keywords
digital inclusion, digital divide, Australian Digital Inclusion Index
Abstract
In the past two decades digital inequality has come to be understood as a complex, evolving and critical issue in Australia, as it has elsewhere. This conceptual shift has generated demand for more complex measurement tools that can capture and combine multiple and graduated indicators of digital inequality. The Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII), developed in 2015 and now including annual data covering the period 2014 to 2018, is a composite index that addresses this demand. This paper describes the development of the ADII, its architecture and the dataset used to populate it. It also provides an overview of the findings of the 2018 edition of the index. The 2018 index reveals that, although on aggregate digital inclusion is improving in Australia, it continues to follow distinct geographic, social and socio-economic contours. In general, rural and regional Australians, older Australians and Australians with low levels of income, employment, and education are less digitally included than their compatriots. For some of these groups the inclusion gap is widening.
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Copyright Telecommunications Association Inc.
Chris K Wilson, Centre for Social Impact, Swinburne University
Dr Chris K Wilson is Research Fellow with the Centre for Social Impact, Swinburne University of Technology. For more than 20 years, he has been involved in planning and conducting interdisciplinary social research that engages concepts and methodologies drawn from economics, human geography, history, media studies, education, and policy studies. Chris is currently the principal Research Fellow for the Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII) project, a collaborative venture between Swinburne University, RMIT University, Telstra and Roy Morgan Research.
Julian Thomas, RMIT University
Julian Thomas is Professor of Media and Communication at RMIT University. He leads the team producing the Australian Digital Inclusion Index (Telstra, 2016-), and publishes widely on the social aspects of communications policy and regulation. Julian has considerable experience in communications consumer issues, and is currently a representative on the Telstra CEO’s Consumer Roundtable, and an elected Board member of the Australian Communications Consumers Action Network (ACCAN). He works on digital inclusion and the implications of automated systems for consumers and technology users.
Jo Barraket, Centre for Social Impact, Swinburne University
Jo Barraket is Professor and Director of the Centre for Social Impact Swinburne. Her research interests include social enterprise, the interaction between governments and civil society in policy development, and the socio-political effects of online technologies.
