Query: unemployement digital divide

title: Impact of the digital divide in the age of COVID 19
abstract: In early 2020, talks of preparation for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) were furiously circulating around the healthcare system nationwide, and having seen what was occurring in China, and later in Italy, we feared what was to come. Like many others, our hospital system began looking closely at the recommendations for decreasing transmission of COVID 19, chief among them social distancing. By early March, the need for an immediate adaptation of our clinical care delivery system was clear. Within a week, clinics had transitioned from in person visits to telehealth involving telephone or video. Screening processes for COVID 19 were quickly made available on a free online platform through which at risk individuals were directed to drivethrough centers for in person testing. The problem was that many of our patients could not access the online system. In our roles as directors of free clinics, we have become intimately involved with the complexity inherent to the care of underserved populations, including how seemingly innovative programs can sometimes not meet their intended goals. The CARES clinic has a main site and a rural outreach site that treat uninsured adult patients and a pediatric immunization clinic for uninsured and underinsured children. The 529 Meeting Street clinic treats patients at a drop in resource center serving individuals experiencing housing instability. Levels of literacy, extent of chronic diseases, and complexity of social circumstances for patient populations at both clinics are highly variable. As our main hospital system was transitioning to telehealthbased care, we were rapidly trying to put measures into place at our free clinics that would ensure that our patients did not lose their access to health care. It quickly became apparent that the newly built telehealth systems created additional access hurdles for our free clinic patients, and we would soon learn that pockets existed within the larger population that were impacted by these barriers. As is often the case, those whose access was impeded were the most vulnerable to poor health outcomes related to COVID 19. This was not unique to our community, and in fact it was repeated throughout the country when other hospital systems transitioned to telehealth as a sensible and efficient way to deliver health care while implementing social distancing to combat the spread of COVID 19. Simultaneously, the diminished accessibility to technology based on various societal and social factors, sometimes referred to as the digital gap or digital divide, was being exposed at a critical time in a public health crisis. Frighteningly, there were no measures at the ready to address it. Use of telehealth platforms has been on the rise over the past several years. Telehealth has been lauded as a means to close the healthcare gap to rural populations; however, recent authors have raised the concern that technology may actually be widening the gap between groups both nationally and even globally due to persistent social, economic, and political factors. Taken within the context of several social determinants of health, we can see how the digital divide occurs and can perpetuate inequity based on various social factors (Table 1) In fact, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) called for it to be included as a social determinant of health in 2017. Regarding the patient populations seen in our free clinics, our first concern was physical access to Internet services, defined largely by built environment factors. Our homeless population lacked reliable Internet access outside of the technology center at the clinic. About a third of those served at the rural CARES clinic site do not have Internet access in their homes. This is not unlike the Federal Communications Commission report in 2018 showing that within the United States, 31% of rural households still lack access to broadband Internet. A combination of technology and in person services has been found to help address some of this disparity, and in our case, a direct combination of the 2 types of service proved necessary. At the 529 Meeting Street clinic, a program was developed whereby staff

title: COVID 19 and the digital divide in the UK

title: China's prefectural digital divide: Spatial analysis and multivariate determinants of ICT diffusion
abstract: Much research has made efforts to elaborate upon different dimensions to the digital divide, including informational and communications technology (ICT) access, ICT usage, and ICT outcomes. We assess the utility of such perspectives for studying digital inequality across prefectural cities in China. China is the world's largest ICT market in terms of the number of mobile devices in use, internet users, and broadband subscriptions, yet it has notable digital inequality within and between provinces, prefectural cities, and counties. In this study, we built a conceptual framework of digital divides for prefectural cities in China, examined spatial agglomeration using cluster analysis, and explored the leading correlates using a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. A large digital divide among the prefectural cities in China was revealed, with cities with a high administrative level having a relatively high digital development index(DDI) score. Prefectural cities with high DDI levels are mainly agglomerated in large metropolitan areas, such as Beijing Tianjin Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the West Coast Economic Zone of the Taiwan Straits. Prefectural cities with low DDI levels are concentrated in the rural mountainous regions in southwest China and poverty stricken areas in central and western China. This study also found that the leading determinants of the digital divide are urban residential income, the secondary education gross enrollment ratio, rural residential income, and the working age population ratio, which indicates that socio economic problems, rather than institution and innovation aspects, have to be solved for improving ICT use and outcomes.

title: The Digital Divide
abstract: October 8, 2014 Page 1 of 6 The National Communication Association and the Digital Divide As the largest national association representing Communication scholars, teachers, and practitioners, the National Communication Association (NCA) is firmly committed to the goal of fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, including via electronic resources. In 1999, the association adopted a resolution addressing the digital divide, and updated the resolution in 2013.

title: The first level digital divide shifts from inequalities in physical access to inequalities in material access
abstract: For a long time, a common opinion among policy makers was that the digital divide problem would be solved when a country's Internet connection rate reaches saturation. However, scholars of the second level digital divide have concluded that the divides in Internet skills and type of use continue to expand even after physical access is universal. This study based on an online survey among a representative sample of the Dutch population indicates that the first level digital divide remains a problem in one of the richest and most technologically advanced countries in the world. By extending basic physical access combined with material access, the study finds that a diversity in access to devices and peripherals, device related opportunities, and the ongoing expenses required to maintain the hardware, software, and subscriptions affect existing inequalities related to Internet skills, uses, and outcomes.

title: Exploring Privilege in the Digital Divide: Implications for Theory, Policy, and Practice
abstract: The digital revolution has resulted in innovative solutions and technologies that can support the well being, independence, and health of seniors. Yet, the notion of the "digital divide" presents significant inequities in terms of who accesses and benefits from the digital landscape. To better understand the social and structural inequities of the digital divide, a realist synthesis was conducted to inform theoretical understandings of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to understand the practicalities of access and use inequities; to uncover practices that facilitate digital literacy and participation; and to recommend policies to mitigate the digital divide.  A systematic search yielded 55 articles published between 2006 and 2016. Synthesis of existing knowledge, combined with user experience elicited through a deliberative dialogue session with community stakeholders (n 35) made visible a pattern of privilege that determined individual agency in ICT access and use.  Though age is consistently centralized as the key determinant of the digital divide, our analyses, which encompassed both van Dijk's resources and appropriation theory and intersectionality, appraised this notion and revealed that age is not the sole determinant. Findings highlight the role of other factors that contribute to digital inequity among community dwelling middle aged (45 64) and older (65+ adults, including education, income, gender, and generational status.  Informed by results of a realist synthesis that was guided by intersectional perspectives, a conceptual framework was developed outlining implications for theory, policy, and practice to address the wicked problem that is the digital divide.

title: The Digital Divide in Health Related Technology Use: The Significance of Race/Ethnicity
abstract: Technology can enhance the health and quality of life of diverse populations and may play an important role in reducing health disparities. Although a "digital divide" between the young and the old has been noted, it is unclear whether the use of technology for managing health differs by race/ethnicity among older adults. This study uses nationally representative data from community dwelling older Americans to characterize racial/ethnic differences in health related technology use.  Data came from 1,336 white, black, and Hispanic adults aged 54 and older who completed the 2014 technology module of the Health and Retirement Study. Racial/ethnic differences in overall health related technology use were assessed using Poisson regression. Then, F tests were used to assess differences in the use of phone calls, text messages, E mails, social media, health management sites, health related mobile applications, web searches, and brain games for health purposes.  Compared to whites, older blacks and Hispanics were less likely to use technology for health related purposes after accounting for demographic characteristics, education, and health conditions. They were also less likely to make or receive phone calls, use health management sites, search the web for health information, and use brain games for their health.  Older racial and ethnic minorities are less likely than whites to use certain technologies when managing their health. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the patterns of health related technology use across racially and ethnically diverse populations to appropriately tailor interventions aimed at improving minority health and eliminating health disparities.

title: Exploring the Digital Divide: Age and Race Disparities in Use of an Inpatient Portal.
abstract: Age and race disparities in the use of new technologies the digital divide may be limiting the potential of patient facing health information technology to improve health and health care.  To investigate whether disparities exist in the use of patient portals designed specifically for the inpatient environment.  Patients admitted to the six hospitals affiliated with a large, Midwestern academic medical center from July 2017 to July 2018 were provided with access to a tablet equipped with an inpatient portal and recruited to participate in the study (n 842) Demographic characteristics of study enrollees were obtained from patients' electronic health records and surveys given to patients during their hospital stay. Log files from the inpatient portal were used to create a global measure of use and calculate use rates for specific portal features.  We found both age and race disparities in use of the inpatient portal. Patients aged 60 69 (45.3% difference, p 0.001) and those over age 70 (36.7% difference, p 0.04) used the inpatient portal less than patients aged 18 29. In addition, African American patients used the portal less than White patients (40.4% difference, p 0.004)  These findings suggest that the availability of the technology alone may be insufficient to overcome barriers to use and that additional intervention may be needed to close the digital divide.  We identified lower use of the inpatient portal among African American and older patients, relative to White and younger patients, respectively.

title: Culture is digital: Cultural participation, diversity and the digital divide
abstract: Digital media are seen as important instruments of increasing participation and diversity in arts and culture. To examine whether this view is justified, this article draws on two bodies of research that have hitherto remained disconnected: research on cultural participation and research on the digital divide. Building on these insights, the article examines the Taking Part Survey data on digital media and cultural participation in the United Kingdom between 2005/2006 and 2015/2016, focusing on museums and galleries. While the results confirm that digital media provide an important means of engaging new audiences, they also show that the engagement with museums and galleries both online and offline remains deeply unequal. Most worryingly, the gaps between the haves and the have nots are even wider online than in the case of physical visits. Rather than helping increase the diversity of audiences, online access seems to reproduce, if not enlarge, existing inequalities.

title: Automated pastures and the digital divide: How agricultural technologies are shaping labour and rural communities
abstract: A "digital revolution" in agriculture is underway. Advanced technologies like sensors, artificial intelligence, and robotics are increasingly being promoted as a means to increase food production efficiency while minimizing resource use. In the process, agricultural digitalization raises critical social questions about the implications for diverse agricultural labourers and rural spaces as digitalization evolves. In this paper, we use literature and field data to outline some key trends being observed at the nexus of agricultural production, technology, and labour in North America, with a particular focus on the Canadian context. Using the data, we highlight three key tensions observed: rising land costs and automation; the development of a high skill/low skilled bifurcated labour market; and issues around the control of digital data. With these tensions in mind, we use a social justice lens to consider the potential implications of digital agricultural technologies for farm labour and rural communities, which directs our attention to racial exploitation in agricultural labour specifically. In exploring these tensions, we argue that policy and research must further examine how to shift the trajectory of digitalization in ways that support food production as well as marginalized agricultural labourers, while pointing to key areas for future research which is lacking to date. We emphasize that the current enthusiasm for digital agriculture should not blind us to the specific ways that new technologies intensify exploitation and deepen both labour and spatial marginalization.