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advertorial Education also plays a key role in digital inclusion for people with a disability. The ADII score for tertiary- educated Australians with disability Digital inclusion & disability is 53.8, compared with 49.7 for those The Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII) presents data secondary school. on digital inclusion and disability. However, it is important to remember that our data defines disability as people who receive either the disability support pension (DSP) from Centrelink (83% of these respondents), or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs disability pension (17%). T 40.0 for those who did not complete Digital Ability research in Australia has considered the importance of accessibility. However, studies have focused primarily on ensuring the accessibility and usabi lity of digital content and technology, rather than improving access to digital he DSP is means tested, and (male) average of 53.7. Similarly, infrastructure. The ADII data suggests while the Veterans’ Affairs Affordability for women with disability unequal access to digital infrastructure disability pension is not, most is 42.7 compared with the national may present another potential barrier average of 51.7. to digital inclusion for people with a people receiving this latter payment report a below-average household Despite these improved scores, disability. income. The ADII results, therefore, digital inclusion remains relatively represent outcomes for a distinct low for people with a disability. Their recognised as relevant to the digital group within the wider community of national score of 47.0 is still 9.5 points inclusion of Australians with disability. Australians with disability. behind the Australia-wide score of People with a disability in Sydney, 56.5. This ‘disability gap’ is wider in Melbourne, and Brisbane all scored picture for the digital inclusion of capital cities, but narrower in rural significantly lower on this sub-index people with a disability. Since 2014, Australia. than their fellow residents. In 2017 the ADII reveals a mixed scores for this cohort have increased 60 with a secondary education, and just Age influences digital inclusion for Affordability has long been Given that large cities typically nationally (up 5.2 points, to 47.0), Australians with disability, with those provide more opportunities to in capital cities (up 5.4 points to aged 35–49 recording higher scores participate in low-cost digital skills 47.9), and across rural Australia (up than those aged 50–64 years (49.2 and training, the relatively low Digital 5.3 points to 45.1). Scores for both 42.0 respectively). Interestingly, in 2017 Ability scores for people with women and men with disability have the ADII score for Australians with disability in these cities is surprising. increased since 2014, with women disability aged 65+ rose above the This suggests additional, as-yet scoring marginally higher than men. score for the same age group without unidentified barriers to digital However, Affordability remains an a disability for the first time (45.5 inclusion for this group, and a need issue, confirming the findings of versus 42.9). This suggests mainstream for accessibility training in the use of earlier Australian research. At 46.0, digital inclusion programs could learn digital technology. the Affordability score for men with from the experience and motivations disability is lower than the national of older Australians with disability. telstra Read the full report: digitalinclusionindex.org.au linkonline.com.au