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A term used to describe the imbalance in
access to information technology among diverse social groups. Although this
divide is most apparent in developing countries, where only the rich
and well-connected have access to even the simplest types of communication
such as telephones and fax machines, a 2000 US government study entitled
Falling Through the Net: Towards Digital Inclusion found that it is still
apparent even in more affluent societies. US households with incomes of over
$75,000 were ten times more likely to have access to the internet that those
at the lowest income levels. The good news is that the divide appears to be
shrinking across income and ethnic groups, Black and Hispanic households,
for example, were adopting internet technologies at rates of over 30%
between august 2000 and September 2001, nearly three times the rate of
households in the higher income brackets.
One development that
promises to help close these sorts of gaps is the voice portal, which
may eventually let people without computers or internet access obtain
information from the web using nothing more complex than a telephone and
their own voice. |
