Digital exclusion and the social work agenda

<p>Issues around digital exclusion may be in their infancy but they are developing fast. The Internet has the potential to offer equity of digital access for enabling individual independence and empowerment in an increasingly digital society. However, for many users of assistive technologies, this remains a problematic scenario. Citizens, who already experience disablement through social failure to recognise difference and diversity of need, may be doubly disabled by exclusive digital policy and practice. There is an urgent need to research the implications of this exclusion for human service educators and practitioners. This paper was presented at HUSITA9 at the Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development in Hong Kong, June 2010.</p>