Digital Outcasts

The blind person who tries to make an online purchase. The young girl who cannot speak due to a cognitive disability. The man confined to his home due to permanent injury. The single mother with a long-term illness who struggles to feed her family. With one in seven people worldwide currently living with a disability, the term "outcast" covers numerous scenarios. Digital outcasts rely on technology for everyday services that many people take for granted. However, poorly designed products risk alienating this important (and growing) population. Through a "grass roots" approach to innovation, digital outcasts are gradually taking action to transform their lives and communities. This emerging trend provides exciting learning opportunities for all of us. Citing real-world case studies from healthcare to social science, this book examines the emerging legal and cultural impact of inclusive design. Gain a better understanding of how people with disabilities use technology Discover pitfalls and approaches to help you stay current in your UX practices Anticipate a future in which ambient benefit can be achieved for people of all abilities and backgrounds

In a world that is awash in ubiquitous technology, even the least tech-savvy know that we must take care how that technology affects individuals and society. That governments and organizations around the world now focus on these issues, that universities and research institutes in many different languages dedicate significant resources to study the issues, and that international professional organizations have adopted standards and directed resources toward ethical issues in technology is in no small part the result of the work of Simon Rogerson. – Chuck Huff, Professor of Social Psychology at Saint Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota In 1995, Apple launched its first WWW server, Quick Time On-line. It was the year Microsoft released Internet Explorer and sold 7 million copies of Windows 95 in just 2 months. In March 1995, the author Simon Rogerson opened the first ETHICOMP conference with these words: We live in a turbulent society where there is social, political, economic and technological turbulence ... it is causing a vast amount of restructuring within all these organisations which impacts on individuals, which impacts on the way departments are set up, organisational hierarchies, job content, span of control, social interaction and so on and so forth. ... Information is very much the fuel of modern technological change. Almost anything now can be represented by the technology and transported to somewhere else. It's a situation where the more information a computer can process, the more of the world it can actually turn into information. That may well be very exciting, but it is also very concerning. That could be describing today. More than 25 years later, these issues are still at the forefront of how ethical digital technology can be developed and utilised. This book is an anthology of the author’s work over the past 25 years of pioneering research in digital ethics. It is structured into five themes: Journey, Process, Product, Future and Education. Each theme commences with an introductory explanation of the papers, their relevance and their interrelationship. The anthology finishes with a concluding chapter which summarises the key messages and suggests what might happen in the future. Included in this chapter are insights from some younger leading academics who are part of the community charged with ensuring that ethical digital technology is realised.

This is an important book. Ethics is not an easy topic, and arguably the ethics of IT is less so—not leastdue to its potential for developing and evolving in ways that are either unforeseen or unimaginable . . . . Use this book as a practical resource, an informative and educational source of material in developing expertise, but also as an invaluable toolkit to support practical application of ethical thinking. —Declan Brady, President of the Irish Computer Society and a member of the Board of Directors of the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies Digital technology is about people. It is about those who plan, develop and implement applications which other people use and are affected by. It is about the impact on all these people as well as on the world at large. Ethical Digital Technology in Practice takes a real-world perspective to explore these impacts over time and discover ways in which to promote ethical digital technology through good practice. It draws upon the author’s published articles in trade magazines, professional journals and online blogs. These are synthesised into a blueprint which addresses, in a practical manner, the societal issues surrounding the increasing use and abuse of digital technology. It is a follow-up book to the author’s book The Evolving Landscape of Ethical Digital Technology, which has a researcher’s perspective. This book is a hands-on account of the computer revolution from 1995 to the current day when the world is increasingly dependent on digital technology. It explores some of the social and ethical issues that are part of this revolution. This is not a book about deep philosophical and technical concepts. Nor does it claim to be comprehensive. It is the author’s personal account of technological change and its effects on people. It is written by a boy who was smitten by computer technology at the age of 15, became a computer professional and subsequently spent many years showing young people how to develop and use digital technology in a good way. It is a book based upon the author’s engagement with practitioners, academics and students during the period as well as his continued fascination with this fantastic technology. Ethical Digital Technology in Practice is a book about the real world, of what has happened and what might happen as digital technology continues to pervade.

As a compilation of research and scholarly articles under the auspices of Dewan Guru Besot (Board of Professors) of U niversitas Gadjah Mada, this volume is expected to contribute for the Sherpa Track of G20 forum. We believe that multi-disciplinary approach among university scholars would provide a comprehensive understanding on what to be considered by the G20 country leaders who are scheduled to meet in Bali, Indonesia, in 2022. Parallel to the three prioritized agendas for G20, critical reviews on health system after the Covid-19 global pandemic, changing activities and lifestyle under digitalized economy, and transition towards sustainable energy are presented. Cases are mostly taken from the Indonesian experience. We would argue that interdependency and partnership among countries are inevitable and that we must understand and acknowledge it more than ever. All the critical global issues—health, poverty, climate change—can only be addressed with collective actions of all individuals in developed as well as developing countries. The collective awareness of the new world order for healthy, smart, and green lifestyle is essential to the future living in the planet. The G20 forum is crucial as it represents 65 percent of the world population and 80 percent of the world economy. We hope that G20 leaders have a full commitment and capacity to conduct an orchestra of global community which enable and empower citizens while acknowledging cultural diversity in their respected countries. It is a high time for all of collective and concerted actions.

In this increasingly neoliberal gig economy, exponentially expanding with technological advances, the ability to work online remotely has led some western millennials to travel the world to work and play, while making a subsistence living as digital platform workers.

With many older people lacking adequate digital competences to support their full participation in today’s digitalized society, Older People in a Digitalized Society asks how is the marginalisation of older people in digital society socially constructed? How can we promote older people’s digital inclusion and agency?

Although discussion of the digital divide is a relatively new phenomenon, social inequality is a deeply entrenched part of our current social world and is now reproduced in the digital sphere. Such inequalities have been described in multiple traditions of social thought and theoretical approaches. To move forward to a greater understanding of the nuanced dynamics of digital inequality, we need the theoretical lenses to interpret the meaning of what has been observed as digital inequality. This volume examines and explains the phenomenon of digital divides and digital inequalities from a theoretical perspective. Indeed, with there being a limited amount of theoretical research on the digital divide so far, Theorizing Digital Divides seeks to collect and analyse different perspectives and theoretical approaches in analysing digital inequalities, and thus propose a nuanced approach to study the digital divide. Exploring theories from diverse perspectives within the social sciences whilst presenting clear examples of how each theory is applied in digital divide research, this book will appeal to scholars and undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in sociology of inequality, digital culture, Internet studies, mass communication, social theory, sociology, and media studies.

The role of technology has exponentially grown in education, especially with the school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries like Singapore and Scotland have historically invested in educational technology and have successfully created Smart Nations and citizens. This book is based on comparative research conducted between school education systems in Scotland and Singapore. It attempts to identify the key characteristics to determine the level of embeddedness of digital technologies within the education systems of the respective countries. The study further compares the use of digital technologies as an educational response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The book gets interesting with the in-depth findings from each of the systems. During these unprecedented times, when home-based learning (HBL) using technology is inevitable, the findings of the study are highly relevant and provide insights on HBL, digital technologies, and schooling in these countries. Going forward, the role of digital technologies in education will substantially grow. The recommendations provided in this book can only facilitate improving the process/level of embedding digital technology in teaching and learning across the school systems.