Internet Accessibility Issues

Written by: Cheryl Cheifetz

Internet Accessibility Issues

Addendum written by Ryan Incrocci, student at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Introduction

Common knowledge will tell you that lower income individuals will have less accessibility to the Internet.  This digital divide has proven to have an impact on the difference in availability of information, from things such as news, communication, shopping, as well as health; all which have shown to been impacted by the Internet.

 Usage

As of February 15 – April 6, 2006, it was shown that 73% of American adults (147 million people) use the Internet, this being an increase from 66% (133 million people) in the January 2005 survey and from 63% in year prior to January 2005 (Madden, 2006).  Overall, the number of Internet users is gradually increasing in the U.S. throughout the years.  This can be seen to have a positive impact, as the increase in Internet access throughout the U.S. decreases the digital divide.  Therefore,

 Factors Effecting Usage:

 Age

Within this divide are people who are over the age of 65 as well as the less educated.  These individuals compromise the majority of the 22% of Americans that have never used the Internet and do not live in households with Internet connections. (Fox, 2005)

The data presented in Figure 1 indicates the great disparity between the young and old with respect to Internet usage.  It shows that 32% of individuals 65 years of age and over use the Internet, compared to 88% of individuals using the Internet from 18-29 years old. 

 Income Levels

This data also illustrates the divide between income and internet usage, showing that 53% of individuals earning less than $30,000 per year use the internet, compared to 91% of individuals earning $75,000 or more per year using the internet. 

Education Levels

Education is also a variable when looking at Internet usage.  The more a person is educated, the more likely they are to use the Internet.  Figure 1 shows that 40% of individuals with less than a high school degree use the internet, opposed to 91% of individuals using the internet who have a college degree or higher.

 Race

Illustrated in Table 1 of the 2005 White Pages regarding Accessibility, the digital divide is apparently shrinking between different races.  As of 2006 the preceding figure indicates that the gap is continuing to decrease, specifically with the increase in Internet usage among English-speaking Hispanics, which went from 68% in 2005 to 76% in 2006.

 Figure 1

http://www.pewinternet.org/trends/User_Demo_4.26.06.htm

 Internet in the Classroom

As far as Internet is concerned in an education setting, Internet accessibility in the public school classrooms is very high.  In the fall of 2003, virtually 100% of all public schools in the United States had internet access, compared to just nine years ago in 1996 when only 35% had internet access. (Parsad and Jones, 2003)

 As shown in Figure 2, Internet access in actual instructional rooms, not just in the main office, for example, have reached high levels.  The difference is astounding when looking at 1994 when only 3% of school instructional rooms had Internet access as opposed to in 2003 with 93% Internet access in these rooms.

 Yet while having Internet usage in classrooms increased dramatically in a decade, the ratio of children to computers has decreased significantly.  Figure 3 shows how in 1996 the ratio was 12.1 to 1 and by 2003, the amount of children per computer with internet access was 4.4, nearly two thirds less than in 1996.

 Figure 2:

Percent of U.S. Public School Instructional Rooms with Internet Access: 1994-2003

http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/frss/publications/2005015/6.asp

Figure 3:

Ratio of Public School Students to Instructional Computers with Internet Access: 1998-2003   http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/frss/publications/2005015/6.asp

 Access Types

Another area of Internet access that has come about in recent years involves the type of Internet access available and in use.  In the past few years, there has been an influx of Internet access through other types of methods such as Cable or DSL.  These types of Internet access are more expensive but provide a much faster speed than traditional dial-up modems.

 Continuing with the disparity between ages is the lagging of elder people and their access speeds used when using the Internet.  It has been shown that Americans age 65 and older are least likely to have Internet and experience a divide regarding the access methods between the different age groups.  The majority of the elderly age 65 and older are using dial-up to connect whereas the younger generations are more likely using Broadband (Fox, 2005).

 Along with the income gap being a factor in creating the digital divide among Internet usage in general, this income gap is also present when looking at the different access speeds among internet users.  Fox shows that the high-income households, including households earning $75,000 or more, are much more likely to have a broadband connection in their home.  Seventy one percent of these individuals use a broadband connection, as opposed to the people with incomes $30,000 or lower, with only 42% having broadband access to the internet (2006).

Broadband usage has expanded tremendously in the more recent past with all people, not just the ultra rich.  From 2000 to 2004, the number of high-speed internet connections went from 5 million Americans to almost 60 million Americans at home. (Rainie et al, 2006)  When including Americans who have access at work as well that number changes to 72 million Americans having high-speed internet access. (Rainie et al, 2006)

 As of March 2006, 84 million Americans have high-speed internet at home, which is 42% of Americans in the U.S.  This value represents a 40% increase since March of the previous year. (Horrigan, 2006)

 Access to broadband internet and high-speed connections is not just occurring in the U.S.  In fact, the U.S. is not even in the top ten with regards to the rate of broadband coming into American homes.  Figure 4 shows the rates at which broadband internet has been added in different countries around the world.  For the most recent updates on worldwide interrnett usage along with internet penetration percentages of different areas of the world, visit the Internet World Stats website at http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm.

 Figure 4

 Source: International Telecommunication Union (ITU) adapted from national reports. http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/at_glance/top20_broad_2004.html

 Impacts from Internet Usage

The digital divide has provided a lack of information to people without Internet access.  There are many factors dealing with the issue of access that have been mentioned.  However, another factor includes the lack of useful information that these people without Internet are not provided.  According to Madden, there are four factors that have proven to be of the highest use among frequent Internet users.  These categories include health information, job, hobbies and shopping (2006).  The benefits of the Internet have been proven here, as it has been shown in this study that the way men and women get access to health care information.  It was shown by Madden that “22% of females said that the Internet has improved the way they get healthcare information ‘a lot’” (2006).  Seventeen percent of males indicated this result as well. (Madden, 2006).

 These results are just one example of how the Internet has been improving peoples’ lives by providing them with useful pertinent information that they indicate are important to them.  With the digital divide causing a lack of Internet accessibility to individuals, these people are being stripped of this more innovative technological resources to many things that can improve their daily lives.  For example, a woman who does not have health insurance and cannot afford a doctor may have a serious disease.  She may not want to go to a doctor because of the cost and the lack of knowledge of how serious her situation is.  Her likeliness to be able to assess her situation would be much greater if she had access to Internet, particularly for reasons of health.  By having the knowledge that her symptoms may result in a serious illness, she is now more informed and probably more likely to go to a doctor due to the seriousness of the situation.

 This example is here to show how Internet access is very useful to people.  Those without the access are experiencing this digital divide that keeps them one step behind others who have this access available.  There are many benefits of Internet access and this is just one specific of how helpful it can be.

 Useful Resources:

 Cisco Stats Page – This website provides information regarding different stats regarding access to internet, issues involving the digital divide, broadband usage and cost, internet usage with regard to schools and students among other things.

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/govtaff/factsNStats/FactsNstats.html

 Grameen Foundation USA – This website, specifically the Technology Center portion, deals with ways to eliminate poverty by providing some of the poorest people in developing nations with better opportunities by using technology to enhance income generating opportunities for them as well as providing them with access to information for better health and education.

http://www.gfusa.org/technology_center/

 Pew Internet & American Life Project – This website contains data and information regarding internet and issues surrounding it such as penetration into the U.S. population and its impact on the population, including a rise in broadband and its effect.  The information is spread out through the different research reports included in the website.  These reports are mostly found in the Internet Evolution topic of the website.

http://www.pewinternet.org/reports.asp

 
Works Cited:

 Fox, Susannah. 2005. Digital Divisions. Pew Internet & American Life Project, Washington, D.C. <http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Digital_Divisions_Oct_5_2005.pdf>.

Horrigan, John B. Home Broadband Adoption 2006. Pew Internet and American Life Project. 2006. <http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Broadband_trends2006.pdf>.

Madden, Mary. Internet Penetration and Impact. Pew Internet and American Life Project. 2006. <http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Internet_Impact.pdf>.

Parsad, Basmat, and Jennifer Jones. Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-2003. National Center for Education Statistics. 2005. <http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/frss/publications/2005015/>.

Rainie, Lee, Susannah Fox, John Horrigan, Deborah Fallows, Amanda Lenhart, Mary Madden, Michael Cornfield, and Cornelia Carter-Sykes. Internet: the Mainstreaming of Online Life. Pew Internet and American Life Project. 2005. <http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/Internet_Status_2005.pdf>.