Exploring Digital Disadvantage

This research seeks to take an exploratory, qualitative approach to the topic of digital disadvantage. By talking to people who are - or may be at risk of being - digitally disadvantaged, and hearing more about their lived experiences of accessing and using digital services, we hope to improve our understanding of what policy interventions might be needed to better serve them and consider how we might measure and monitor digital disadvantage over the longer-term.

The research should look at experiences of digital disadvantage across sectors we regulate (in particular telecoms, media, news and online safety), considering the gateways and connectivity services that facilitate the consumption of communications by consumers. We are interested in understanding consumer experiences with digital communications services through the lenses of: accessibility, ability, affordability, attitude and awareness.

Key research aims are: 1. To understand lived experiences of digital disadvantage and how these manifest for different people, depending on demographics and personal characteristics. 2. To explore how these experiences can or might lead to poorer short- or long- term outcomes, and so build understanding of what issues there might be within existing digital services. 3. To understand how current protections and policy initiatives for consumers and citizens fail to address - or potentially worsen - outcomes.

In addition, we want to use the findings of this research to inform how we carry out research with digitally disadvantaged groups, to help us improve Ofcom's research practice in the future.