Closing the Digital Divide
CONTEXT
In the words of the late Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, “Access to the Internet….is the civil rights issue of the 21st century.” In today’s increasingly digital world, access to high-speed broadband Internet services is on par with access to education and access to healthcare, establishing itself as a requisite right for agency and self-determination. Among the many disparities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital divide was one of the most notable as the pandemic required many basic services to be offered and accessed remotely. Unequal access to technology and the Internet disproportionately harms underserved communities where most households without home-Internet access are located, excluding them from essential services and further perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
PROBLEM
In May 2021, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program to help households struggling to afford Internet services and devices during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program grants qualifying households subsidized broadband services and Internet-enabled devices to help narrow the digital divide and connect underserved communities to jobs, healthcare services, virtual classrooms, and other basic and critical services/opportunities. Despite coordination with state and municipal governments, however, the FCC found markedly lower adoption of EBB services amongst the Hispanic/Latinx communities in Massachusetts with no apparent explanation.
SOLUTION
Internal review of local EBB program administration and implementation by government officials failed to yield any discernible barriers to service. Subsequently, the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI), a statewide poverty law center, conducted interviews within the same communities EBB implementation stalled to discover what is hindering adoption. Through directly engaging communities, the MLRI discovered a systemic barrier to access EBB services in the FCC’s application forms. The forms did not accept hyphenated last names which are much more prevalent in Hispanic/Latinx families which accounted for the reduced adoption.
IMPACT
The MLRI demonstrated the efficacy of community engagement and the need for communities to be integrated in decision-making, as the most well-intended program or intervention can have unintended consequences. We conservatively estimate that the remediation of the application forms expanded EBB services to an additional 25,000 adults in Massachusetts, based on an ACLU analysis of 2014-2018 census data. Based on a 2021 Deloitte study, this increase in broadband penetration is estimated to increase statewide GDP by $29.2 million annually, and using estimates from a study by Peterson-KFF, telehealth-enabled healthcare cost reduction can be conservatively estimated to be $3.0 million annually.
The MLRI and their community engagement demonstrates the need of this type of service to be applied on a national scale and how this practice can yield societal benefits shared by all stakeholders. Green Community Consulting intends to take this approach and scale it through the use of emerging technologies to ensure the voices of our communities are being heard and their value is being recognized by governments, corporations, and nonprofits from inception.
