Beyond broadband

The standard measure of digital inclusion — does the household have a broadband connection? — is necessary but nowhere near sufficient. Access to a reliable connection is the starting point, not the whole story.

1. No device

Having a broadband connection in your building means nothing without a working device to use it on. Device cost is consistently identified as the top digital inclusion barrier globally. For people on the lowest incomes, a new smartphone can represent weeks of disposable income — and a laptop more still. Refurbished device programmes and library lending schemes exist but are patchwork, under-resourced, and geographically uneven.

2. An outdated device

Even if someone has a device, it may be too old to run the app or access the service. Developers routinely set minimum operating system requirements that exclude devices only a few years old. Research confirms that these design choices "particularly trouble users who may not have the ability to switch to a newer device" — people in poverty, older people, and those for whom a replacement phone or laptop is simply unaffordable. There is no regulatory requirement on developers to consider the devices their excluded users actually hold.

• Inclusive app design and OS version exclusion (arxiv, 2023)
• Mobile app barriers for older adults (PMC, 2025)

3. Authentication designed for the already-connected

Two-factor authentication — where a service texts a code to your smartphone or asks you to open an authenticator app — is now standard security practice. It is also an effective lock-out for anyone without a suitable smartphone: people in temporary accommodation, older people on basic handsets, and those whose devices are too old to run the required app. Government services, banks, and Universal Credit itself require forms of digital authentication that assume the user already has a modern device and a mobile number. The security system designed to protect users can be the thing that prevents them from getting help at all.

4. Digital skills as a distinct barrier

Having access and having the skills to use it are not the same thing. Scotland's own Minimum Digital Living Standard interim report (2025) identifies "relative exclusion" — people who are online but whose limited digital skills and lack of support leave them effectively unable to navigate the services they need. Complex form interfaces, unintuitive navigation, CAPTCHA systems, password requirements, and account management processes all assume a level of digital familiarity that 15% of Scottish adults do not have.

The practical consequences are significant: Universal Credit managed online, GP appointment booking via an app, tax returns filed digitally, and job applications submitted through portals that assume you know how to create an account and upload a document.

• Towards a Scottish Minimum Digital Living Standard: interim report (Scottish Government, 2025)

5. Language

Digital services in Scotland default to English. For Gaelic speakers, refugees, migrants, and others whose first language is not English, the barriers compound: not just navigating an unfamiliar system, but doing so in a second language, often without translation, often without the option of interpretation. Forms that cannot be completed in your language effectively exclude you regardless of your internet connection or device.

Gaelic faces a specific structural challenge: its digital corpus — the body of text available for language tools and AI systems to learn from — is around 150 million words, compared to 4 billion for Basque. This "data sparsity" problem means Gaelic speakers are systematically excluded from the benefits of digital language tools that speakers of better-resourced languages can access.

• Gaelic language data sparsity challenge (CivTech Scotland)
• Scottish Government Gaelic Language Plan 2022–2027
• Digital inclusion for refugees and migrants (New Zealand Digital Government — applicable to Scottish context)

Sources current as of mid-2025. If a link breaks or new research is published, let us know.