Western Australian government seeks feedback on draft digital inclusion blueprint

The Western Australian (WA) Government released a draft of the state’s new Digital Inclusion Blueprint for public consultation. The Digital Inclusion in Western Australia: A Blueprint for a digitally-inclusive state suggests a new approach as a collaborative endeavor between government, industry, and communities, that will address four major challenges to digital inclusion in WA: digital connectivity, affordability, ability, and design. This is part of an initiative to close the digital divide by increasing digital literacy among people of all ages, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, abilities, income levels, and locations. Feedback on the draft blueprint is open until 18 September 2020 and would be used to inform the development of the final version of the blueprint, which is expected to be released by the end of 2020 or early 2021. ‘I encourage community, industry, and not-for-profit stakeholders to help us better understand this important issue and ensure their feedback will contribute to a more digitally inclusive WA,’ said Innovation and ICT Minister Dave Kelly.