Digital exclusion poses a daunting, isolating problem that includes a lack of access to affordable internet networks and hardware; lack of skills to navigate, consume, and produce content in the digital sphere; and lack of access to troubleshooting support when devices break.
“Everything is going digital now, as far as resources for help,” said computer trainer Shenee King, who works with the Cleveland Housing Network.
The most daunting obstacle to digital access is poverty.
About 18 percent of Cuyahoga County residents are poor, 6 percent higher than the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The prevalence of poverty means about a fourth of Cuyahoga County households have no home-based broadband access - including smartphones, according to the Census.
But having a smartphone isn’t a solution to lack of broadband availability. That’s because the devices serve a different function from a computer.
“A smartphone is better than nothing, but it’s much better for consuming information than for creating. It’s much more difficult to say, draft a resume or a school report on a cell phone, than it is on a desktop with Microsoft Office or even Google Docs,“ said Samantha Schartman, CEO of Connected Insights, which wrote “Connecting Cuyahoga,” a report on digital equity and inclusion in Cuyahoga County.
Solving the problem is taking many forms. Local libraries and community organizations offer computer labs and digital literacy training. And the nonprofit DigitalC is building a network to enhance connectivity in some of Cleveland’s poorest communities.
See a map of free wifi spots throughout Ohio.
Why does it matter?
Digital equity and inclusion is crucial to well-functioning cities, she said. Schartman cites research showing the level of broadband in a population was directly correlated with economic development.“That means, when we are looking around at our local economy and we’re not seeing the jobs, we’re not seeing industry coming here..this is just one of the reasons we are not competitive.
“If we could address digital inclusion, we might see revitalization in other areas of our economy as well,” she said.
What’s the solution?
Almost three years ago, DigitalC and the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority took on the problem of digital exclusion. Their solution married training and networking in a program called “Connect Your Community.”The project aimed to provide reliable broadband for CMHA residents, while giving them digital skills and devices. The broadband is sent from antennas placed atop a nearby charitable hospital to receivers on housing authority properties and a homeless shelter.
Since its partnership with the housing authority, DigitalC has expanded its efforts. It’s now building a network offering affordable, high-speed connectivity to residents of the city’s most underserved neighborhoods.
The project, called EmpowerCLE+, provides high-speed broadband to residents in the city’s Fairfax on the city’s east side for $18 a month, with plans to expand into Hough, Glenville and the Clark-Fulton community on the city’s west side.
In Fairfax, the signal originates from the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Justice Center. A receiver is placed on a downspout and the signal is routed into the house via ethernet cable. The set up is very similar to the way providers such as Spectrum and AT&T provide access, but the cost is cheaper.
What about private internet access?
A 2017 report by Connect Your Community accused AT&T of neglecting to update and improve its networks in several low-income neighborhoods on Cleveland’s east and west sides. Since then, however, AT&T seemed to be building out its next generation of an upgraded network, known as “fiber to the premises,” in many of the low-income neighborhoods it omitted in the last round.But Bill Callahan, who wrote the 2017 report, said the faster speeds still aren’t available to all neighborhood residents through AT&T.
Callahan, the research and policy director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, said the company has lately installed fiber on poles throughout Fairfax, Hough and Glenville. But it hasn’t installed cabinets that channel the signal to individual residences.
Jim Kimberly, a spokesperson for AT&T, would not comment on the company’s plans for installing higher speed broadband in the communities, and said no internet company releases their infrastructure maps.
DigitalC CEO Dorothy Baunach said her organization aims to create a low-cost network that will especially benefit residents in targeted under-served communities.
“We’re building an (Internet Service Provider), aiming for the areas that AT&T neglected,” said Shawn Philpott, an installer for EmpowerCLE+, adding the organization isn’t interested in cable or telephone services. “Our goal is to provide Internet at 50 mbps down. ”
Philpott recalled one of his first customers. She was a single mother who needed broadband for her televisions. When she turned on the television, her baby began smiling and clapping.
“At that moment, I felt this is what it’s about,” Philpott said. “Now the mother doesn’t have to worry about whether it’s going to be internet or more groceries. We put her at the point where she can pay the bill and it’s not going to break her.“
What else has been done?
Across town, residents in the city’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood have had free wireless access since 2011. The effort was the brainchild of its city Councilman Kevin Kelley.He got the idea in 2005, when he learned more than half Cleveland residents lacked home internet access.
Schartman said the situation will not improve until city and county governments decide to prioritize digital equity by giving residents a way to get efficient broadband, the training to use it effectively.
“Digital inclusion leadership in the country is more the exception than the rule. Ohio does not lead in this way, and that is why we are one of the worst connected cities, one of the worst connected counties, and worst connected cities in the country,” she said.
©2020 The Plain Dealer, Cleveland. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
