Exclusion by design: intersections of social, digital and data exclusion

ABSTRACT

As smart technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), automation and Internet of Things (IoT) are increasingly embedded into commercial and government services, we are faced with new challenges in digital inclusion to ensure that existing inequalities are not reinforced and new gaps that are created can be addressed. Digital exclusion is often compounded by existing social disadvantage, and new systems run the risk of creating new barriers and harms. Adopting a case study approach, this paper examines the exclusionary practices embedded in the design and implementation of social welfare services in Australia. We examined Centrelink’s automated Online Compliance Intervention system (‘Robodebt’) and the National Disability Insurance Agency’s intelligent avatar interface ‘Nadia’. The two cases show how the introduction of automated systems can reinforce the punitive policies of an existing service regime at the design stage and how innovative AI systems that have the potential to enhance user participation and inclusion can be hindered at implementation so that digital benefits are left unrealised.

KEYWORDS:

• Social exclusion
• digital exclusion
• data exclusion
• disabilities
• mobile
• digital technologies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sora Park is Associate Dean Research at the Faculty of Arts & Design and Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Canberra. Her research focuses on digital media users, media markets and media policy and has written widely on how digital media is transforming communication, media and society.

Justine Humphry is Lecturer in Digital Cultures in the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney. Her research is on the cultural and political implications of mobile and digital media in everyday life with a focus on digital inequalities, marginalised media use and smart technology transformation. She has studied mobile communication and homelessness extensively. Her new project, Smart Publics, researches the social, design and governance implications of smart street furniture with a team from the University of Glasgow, building on her research on smart Wi-Fi kiosks and digital inclusion in New York City.

ORCID

Sora Park http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3082-314X