Access to Technology

A recently published Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) report provides some sobering statistics on information technology access of low-income and minority Californians. The PPIC reports:

Less than half of California Latinos (48%) have home computers compared to about eight in 10 or more for whites (86%), Asians (84%), and blacks (79%). Just four in 10 Latinos (40%) have Internet access and a third (34%) a broadband connection at home.




Among households with incomes under $40,000, half have home computers, but only four in 10 (40%) have home Internet access and just a third (33%) have broadband.

On face one might think Idealistics, as a technology social enterprise that aims to help those in need with web based information systems, would have trouble reaching the populations mentioned by PPIC above. When I give presentations I often get community organizations rightly pointing out to me that a lot of the people we are trying to help either don't have access to, or don't know how to use computers.