ACCESS

Access to new communication technologies must be seen as a fundamental human right in an age where the means to communicate will be located in a technology which is currently only available to the privileged few. Every individual in society needs to be given the opportunity to access new communication tools if they are to be given a voice or to play any meaningful role in the Information Society of the future.

Access to ICTs is typically divided along traditional lines of development. Developed countries have very high levels of Internet access as opposed to less developed nations where access to infrastructure is at a very low level due to problems such as poverty, lack of resources, illiteracy, and low levels of education. Continued exclusion of marginalised communities, both in the developing world and from within developed nations, must be addressed in order to ensure an equal and balanced distribution of communication tools for social justice and equality for all.

Infrastructure development: the need to service all social groups

In terms of infrastructure development, the rollout of telecommunications infrastructure needs to occur at a very high rate if we are to see developing nations catching up to access levels enjoyed in the developed world. Low levels of infrastructure development can be solved partially through innovative telecommunications policies that take into account the need to ensure broad access across all social and economic levels. In order to ensure rollout to traditionally non-commercial areas (for example, the less lucrative 'last mile' of phone cabling), governments need to develop strategies that take into account the need to service and develop all economic groups in society.

Civil society involvement in this process is tantamount to its success. Social issues of inclusion and equality of access needs to be placed high on the agenda in order to develop national, regional and international policies that ensure basic access to all communities, focussing on traditionally under-serviced groups.

Lack of access is a result of a variety of factors

The APC is involved in initiatives that aim to address the issue of access on a number of different levels, in the realisation that lack of access is a result of a variety of factors. Problems of access can not only be solved through general infrastructure rollout, but also through the specific targeting of marginalised groups and the focus on both the content and the technology of the Internet and related technologies.

The APC believes that development of information infrastructure and user interfaces should ensure access for marginalised groups, for example, migrant workers, disabled people, those who are not fully literate, minorities, and people living in rural areas or poor urban settlements without basic infrastructure.

The APC also champions the need to prioritise gender equity by ensuring that access targets and efforts be informed in particular by the need to protect and advance gender equality.

Citizens who are guaranteed basic access to communication tools will contribute towards their own development

According to the APC Internet Rights Charter (2001), 'Internet infrastructure should be developed with a view to creating more egalitarian societies, and providing support for education, health, local business development, good governance and poverty eradication.'

These ideals lie at the heart of concerns about access to ICTs because, in accepting the responsibility to ensure that all citizens are guaranteed basic access to communication tools, a society will make great strides in many other areas of development. This is in the belief that ICTs have the potential to empower communities to contribute towards their own development by narrowing social and economic inequalities and supporting sustainable local wealth creation, thus helping to achieve broader development goals. This can only happen when all people are given access to the tools and networks of the new global system of communication.