Unwrapping the digital gap webinar Series (Session 1)

In a world that is changing fast and constantly, more and more people are being left out for not having the skills required to cope with the daily requirements of personal, social, and economic life. In Europe, around 15% of its population is marginalised due to low literate levels (2012). In addition, as digitalization becomes a cross-phenomena in every aspect of life, our communities struggle to fulfil basic needs such as social participation and access to the labour market because of low digital literacy levels. 

Literacy and digital literacy are two topics that can not and should not be addressed separately. As digitalization changes the nature of literacy, literacy and digital literacy are becoming both prerequisites for individuals to lead a decent life, actively participate in society, have access to decent jobs and advance into sustainable careers.

On September 26th, we hosted the 1st session of our Webinar Series: Unwrapping The Digital Gap. During the webinar, we discussed ways to advocate for low-literate individuals to be at the front of the European agenda on digital skills and for a more inclusive European framework that addresses their needs and creates mechanisms for their educational, social and economic inclusion. As of today, low-literate individuals are not part of the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens 2.2: the lowest proficiency level already requires for the person to be able to read.