Digital Information Level of Vulnerable Groups Including Disabled, 69.9% of General Public

[Asia Economy Reporter Seolgina Jo] The digital informatization level of information-vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities and low-income groups has approached 70% of that of the general public. This figure is 1.0 percentage point higher than a year ago.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the results of the '2019 Digital Information Gap Survey' on the 5th, regarding the digital informatization levels of people with disabilities, the elderly, farmers and fishermen, and low-income groups. The digital informatization level is a composite of internet access level such as ownership of smart devices, competency level meaning the ability to use them, and utilization level indicating the quantitative and qualitative extent of use.

According to the survey results, the digital informatization level of information-vulnerable groups was 69.9% compared to the general public, an improvement of 1.0 percentage point from the previous year (68.9%). This means that if the informatization level of the general public is assumed to be 100 points, the informatization level of the information-vulnerable groups is 69.9 points.

By survey category, digital access was 91.7%, competency was 60.2%, and utilization was 68.8%. Competency and utilization levels each increased by 1.1 percentage points compared to the previous year. By vulnerable group, the digital informatization levels compared to the general public were 87.8% for low-income groups, 75.2% for people with disabilities, 70.6% for farmers and fishermen, and 64.3% for the elderly.

Park Yoon-gyu, Director of Information and Communication Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "The informatization level of information-vulnerable groups is continuously improving," but added, "As digital environments are rapidly changing with the introduction of unmanned systems such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data technology, and unmanned information terminals (kiosks), we will strive to ensure that information-vulnerable groups are not excluded or marginalized during the digital transformation process."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.