This text is part of the special Literacy notebook
As the government accelerates its digital shift, many people with low literacy and in vulnerable situations are struggling to keep up with the machine. The campaign Let’s cross the screen. For a human digital shiftfrom the Regroupement des groupes populaires en alphabétisation du Québec (RGPAQ), is tackling this problem, notably in a declaration which advocates keeping people at the heart of public services.
Who has never wanted to speak to a human on the phone, after having done option two, option three, then, uncertainly, option nine, and all this, without arriving at the desired service?
It is to combat this type of situation that the RGPAQ launched, during the 7e Popular Literacy Week, in April 2023, its campaign. Still ongoing, it aims to ensure that the right to information is respected and that people with low literacy and in poverty have access to the services to which they are entitled. “Poverty often goes hand in hand with a low level of literacy, which goes hand in hand with a low level of digital literacy,” says Cécile Retg, responsible for collective rights defense at RGPAQ.
In fact, in 2017, nearly one in five people in Quebec lived in poverty, according to the viable income indicator developed by the Institute for Socioeconomic Research and Information (IRIS). Two years earlier, a report from the Program for the International Evaluation ofInternational Adult Skills Conference (PEICA) highlighted that the same proportion of individuals had a very low level of literacy and numeracy (level 1 or less).
A social problem
Add to this the unequal access to technology, and the digitalisation of many services risks reinforcing social inequalities. Parents struggle to communicate with teachers or help their children with homework that is done on online platforms. People are unable to connect to their medical appointments or book a doctor’s appointment online, so they give up and their health worsens. Others are not receiving the benefits they are entitled to, unable to fill out the necessary forms online or unable to get help over the phone, getting lost in the options offered to them by a robotic voice.
The digital shift in public services affects “many more people than the government thinks”, argues Mme Retg. “This is among other things what our statement Let’s go through the screen. So that people remain at the heart of public services! [lancée en avril dernier] wishes to demonstrate.”
Low-income people, seniors, but also immigrants and teenagers, “technologization affects us all to varying degrees. Even young people tell us that they sometimes feel overwhelmed by this technology that is taking public services by storm,” says the manager. And if they are not already in a situation of digital lag, “they will be sooner or later, like seniors,” maintains Pierre Lynch, president of the Association québécoise de défense des droits des personnes retraitees et préretraitées (AQDR), who is collaborating on the declaration with other groups.
Human solutions
Indeed, technology is evolving so quickly that it is difficult to keep up. “So imagine someone who is already out of step!” says the president. Mr. Lynch is not against implementing technological solutions that allow the administration to gain efficiency and minimize costs, “but not at the cost of excluding people who still have a lot to offer society,” he says, referring to seniors. In fact, the complexity of digital technology for seniors often results in them being sidelined. “They become frustrated and withdraw from society and no longer participate, even though they are the ones who do the majority of the volunteer work that benefits our society.”
The declaration therefore asks that public services continue to be offered in person, be humanized, that is, attentive and caring, and use clear language and simpler procedures. “We also ask that the government provide access to the Internet and technological tools at a lower cost and that it promote lifelong learning of these,” explains Cécile Retg, who hopes that the declaration, which will be filed in 2025, will obtain 10,000 signatures.
So far, the campaign is slowly bearing fruit. “The Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs commissioned a consultation from the organization Votepour.ca regarding the barriers to accessing digital government services,” says M.me Retg. For Pierre Lynch, the way in which the digital shift is taking place is “a societal problem that concerns us all.” So, the question is perhaps that of the world in which we wish to live: a human or efficient world? “We can evolve and remain human, we simply have to slow down,” concludes Mr. Lynch.
This content was produced by the Special Publications Team of Dutyrelevant to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part in it.