Yet despite the city being the home of the South by Southwest interactive media festival, some of Austin's most vulnerable populations still lack digital literacy, internet access and digital exposure. City officials said the demand for digital devices in Austin continues to surpass the number of devices available.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic and natural disasters such as the February freeze, which caused widespread power outages across the state, have exposed digital access gaps in the Austin area. For years those gaps have disproportionately affected communities of color, older people, immigrants, low-income people and other underrepresented populations.
Digital equity and inclusion advocates told the American-Statesman that city and state officials must address the need for digital literacy by increasing access to devices, making peer-to-peer training for devices more available and exposing youths to the technology as a fast-growing industry.
Tech industry giants must also invest in local workforce development, promotion and retention, they said.
Austin's 'digital divide'
According to Austin's most recent residential survey of technology access, 93% of residents use the internet at home on devices including phones, laptops and other computers, city spokesperson Yasmeen Hassan said.
But that number does not show disparities between communities or levels of access, Hassan said. Although smartphone use is widespread, access gaps remain for laptops, desktop computers and tablets, particularly for accessing education, employment and health information.
"According to the data, the communities that tend to face the highest barriers to digital access are communities of color, low-income individuals and families, older adults, Austinites with limited English proficiency and people with disabilities," Hassan said.
Affordability and skill gaps are some of the primary barriers for people who do not use the internet in the city.
Nationwide, gaps in digital access affecting underrepresented communities have persisted since internet use became widespread in the 1990s.
According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center this year, Black and Hispanic adults in the United States are less likely than their white peers to say they own a traditional computer or have high-speed internet at home.
Roughly 24% of the adults in the survey with household incomes below $30,000 a year say they don't own a smartphone. About 43% of adults with lower incomes do not have home broadband services, and 41% lack a desktop or laptop computer. A majority of Americans with lower incomes are not tablet owners.
"By comparison, each of these technologies is nearly ubiquitous among adults in households earning $100,000 or more a year," the study's report states. "Roughly six-in-10 adults living in households earning $100,000 or more a year (63%) report having home broadband services, a smartphone, a desktop or laptop computer and a tablet, compared with 23% of those living in lower-income households."
Catching up to evolving technology
The need to provide devices and digital literacy support is urgent because technology is constantly evolving and shaping people's lives.
For instance, restaurants and other businesses are more frequently using QR codes that can be read only by a smartphone to show menus and services.
Older users of flip phones could be left unable access the information, said Jess Ross, interim executive director of the nonprofit digital advocacy group Austin Free-Net.
"And when you think about jobs, if you wanted to apply to Popeye's, you have to go online and apply. So if you're not literate in getting online and filling out a form, that's an issue," she said. "Another issue that I'm seeing is once you do get that job, you have to have some kind of literacy to use the technology that the company uses. So (technology) is really just integrating into everyday life."
Austin Free-Net, founded in 1995, focuses on digital equity and provides digital literacy training and public access to the internet. The organization, housed in the DeWitty Job Training Center in East Austin, annually serves more than 3,000 people who want to learn how to use digital devices and use the organization's computer labs to look up resources or find jobs, among other services.
Ross said the majority of those clients are elderly, Black and/or Hispanic and many reside in East Austin.
But the work does not stop once people have access to a digital device. One-on-one support from people they can trust is key to helping them navigate the internet and combat digital illiteracy, she said.
"Clients that come to us, especially our seniors, immigrants and refugees, they feel ashamed. There's a lot of guilt of the fact that they're not digitally literate. They are guarded. They don't trust sharing or using the internet in fear that someone will take advantage of them," Ross said. " Austin Free-Net was founded on having people that you trust to help you get to that goal.
"And then giving them customized support so that they can use those devices effectively and efficiently," Ross said. "So they can feel confident, secure and safe when they do use those devices."
Local workforce skills development needed from tech employers
Other digital inclusion advocates say tech industry employers in Austin have work to do to help bridge the gaps in digital access and exposure to technology.
Tech companies with corporate or regional hubs in the Austin metro area include Dell, Apple, Facebook, IBM and the job search website Indeed.
As these companies spill millions of dollars into creating campuses and headquarters, the communities that could most benefit from the investment are left out, said Michael Ward Jr., president and CEO of the nonprofit Austin Urban Technology Movement.
AUTM wants to bridge the gap between Black and Hispanic communities and the tech industry through exposure to technology, job placement, career development and networking opportunities.
The positive economic effects of attracting tech companies — whose leaders have historically been predominantly white and male — tend to bypass low-income and predominantly Black and Hispanic communities, Ward said. Instead, tech job opportunities go to people outside of Texas, which doesn't benefit the local labor pool.
"And then the second piece of that is holding these employers accountable to provide workforce development and job opportunities, promotions, retention, to secure their roles," Ward said. "We also need more jobs that are actually not layered with systematic racism or layered with bias or layered favoring males or favoring those who are Caucasian."
Efforts by the city to bridge the divide
To close the digital gap, the city has been collaborating with Austin Free-Net to provide the community with devices through the Community PC Program.
The program's mission is to provide computers to local nonprofits whose clients lack access to a home computer.
Since the start of the program in 2017, the city has refurbished and distributed 1,639 devices, including 375 in the past year and 578 specifically distributed to Austin school district households to support their digital transition through the pandemic, Hassan said.
The city's Office of Telecommunications and Regulatory Affairs provides consumer protection, access to information and communications technology resources, and it manages public computer labs. TARA regularly meets with the Digital Empowerment Community of Austin, whose members are drawn from nonprofits, the private sector, academia and the public sector.
TARA also has invested in digital equity through the 2-decade-old Grant for Technology Opportunities Program. Hassan said the program's $3.5 million in grants have supported Austin nonprofits focused on digital equity.
"This has been matched with community investment of an estimated $12 million. GTOPs now provide $400,000 per year in support to Austin nonprofits doing digital equity work," Hassan said.
The city is conducting a study to "analyze the lived experience of Austinites with the digital divide." The findings of the study, which began in September, will be released early next year.
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