Appendix

A Gendered Perspective on Access Issues
by Leslie Regan Shade

Questions/Recommendations

1. Support the development of measures and indicators of information highway participation. Data should be disaggregated and reported based on: income, gender, language, region, ability, ethnicity, age.
   
2. Encourage access to computer/information literacy and training for all Canadians.
   
   
3. Give priority to community-based literacy/training programs, especially those that service marginalized or "have nor populations.
   
4. Define what technical "core services" should be provided: single party telephone service, access to operator and emergency services, Internet access.
   
5. Define what information services should be part of the "essential basket" of services provided to the women's community (eg. information on women's health clinics, birth clinics, abortion clinics, counselling, small business services, childcare providers, etc.).
   
6. Define what information is essential for education, public health, or public safety (eg. adult education centres, women's centres, women's shelters, information for battered women).
   
7. Determine how more Francophone and non-English content can be created to meet the diverse needs of the women's community in Canada.
   
8. Determine what public access points would be appropriate for women's use.
   
   
9. Design and establish information "safety nets" so that all citizens, regardless of income, can partake of services.
   
10. Consider whether telecommunications carriers should be required to contribute to a universal access fund and if they should be allotted tax credits for doing so.
    
11. Consider whether the telecommunications industry should be encouraged to develop a standard "information appliance" to allow low income users to access the Internet.
    
12. Determine how current federal information infrastructure programs could better support access for women and women's groups.