Relate new developments to Canadian equity standards and laws

Examine the access and equity provisions of new initiatives

One might expect that public policy initiatives for new technologies would require the same kind of provisions for equal opportunity and access for women, minorities, people with disabilities, that are required under law for many aspects of education, employment, housing and so on. However, there are examples of the introduction of new technologies where this is not the case.

The Community Access Program, sponsored by Industry Canada, invites communities for apply for grants of up to $30,000 to develop local community access sites to the Internet, but both the guidelines and the application form are silent on the subject of equal access, much less requiring that applicants demonstrate that they will make particular provisions to ensure the inclusion of equity groups.

This is in contrast to the-example of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), a Commonwealth organization begun in 1989 to support the development and sharing of open learning and distance education resources and technologies among member countries. This organization, based in Vancouver, Canada, and supported by all Commonwealth states, has established the principle that all projects supported by COL must demonstrate equality of access for women and men. This in turn develops awareness of the access issue in a whole range of applications of technologies for learning. For example, a computer awareness program in Luansha, Zambia, now automatically includes women in at least equal numbers in all its training programs. After only seven years of operation, COL has influenced a change in perspective in Commonwealth countries regarding women's access to learning by making this a requirement of funding.

Ask funders and decision makers about policies regarding equity provisions

The Commonwealth of Learning, like many other agencies, has demonstrated the effectiveness of the strategy of making equity in all aspects a condition of funding. A great many of the new initiatives in the use of learning technologies are supported by special funding arrangements. The same kind of equity provisions that most public sector programs require for women, minorities and persons with disabilities could be a condition of funding for projects related to the use of new technologies for learning. This kind of stipulation by funders can carry a lot of weight and establish a precedent which subsequently becomes part of the way things are done. This type of incentive has been successfully used by the federal and provincial governments to support equality of opportunity in the public sector, and the private sector has in many areas followed suit.

Develop a comprehensive definition of equity of access

Equity of access should include not just physical access, but access to training, childcare, transportation, affordability. For people with disabilities, it should include the equivalent of "cut curbs" i.e., designs that support universal accessibility, as well as specific support mechanisms that enable people to compensate for disabilities when accessing particular technologies. Equality of access should also include access without language barriers, for those whose first language is not English. This is especially important in the use of the Internet which is predominantly an English language system.