Digital equity affects every aspect of Detroiters’ lives including access to education, work performance and opportunities, and social lives. Over the past year, D3 has worked closely with the City of Detroit to better understand the importance of internet access to Detroit residents and identify data sources that help prioritize what Detroiters actually need to access the internet.
The amount of data and conversations in this Digital Equity report can be overwhelming, so what were some of our most interesting takeaways?
- One of the most surprising things we found, both in federal data and our local survey, is that there are people in Detroit without access to any internet in their homes, nearly 150 NVI respondents reported they have neither broadband or mobile internet access at home.
- Free Wi-Fi isn’t a comprehensive policy solution. For instance, residents express significant concerns about their data privacy and security. We also identified concerns from parents about parental control over their kids’ internet access.
- Detroiters need training for basic data skills, not just coding classes, and many organizations across the city are providing these services.
- Detroit residents still use the television as their main source of information about local politics.
If you want to get into the nitty gritty details, let’s start!
This project includes a huge span of work, including focus groups with Detroit residents and organizations providing digital programs, a data advisory board, primary data collection through the Neighborhood Vitality Index, proprietary data about digital skills in careers, and so much more. The data we found could be useful to Detroit residents and the organizations that serve them, so we wanted to provide an overview of the final Digital Equity Hub and some of our most intriguing takeaways. If you’re interested in a higher level overview of all the data, you can explore the daily lives of Detroit residents and how the lack of digital equity impacts real lives this report.
In the Connectivity and Devices research, you can explore speed test data, finding out how fast Internet is across the city of Detroit and the cost of Internet access. We also collected data on the types of devices residents have, as well as the resources Detroit residents want and need. Detroiters living in areas with access to internet speeds fast enough to support telehealth appointments, as well as access to online resources, remote work, and online education have greater capacity to engage in society. However, cost of internet access varies greatly across the city as well, meaning that the amount a resident will pay depends on where they live in addition to the plan they can afford. The data included also shows how widespread internet assistance programs were utilized across the city of Detroit.
Understanding how Detroiters use technology, skills they have and want, and the skills needed for employment took us to examine Digital Skills and Their Impact on Employment. One of the most surprising things was that residents are most likely to use the TV to access information about local politics versus social media, radio, newspaper, etc. In our NVI survey, ”social media” was only the first choice for “learning about community events.” There’s also a wide variety of concerns among Detroit residents with regard to personal information and security, making them hesitant to engage with digital programs. The other notable datapoint we found in this analysis is that basic skills like printing, scanning, or using virtual meeting platforms are needs within the community, and a large number of residents who finished the NVI survey don’t feel comfortable with *any* digital skills. We can assume that people who struggle with work or education related virtual meetings would also struggle with telehealth appointments as those platforms are often even more challenging to navigate.
In this section of the analysis, we also looked at the skills needed for employment and how digital skills correlate to various demographics like employment and household income. We found that households making more than $50,000 a year were 31% more comfortable using virtual meeting software than households making less than $50,000 a year. Looking at even more detailed breakdowns of income, less than 50% of residents with household yearly incomes under $10,000 feel comfortable using email applications, while this comfort level rose to nearly 100% of residents reporting household incomes over $125,000. We also looked at some of the in-demand jobs based on job openings in Metro Detroit and found that these positions almost always list digital skills.
The final report we created includes an overall digital equity index. By combining different datasets into an index we can see patterns that wouldn’t be visible otherwise. We can understand which neighborhood zones are facing the greatest challenges, what kinds of support residents actually need, and where existing programs are already making a difference. Most importantly, this approach helps ensure that decisions about digital equity in Detroit are based on the real experience of the people who live here. The final report also talks about the data trust, an initiative that brought together different organizations to share data and help us identify common themes and threads of Detroiter’s experiences from a different perspective. By centering local data with local voices, we create a stronger foundation for lasting change.
Head over to the Detroit Digital Equity hub and explore the data yourself! Looking for data you can’t find anywhere else? AskD3 for free to get started!