The Family Fund’s report, Digitally Excluded, draws on responses from 660 families raising disabled or seriously ill children across the UK. It shows that nine in ten respondents (93%) to a UK-wide survey of families raising disabled children in lower-income households are being digitally excluded or are at risk of exclusion. Due to financial disadvantage many families are just one broken digital device or one broadband bill away from being forced offline.
Disabled children have greater needs, including tech for learning, communication and mental wellbeing, but they’re being left behind as families on a low income have fewer resources to meet those needs.
- 93% of respondents are either digitally excluded or at risk of exclusion, due to wide-ranging factors, including not being able to afford internet access or digital devices and lacking digital skills and confidence.
- 89% of parents and carers with a disabled child are struggling to afford internet access and the cost of buying, maintaining, and replacing basic devices, apps and assistive software, due to the higher everyday costs of having a disabled person in your household (now estimated at over £1,000 a month more than non-disabled households).
- 57% of families find their internet service difficult to afford, with 32% of parents and carers limiting their own internet use to cut costs as well as cutting back on other things like food and heating to afford internet provision.
- 69% of families say it’s essential for their child to have access to online learning. Often this is in the context of situations where children can’t otherwise attend school or college in person or are being homeschooled. It’s particularly important in cases where children need access to assistive technologies to support their learning.
