Digital Navigators Help Close the Digital Divide
Digital navigators consolidate all of the components of digital inclusion – internet, devices, and skills – by providing digital navigation to existing social services, reaching diverse and multilingual communities most impacted by digital inequities through multiple one-on-one interactions.
Digital Navigators are critical in closing the digital divide, connecting people to the internet through three key channels:
Digital navigators are:
- Multilingual
- Multicultural
- Trauma-informed social service providers
- Housed in community-based organizations
- Walk a family through signing up for Comcast’s low-income program Internet Essentials
- Connect a student to a computer through their school district
- Help someone connect a computer to wifi
- Support an elder in setting up a tele-health appointment
- Assist someone in signing up for unemployment online
- Identify people who cannot afford or access existing programs and distribute wifi hotspots, laptops, tablets, and/or other devices
Digital Navigator data from the ConnectWA Coalition
- Ensures non-English speakers receive culturally relevant tech support in their preferred language
- Helps users navigate digital tools, internet access, and online services