JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Digital equity denotes that all individuals and communities have equitable access to the information technology required to participate in digital life and can fully capitalize on this technology for their individual and community gain and benefits. Digital equity is necessary for cities to provide citizens with inclusive civic and cultural participation, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential services. Various research has highlighted that COVID-19 has especially heightened the existing structural inequality and further exacerbated the technology-related social divide, especially for older adults, the economically marginalized, and members of racialized and ethnic communities by limiting their access to health and social services, education, economic activity, and social life. While many research projects are now focusing on the economic recovery of the post-pandemic phase, how the pandemic has deepened the digital divide, marginalized vulnerable groups in urban areas, and reinforced systematic exclusion remains severely understudied.

Objective:

Therefore, it is imperative to explore/understand the current state of the digital divide (which is often considered a complex social-political challenge) and how it has impacted the social interaction, economic activity, and mental well-being of city dwellers.

Methods:

We aim to conduct an integrative review to organize the available literature describing digital equity issues pertaining to urban communities. We will employ a comprehensive search, using appropriate search terms, to identify relevant literature and will qualitatively synthesize the information toward fulfilling our objectives. Specific methodological and analytical frameworks related to the integrative review process will guide each step of the process. We have designed the systematic search of the academic and grey literature databases and will include papers since January 2010. A two-stage (title-abstract and full-text) screening will be conducted, including single citation tracking and a hand search of reference lists.

Results:

This project aims to inform public policy on considering digital inequality alongside conventional systemic inequalities (e.g., education, income levels, etc.), how to promote digital equity through exploring/examining the pattern, extent, and determinants/barriers of digital inequality across sociodemographic variables/groups, and its interconnectedness with spatial dimension/variations of the urban sphere (geographic differences).

Conclusions:

Digital equity is complex to achieve, as it intersects with a variety of systemic inequalities. Learning from previous studies and other developed cities through an integrative review and internet scan will provide valuable insights into future research, development, and policy directions. The urban population is generally extremely diverse, and each population group within an urban area may have unique advantages and disadvantages in terms of digital equity. Being informed about those unique aspects will help develop workable and acceptable strategies to improve digital equity for all. Clinical Trial: Not Applicable