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Developing a
Minimum
Digital
Living 
Standard

Helping to tackle digital inequality by developing a Minimum Digital Living Standard (MDLS) for households with children covering all four UK nations.

welcome to minimum digital living
We research the UK's digital requirements

Minimum Digital Living Standard (MDLS) is a response to the significant challenges experienced by households in accessing digital technology whether it be for work, education, leisure, health, or wellbeing.

We define a MDLS as the basket of “digital goods, services and skills” that facilitate an individual’s digital capabilities to effectively live a life they value.

A DEVLOPING DIGITAL LANDSCAPE
We investigate the UK's changing digital needs

COVID-19 laid bare long-standing challenges of digital inequalities in the UK. Inequalities with very real consequences for people and places. Inequalities with implications across all areas of policy, provision, business and civil society. Yet standard policy measures of digital exclusion significantly underestimate the challenges faced by households.

RESEARCH PROCESS AT A GLANCE
The 5 Stages to our Research

To deliver the Minimum Digital Living project we are utilising the proven and innovative Minimum Income Standard (MIS) methodology to undertake a participatory assessment of digital needs.

Stage One

The orientation stage develops a shared definition. This comprised four focus groups with members of the public during early 2022.

Stage Two
Groups discuss in detail what they feel families with children need to meet the definition. Groups are freshly recruited to test and broaden public consensus.
Stage Three
In-depth group consultations explore the relevance of the standard with regard to key dimensions of lived experience and intersectionality, such as disability, ethnicity, rurality, poverty.
Stage Four
The standard is used to develop survey measures. These will go through three iterations of expert, stakeholder and citizen testing before conducting 1500 in-person interviews.
Stage Five
The survey data will then be analysed with geodemographic data to produce a Mapbook with estimated rates for the number of households which meet the standard.
FRAMEWORKS
Moving the Debate Along

Through employing an approach based on deliberative engagement with households, the team has developed a framework that encapsulates digital needs and will explore the implications of not having these.

The project seeks to move digital inclusion policy and research debates beyond simple measures of access and skills.

get in touch
Link up with us on social networks

In addition to the website we will be updating our followers on the development of the project on our social network. Let’s link up!