In 2018, as part of the "Digital and Inclusion" Lab, set up by the Agence Nouvelle des Solidarités Actives (Ansa) and the Sopra Steria Foundation, participants agreed on the importance of not limiting the issue of digital inclusion to that of access to digital services, but to broaden it to include usage capabilities.

Three years later, the Sopra Steria Foundation and Ansa set out to understand whether the issue had evolved? What successes have been achieved, and what obstacles remain to making the digital society fully inclusive?

In the meantime, the Covid-19 health crisis has highlighted the social and territorial inequalities in access to digital technology: the closure of physical reception points in certain public services and increased difficulty in accessing social assistance or support.

The White Paper " Digital and Human Fragility" returns to the ambivalence of digital technology in the context of the health crisis: "facilitator of links for some and revealing of exclusion for others".

Based on a survey of social workers and digital mediators (335 responses), the White Paper traces how social workers, both volunteers and professionals, have coped with the health crisis, both in their private lives and in their activities (closure of physical reception areas).

• 84% of survey participants believe that being in difficulty with digital technology increased the risk of people becoming precarious during the health crisis. The authors of the study add, however, "that the health crisis had an accelerating effect on digital uses for part of the population, even those in precarious situations: those who were already comfortable with digital technology were thus able to maintain social links (instant messaging, videoconferencing, social networks) or find good tips and help.
• 73% of survey participants believe that the health crisis has strengthened the role of digital technology in supporting the most vulnerable.
• 83% declare that they have had to support people who have difficulty with digital technology: people who are already familiar with it (but more numerous, who needed to ask for more help: elderly people, young people, families, people with digital difficulties or people with disabilities), but also new people
• 43% say they have accompanied people who were not previously accustomed to approaching or seeking help from services.

• Social workers for whom the activity has stopped with the closure of their place of work, in particular, the volunteers of associations;
• Professional social workers, who had to telework and adapt their professional practices to this new remote context;
• The social workers who were active in the field, in the reception centres or services that remained open despite the health crisis.

The second situation has resulted in the increased role of digital in the activities of social workers. "The second situation has resulted in an increase in the role of digital technology in the activities of social workers. With its generalization, some professionals have found themselves in difficulty in carrying out their mission, due to a lack of adapted tools and/or mastery of the tools, generating a lack of motivation and energy".

However, this generalization of telework has " accelerated the appropriation of digital technology and the emergence, for some, of new professional practices, concomitant with that of private practices: videoconference meetings with teams (or relatives), virtual home visits with the families supported, etc. Thus, new forms of support have emerged thanks to the innovative strength of social workers.

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A mapping of possible barriers to access and use of digital services

The objective of the tool is to remind in a simple and intuitive way the points of vigilance when developing a digital tool and a service, whether it is public, social or commercial.

The participants in the ANSA meeting identified a series of blocking points and challenges for computer technicians and engineers, public authorities, social workers, organizations and communities, digital mediators:

• No back office access for caregivers: professionals cannot solve the difficulties encountered by people because they do not have access to anything other than the user interface.
• The logistical challenge of food aid: coordination, stock and flow management, etc.
• Domiciliation: digital solutions exist, but there is a lack of harmony.
• Statistical feedback: simplify statistical feedback, which is omnipresent in the field of social intervention, time-consuming, and distracts the workers from the support.
• Pathway coordination: to enable the tracking of people between different institutions, with interoperability of existing systems.

Five proposals for digital services for all

• Designing digital solutions with usage experts by guaranteeing the effective participation of end users, and by strengthening the participation of digital mediation actors, social support professionals and social workers.
• Take into account the diversity of people's situations by developing "solution" oriented digital services, by personalizing the service offer, adapted to each situation and its evolution, and by taking into account the time it takes for users to appropriate the digital service.
• To develop digital services that are easily appropriated and "empowering" for future users, with a focus on flexible and playful approaches, drawing inspiration from solutions that have been tested for social linkage and solidarity purposes, from "general public" digital solutions, and also from approaches inherited from UX design.
• Simplify the user experience by guaranteeing the principle of "Tell us once" (DLNUF), by providing audio and foreign language solutions to facilitate digital use by all audiences, by using easy-to-read and easy-to-understand language (FALC) and by adopting a "universal" graphic charter to develop a shared digital grammar.
• To support professionals in social action and digital mediation by equipping and training them in digital uses, by mobilizing service platforms and their designers in the training of professionals and by creating sustainable links between digital mediation and social workers.