Among the citizens who have difficulty with the digital world, one person in four is illiterate or has an insufficient command of the French language.
The " Digital and Inclusion" Lab of the Agence nouvelle des solidarités actives (Ansa) has been looking into the difficulties encountered by people who do not master the written French language to take advantage of digital services.
Among the population of people who do not master the written French language, the ANSA Digital Lab distinguishes three main categories: illiterate people (they were educated in France but do not master writing in the French language today), people mastering another form of writing (first-time arrivals, people who have been living in France for less than 5 years and people who have been living in France for many years) and illiterate people (they have never received any education in writing and therefore cannot write in any language)
"If these audiences all have the common point of not mastering the written word in French, it is important to distinguish between them, because their needs and the solutions that can be deployed for them regarding digital technology can be very different."Adaptation and support solutions are still underdeveloped
The ANSA identifies three main obstacles to access and use of digital services by people who do not master the written French language:- Online tools and services are very often based on reading, comprehension and production of texts
- Lack of knowledge or training in the use of appropriate tools can hinder the use of digital technology.
- For people in very precarious situations (e.g. migrants), there may be additional problems with the availability of equipment and/or the cost of access to an Internet connection.
Circumvention strategies
People who do not master the written word in French develop, in fact,"intuitive strategies to adapt to the digital tools present in their daily life. For example, they handle digital tools through image recognition, color recognition, or through voice functions, all of which are ways to bypass the written word."The people interviewed are, in particular, quite used to using social networks or digital communication tools via text or video. They also use community sites (in their language) where they can exchange useful information. These means of communication seem to be under-used by institutions and social support actors to communicate with these people.
ANSA's Digital Lab formulates a series of actions to make digital services useful to these people known (an entry through the places of use and an entry through existing media) and to facilitate the use of digital tools (human support adapted to the needs, coordination of territorial actors, mediation and the role of peers).
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