Crossing the digital divide: Motivation, confidence, and solutions for digital inclusion in the UK.
Confidence, engagement, and digital inclusion: A rapid study exploring the strategies to greater digital engagement
Hannah’s research explores confidence barriers – and their attitudes more widely – to adults’ digital inclusion in the UK, and proposes solutions to address them. By examining lived experiences, the rapid study aims to identify psychological and social factors that deter digital disengagement related to users’ attitudes and feelings of confidence – while analysing successful solutions for improvement. It seeks to provide actionable recommendations to the UK Government for addressing these barriers structurally, fostering greater digital inclusion.
Using qualitative methods, the study will conduct interviews with individuals over three months. Insights will be framed within theories such as Bourdieu’s capital, as well as drawing on a phenomenological research design – emphasising a holistic understanding of digital inclusion whilst drawing on lived experiences.
The findings will contribute to academic discourse and practical policymaking – including a political recommendations summary – by shifting the focus from technical infrastructure to addressing the socio-psychological dimensions of digital inclusion in the UK.
Main Research Topics
- Digital Inclusion
- Confidence
- Attitudes
- UK Government
Research Results
Confidence, Attitudes, and Digital Inclusion in the UK: An Exploratory Study
By interviewing 14 people with lived experiences of digital exclusion in the UK, this exploratory study found that attitudes and confidence were critical to users’ digital inclusion and that a myriad of factors shift and shape digital engagement for the better. These factors operate on a micro/meso/macro level and interventions that approach confidence 360°, provide good, lifelong learning, and in the frame of a commitment to safety, are the most valuable.
The research was conducted as the UK Government launched its ‘Digital Inclusion Action Plan’, encouraging the Government to take a more comprehensive approach to confidence, and:
- Co-develop and embed interventions with users who have low/no digital confidence;
- Scale and iterate a well-resourced ‘booster shot’ lifelong learning model that prioritises digital confidence;
- Future-proof digital safety frameworks by strengthening regulatory alignment beyond the Online Safety Act.
Publications and Presentations
Whelan, H., (2025). Digital inclusion, confidence, and attitudes: An exploratory study. Submitted to the UK Government’s Digital Inclusion Action Plan Call for Evidence on behalf of research findings.
Curriculum Vitae
Hannah has hands-on experience across research, policy, and campaigns. She currently works at the UK’s leading digital inclusion charity Good Things Foundation, as their Advocacy Manager (2021-Present) in Sheffield. Previously, Hannah worked as a consultant in menstrual health and period poverty across a range of projects such as: Policy and Campaigns at Free Periods (2020-2021); Education Programme Manager at Bloody Good Period (2019-2020); and Campaign Evaluation Researcher at Women’s Environmental Network (2020). Hannah has an international academic background in media, communications, and international development.