<aside> 📖 The core basis of the project was to understand:

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• What the intersecting barriers are to accessing and using legal help online
• Who is affected, how, and at what points
• What the promising approaches are to increasing digital equity in British Columbia's public legal sector

<aside> 💡 This might be useful for:

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1. Understanding what the barriers are to accessing legal services digitally
2. Understanding who experiences digital exclusion
3. Understanding how users navigate and access digital services
4. Understanding how to improve service provision to users experiencing digital exclusion

<aside> ✅ The key findings were:

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• Compared with those in moderate to high income households, lower income residents own fewer devices that can connect to the Internet and were less likely to have Internet access on the device(s) they own.
• 44% of people in lower income households – and 53% of people in very low income households – face one or more barriers to using the Internet, compared with only 18% of people in moderate to high income households.
• The most common barriers relate to technology access and costs. However, barriers related to digital skill and comfort, and trust and privacy concerns, are also relatively common.
• In addition to digital divides, many people are also impacted by access to justice issues such as unaffordable legal fees, the technical nature of legal processes, and stress or trauma.

<aside> ➡️ The project made the following recommendations:

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1. Design of services needs to account for the variety of digital technology access situations experienced by users, including the highly constrained or lack of access experienced by many of the lowest income and most systemically marginalised users.
2. Providers should continue to develop and promote highly visible, low-barrier, safe, and trauma informed points of entry to resources and services, via multiple online and offline channels.
3. A person-centred, accessibility-focused, and multi-channel approach to delivery should use digital design practices that mitigate barriers, while also providing complementary and/or alternative forms of help for people who are unable to access or use digital legal resources.
4. Structural changes are required to address barriers to locating and accessing digital legal help stemming from broad, systemic inequities.
5. Based on legal help-seeking and accessing resources behaviours, services should “meet people where they are” including through community-based service locations.