Stop talking about “digital inclusion.”

Stop talking about “digital inclusion.” Start talking about the people you’re excluding.

The person who can’t book a GP appointment because the surgery went online-only.

The mum who can’t check her kid’s school report because it’s on an app she’s never heard of.

The bloke who lost his job and can’t claim Universal Credit because he doesn’t have a smartphone.

The family trying to keep their dad safe after he was found at 6am trying car doors in the street, looking for a car he no longer owned.

None of them think they have a “digital problem.”

They think the world got harder and nobody noticed.

We made the language comfortable for commissioners and funders. We turned people into a problem category. We gave it a name that sounds like an IT ticket.

It’s not a digital problem. It’s a power problem. It’s an access problem. It’s a “we built this for people who already had it sorted” problem.

The tech is the easy bit.

The hard bit is showing up in the places people actually are.

Oldham Council got that.

When we asked them to help us find some space, they didn’t put us in an office. They didn’t put us in a community centre tucked down a side street. They put us in the shopping centre. Right in the middle of town. Right where people already go.

That’s not a small thing. That’s a statement about who services are actually for.

We’re not waiting for people to find help. We went to find them.

If you want to address digital inclusion, stop talking about digital, and include people.