Panelists at a Tuesday morning workshop held by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) suggested that lack of broadband Internet access could hinder the progress of Latinos living in the United States. The panelists, drawn largely from the world telecommunications, warned that Latinos and other minorities risk falling behind in educational and economic attainment if the so-called “digital divide” is not bridged.
The workshop, “Latinos and the Internet: Jobs, Education, Empowerment and the Digital Economy,” was part of the final day of NCLR’s “Embrace NOW” conference at the Washington Marriott-Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Henry Rivera, board chairman of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Partnership, cited a 2011 survey from the Federal Communications Commission which found that one-third of people in the United States do not use broadband Internet. This statistic is more pronounced, he said, among minorities and non-English speaking Latinos.
“If you don’t have Internet access in your home, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities,” he said.
Rivera said that, by and large, Latinos feel that they simply can’t afford broadband access. Thirty-six percent of those surveyed cited cost as a major problem. A fewer amount of those surveyed cited a lack of digital literacy. They simply don’t feel comfortable using a computer, he said.
A smaller, though sizable percentage—19 percent—said that they did not feel that the Internet was relevant to their lives.
“Nineteen percent of folks said that, ‘There’s nothing on there that I want, it doesn’t mean anything to me, so why should I give money to the company?’ ” Rivera said.
