ICT Barriers faced by Communities/Individuals

• Lack of ICT Infrastructure. The principal barriers to ICT access in rural communities are both infrastructural and financial: high-speed Internet access often unavailable, and dial-up access can be subject to toll charges and to electric interference.
• Socio-economic Barriers. The cost of buying and updating software, and of maintaining Internet and email connections, is a problem for individuals who are unemployed and/or on low incomes, and for smaller voluntary organisations.
• Cultural Barriers. Many ethnic communities face barriers through the lack of relevant cultural and non-English content on the Internet, and because of cultural norms that prefer face-to-face contact as a means of communication. Maori have specific issues about the protection of intellectual property in the use of forms, motifs, pictures, words and phrases that are viewed as belonging to an iwi.
• Lack of Literacy and Numeracy. About 20% of NZ adults between 15 and 65 years old, have considerable difficulty in using printed materials (such as reading a newspaper or bus timetable) and are likely to have difficulty using a computer.
• Lack of Technical and Mentoring Support. Technical support is often needed on-the-spot to solve computer and network errors, to maintain the system, to provide assistance and training for users, and to build user confidence.
• Poor Information Literacy and/or Knowledge Management. Support is often needed to help people to access relevant information from a variety of sources, to evaluate, interpret and manipulate the information they find (especially when messages conflict) and to use information in critical thinking and problem solving.
• Lack of Relevant On-line Content and Motivation. ICT has significant potential to build collaborative relationships between groups and to inform and empower individuals. But the absence of content relevant to people on low incomes, who live in rural communities, or who are members of racial or ethnic minorities, means that many people are not able to benefit fully from ICT access. A US study has found that “content” issues include a lack of local information, reading levels that are too high, language barriers and a lack of cultural diversity in the Internet.