Hoosiers have until Monday to complete a digital access survey from Regional Opportunity Initiatives (ROI) and the Purdue Center for Regional Development. The survey covers the Indiana Uplands region, which consists of Brown, Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence Martin, Monroe, Orange, Owen and Washington counties.
“Digital inclusion is about more than just having broadband or internet access,” said Tina Peterson, ROI president and CEO. “It's about also having not only infrastructure, but access to devices and the ability to use those devices, which we call digital literacy.”
The survey is part of an effort to prepare the region to pursue federal or state funding, should it become available.
“There are bills in Congress and [2021] is a state budget year,” Peterson said. “So, we want to have information that can really inform decisions being made about access to funding in our state. It will allow us to really know as communities how we should be working with our providers and our partners relative to increasing access to the infrastructure we need to move forward.”
But what if someone doesn’t have internet access at home? How do they access an online survey?
“While many people don't have access to internet, most people have a cell phone,” Peterson said. “And so, we have actually sent out information through each of the county advisory teams with QR codes that people can use on their phone to allow them to respond to the survey, even if they don't have access at home to the internet.”
Peterson says phone surveys actually receive more responses than paper surveys, and early results show 17 percent of respondents have no internet capabilities at home.
The survey is only the first step for ROI. They’re getting data from schools and having communities participate in “intelligent community surveys” before moving to focus groups next year.
