Diversity, Equity & Accessibility: a Civil Rights Tech Policy Framework for the First 100 Days.

Diversity, Equity & Accessibility: a Civil Rights Tech Policy Framework for the First 100 Days.

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[Music] hello and welcome to attp's connected communities digital forum my name is alejandra rourke and i'm the executive director for hispanic technology and telecommunications partnership http is a ceo roundtable of national latino civil rights organizations working in partnership to promote equitable access adoption and the full utilization of technology and telecommunications resources by the latino community across the united states before we begin i want to invite everyone who is watching to join the conversation online by following at hct policy on twitter and using the hashtag http inclusion as the world continues to cope with the devastating social and economic fallout of the covet 19 global health crisis diverse communities are facing compounding barriers to accessing critical services participating in online learning and for many frontline workers are forced to leave their homes every day and expose themselves to the risk of infection because of the lack of an at-home broadband connection which allows them to live to learn and earn from the safety of their home covet 19 the presidential election and the severe impacts of global warming has not only exposed the deaths of our country's digital divide but raised concerns about privacy the spread of misinformation and the tension between hate speech and free speech online and most importantly i think the continued lack of representation and media and the technology workforce the 2020 election galvanized the largest multicultural majority of voters in american history and with it an important mandate to establish better systems and government policies that meet the needs of every americans regardless of their race their age gender orientation ability country of origin religion or socio-economic background no other time is better suited to take both actions to address and redress the deeply embedded structural inequalities of the past than within the first hundred days of a new president's term with little over 25 days into his presidency joe biden has already taken decisive action to combat the spread of cover 19 has recommitted to addressing the role the united states plays in the fight against climate change has drafted the american rescue plan to provide economic relief to those most in need and most importantly to our issues being discussed today issued an executive order to advance racial equity and support for historically underserved communities throughout the federal government central to an effective economic recovery is the issue of how to best expand digital opportunity to every home broadband is the connective tissue that facilitates our ability to access telehealth services for students and teachers to stay connected virtually and for people to benefit from this from safety net programs and services which have almost entirely shifted online our conversation today centers civil rights equity and accessibility and aims to provide actionable recommendations to the biden harris administration to create an inclusive digital economy that serves everyone i am honored to be joined today by civil rights advocates including emily chi assistant director of telecom technology and media for asian americans advancing justice dr dominique harrison director of the technology and policy at the joint center maria towne ceo of american association of people with disabilities and claudia reese policy analyst for units us thank you all for being here today and maria i want to start with you because it's a lifelong advocate for the rights and needs of people with disabilities i'm hoping that you can provide some insight into the role that technology and telecommunications policy impacts the way that people with disabilities engage with the world and what types of actions the biden harris administration can take to meet the needs of the disability community both today and into the future certainly thank you alejandro technology presents incredible opportunities for people with disabilities um so much of the technology that we all use today was originally created for disabled people texting originally created for deaf folks optical character recognition the thing that enables predictive text originally created for the blind community and while technology has quite literally created opportunities and open doors for the disability community it also has reinforced existing barriers and created new disparities and we have certainly seen that in the pandemic people with disabilities particularly multiple marginalized people with disabilities have less access to connectivity to the internet not only that technology itself is often inaccessible now all of our public programs are becoming digital first many of these websites are not accessible to disabled people um and we are seeing that most acutely in the registration for covid vaccines um state websites that that are requiring people to sign up for vaccinations are inaccessible disabled people are spending hours and hours on phones trying to figure out how they can sign up for a vaccine that they most desperately need um and we we've seen a lot a lot of things happen in the space of telehealth before the pandemic you know barely 10 percent of the us population manage their health via telehealth appointments during the pandemic telehealth has really exploded and again that's created opportunities to serve hard-to-reach populations but we're also seeing again a disparate impact in the kind of care that disabled people can receive um and one one thing that we would like to see from the biden harris administration is preserving many of the uh telehealth related policies that cms the centers for medicaid and medicare have adopted while at the same time not not creating the idea that disabled people will only manage their health care through telehealth appointments we want us we want telehealth and in-person medical care to complement one another but in order for that to happen um disabled people still need to get through the door of their doctor's offices health care providers still need to be culturally competent and telehealth ex itself needs to be accessible yeah thank you so much i think that you raise a lot of really great concerns and i know that there was a new paper that was recently released that i think kind of outlined the the evolution of telemedicine from before the pandemic to now um if you'd like to hear more about that please check out aapd on their website i know that they have that resource online and please stay connected to maria town so dominique the joint center has been raising consciousness for years on the important role that representational leadership plays in establishing inclusive policies by the federal government or better said how representation at all levels of government is the only way to achieve equitable outcomes for all americans recently you guys published a new report about the lack of representation in congressional offices and are calling for the blind administration to appoint diverse leaders to key positions both in his cabinet the fcc and the ftc do you mind sharing some background with our audience about you know some of those prospects and who you think are well suited to help build back better systems to expand digital opportunity to everyone yes thank you so much alejandro i'm dr dominique harrison as alejandro said the director of technology policy at the joint center for political and economic studies we're known as america's black think tank and just to start off we were founded in 1970 to support the newly elected black officials who were moving in from civil rights activism into governance and they needed a place that was doing research and policy analysis on how black communities were being impacted by new legislation and to understand some of the opportunities that policy can play in those communities and so we became a hub for government officials and public intellectuals that are concerned about the future of african americans and we have a unique and great relationship with the congressional black caucus today who leans on us for our expertise and information with regard to these issues and so i just started our new tech policy program which is dedicated dedicated to exploring the impact of emerging technologies and developing the legislative strategies to improve the lives of black people we're focused on three priority areas first is platform accountability second is broadband access and adoption and third is privacy and algorithmic fairness i'm really examining the the kind of uh the the influence of privacy issues the personal use of information and how that can result in discriminatory outcomes based upon the kind of algorithms and data sets that are used so when i think about the new administration um with regards to diversity and inclusion i think about a colleague as you've mentioned i think about a couple of things excuse me as you mentioned my colleague dr lashonda brunson runs our program on hill diversity has long argued for diverse representation on the hill but we also need diversity in specific agencies like the fcc and ftc to center the concerns of black communities in the conversation we know that policy is not race neutral right and when policy leaders do not examine pre-existing disparities their risk of their risk of exacerbating them policy impacts specific communities in unique ways right women men black brown asian and so we need to be considering those issues and we need members of black brown asian communities to be in leadership positions leading these agencies to explore the benefits and costs of specific policies on our communities and so we advocate for such folks like commissioner jeffrey starks to be at the helm of the fcc to ensure that those issues are a priority when i think about issues with regards to anti-trust or platform accountability we also need to think about the authority of the federal trade commission and the consumer financial protection bureau in examining civil rights issues to prevent discrimination we need leaders of color in these agencies to be examining antitrust reform and how we can use our enforcement tools to ensure that markets are competitive and are beneficial to historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged consumers rather than big business we need to worry about the communities of color who are innovating and developing smaller business but cannot get into the field because these big tech companies have a large monopoly over the system right another issue is affordability of broadband services you know that's one of the top reasons why black and brown communities do not have access to home internet and while research has shown that these communities say they don't need it as a read reason for non-adoption it may be in fact the way that the question is being asked of these communities which is tied to cultural and social differences and so i was actually talking to someone at the ntia because i want to conduct some research around what affordability means for black communities and we were talking about how black and brown communities have a high self-regard for their culture and families and so when asked the question why do you adopt not adopt the internet instead of saying i cannot afford it we're going to say we don't need it right because we're not going to say that we can't afford the internet and so we need folks at these agencies to be examining these kinds of nuances who understand the challenges and opportunity with regard to broadband issues so we need fcc leaders of color again at the helm to be in charge of making decisions around affordability pricing of broadband services and how to reform internet subsidy programs to increase adoption of the technology and so we have recommended three black individuals to be in leadership positions at the ftc and we hope the new administration takes this into account as they consider how to center racial equity throughout the administration and on the hill thank you dominique i know that um as i was just kind of before i even got into tech and telecommunications policy was working for um just inclusion in general right diversity and and inclusion i would always refer back to the research and the scholarship of the joint center who has really been able to kind of both quantify and qualify um the impacts that that lack of representation has in our day-to-day lives so claudia you know we are fortunate to include your thoughts today in our conversation because i know that unidos us um for you guys tech policy really is a civil rights issue you rarely separate your tech policy recommendations from your core civil rights pillars and as such you ensure that technology and telecommunications policy is a central and integrated component of your national civil rights agenda i'd love to hear more about your efforts at the new at when it's us and how you frame your policy agenda through the prism of civil and human rights yeah thanks so much alejandro um yeah so as you mentioned i'm actually probably gonna pick up a thread that dr harrison just left off with and that is you know like you said really centering the issue of racial equity in any sort of approach um to civil rights policy you know to begin with but then on top of that to tech policy and really centering it as a civil rights issue um i am first and foremost a civil rights analyst right so for me it's kind of bringing a different angle to tech policy um you know something that is not necessarily a space that i have always lived and played in um and i think that that is actually just one of the really core issues that we're seeing right now in tech policy um you know to kind of back up a little bit as you mentioned at the outset you know 2020 really taught us a lot everything from the pandemic um to the murder of george floyd the murders of george floyd and brianna taylor and the resulting movement from black lives um down all the way down to the election and most recently the insurrection that happened on january 6th and i think that you know the common sort of fault line that runs um beneath each of these issues or sectors is the issue of racial inequality systemic racial inequality and the fact that to stop that structural racism has been embedded in so many of our pre-existing structures and policies and frameworks and now the reality is that we're seeing that happen again and it's only now becoming highlighted within tech policy um and sort of the issues that dr harrison highlighted right so everything from platform accountability um to algorithmic justice um all the way down to bro affordable broadband access and so when i'm thinking through this um whenever we advocate for specific policies it always begins with centering the most marginalized communities whenever we talk about these discussions and i think that in tech policy it is extra crucial just because of how how sort of far behind civil society really is on this issue um and so i think that you know as dr harrison said there's always sort of the work that has to be done on the back end of contending with our history and structural racism while also looking forward to making sure that these are not harms that are perpetuated replicated and exacerbated by new emerging issues like tech policy um i kind of wanna i heard a wonderful quote um the other day in an organizing meeting um that really kind of i think captures this issue really well which is you know government doesn't know the difference between a server and a waiter and developers don't know the difference between a bill and a check um and i think that that sort of really gets at you know this multi-pro this multi-layered issue when it comes to tech policy and that's first of you know a lot of the time it's government and lawmakers speaking a different language than what developers and product designers do on and you know sort of tech wonks do on a daily basis and i think therein is where we find the gaps that lead to these unintended consequences like algorithmic for example like you know hiring algorithms that weed out applicants of color like recently how the education department was revealed to have used automated systems in order to disproportionately audit black and brown um financial aid applicants or if you even want to go to sort of surveillance technologies the ways in which surveillance technologies have been you know overused and deployed against communities black and brown communities that have historically been over surveilled by law enforcement already right so it's really we're seeing what we're seeing is you know kind of two lanes and i think that from my point of view from a civil rights angle they need to be merged and the best way that you can do that is to as dr harrison mentioned make sure that you're bringing in diverse staff diverse staff diverse um offices across agencies and i don't think it just needs to end and i don't think she meant that but it doesn't as start and end with the fcc or the ftc uh we advocate for this idea of installing technology and data privacy offices across all federal agencies to make sure that the technology that they are using and deploying is done and it's in a way that does not create more civil rights abuses like the ones that i mentioned earlier um that also kind of get to take it one step further the staff that is brought in also needs to be themselves diverse right to again get the perspective and understanding of these multi-marginalized communities that have experienced civil harms abuses historically at different points throughout our history now to get a little bit sort of you know more specific again tech policy as everyone has mentioned really runs the gambit right it's really from the beginning uh to something as new from the beginning of like broadband access to something as sort of complicated and wonky is you know automated machine learning and the ways in which um you know targeted ads work and you know that those sort of things um and i kind of like to think of it as sort of like a maslow's hierarchy right at the very bottom of that pyramid really is affordable broadband access um you know there's an estimated as many as 77 million people in this country that lack you know adequate um home internet connection and so that means that they either lock it all together or that they only rely on sort of a mobile a mobile device or a mobile service um now with you within those 77 million people about 26 of those are identified as white 35 of those identify as black 34 of those identified as hispanic and 41 of those identify as indigenous so again we're replicating these racial fault lines upon which you know people are lacking access to what has become a most foundational and basic um civil right you know it really is the new frontier of connecting like you said to living earning and learning um and i think that which by the way i love that phrase i'm gonna have to take that one um and so i think that that's something that's really important to keep in mind is that you know adjust as much as we get as we need to make sure that we're having adequate oversight and regulation of emerging technologies and developing technologies and the ways in which they're deployed we also need to make sure that we are centering again the most marginalized communities who are still you know lack adequate access all together yeah no thank you claudia uh first i mean i can't take credit for that that was that dr nicole turner lee at the brookings institution uh which we love um who coined that phrase um that's where i got it so gotta give props for props are due um so no thank you so much for sharing that i i think what what we really have seen isn't um the fact that uh civil rights protections don't exist in our country it's that we haven't adequately enforced them as they have transitioned as as many aspects of our lives have transitioned to an online and virtual space you know one of the things that the trump administration was successful at doing was using online platforms to broadcast misinformation you know both about census and about voting and most gravely you know to dehumanize communities of color and using as escape goats to his you know in service of his co unconstitutional attempt to consolidate presidential influence and prevent the peaceful transition of power these actions um which which have gone largely unchecked by congress the news media and by online platforms have led to real-world physical violence again black latino and indigenous communities of color today specifically we we have seen a sharp spike in violence against the asian community so i wanted to really include um emily your perspective and and hopes that you i wouldn't mind sharing um what systemic forces you believe to be at play and how the bite administration can work to curb the rise of hate speech and white supremacy online sure thank you and i want to thank my colleagues for bringing up the point that none of this is new um it's all grounded in systemic forces that have always been at play harming communities of color and marginalized groups um tech is not creating these new problems tech is simply amplifying and accelerating these problems that have always existed in our society and like claudia said it's really important to center the experience of communities of color and the history behind the policies that have enabled tech to amplify these problems right so with the increase in incidence and harassment against asian americans we know that none of this is new there's a history of even just specific disease false rhetoric against asian americans we saw that with a bubonic plague outbreak in san francisco there was forced quarantine of chinatown residents without any evidence that they were infected or responsible for any of this bread in honolulu one chinatown community was even burned to the ground in an effort to supposedly control the spread of disease where they had no evidence that the disease had started there or that residents were even sick at all so we know that none of this is new um and we really have to think about what are the words that are being used what is the content that is being spread and how is it actually no different from hundreds of years of our history so when we talk about how the former president posted um content about how asian americans were somehow responsible for this disease how muslim americans were somehow a threat to the american people those false lies and those dog whistles are not new and so when we think about content moderation today um it's not enough to think about what are the words that explicitly incite violence or explicitly harm people because we have no excuse we have hundreds of years of of history to indicate what type of rhetoric is going to incite violence so we need to think about how have we progressed as a society and not progress what are the things that we still have to be careful of um when we look at the content that is posted online and what is going to become the most profusively spreading online so that's one thing i want to highlight is the history but like claudia and dr harrison mentioned these issues are systemic and we need to look at all tech policy issues from the lens of civil rights and communities of color so another example that comes to mind is immigrant surveillance we know that the history of surveillance in the u.s begins with plantations and monitoring individuals who are enslaved we also know that with the creation of the chinese exclusion act chinese immigrants were the first in u.s history to be limited with their immigration abilities um on the basis of race or ethnicity so we have to think about that history when we think about modern day immigrant surveillance policies we know that individuals are being tracked that their social media is being surveilled often without a permit sometimes they're required to wear tracking devices their biometric data is being collected at the border and we're using facial recognition sometimes even on children and we know that whatever happens at the border when we use these technologies on the communities that are the most vulnerable it's only a matter of time before we justify the use of it in our own policing within the u.s on the poor in our own communities and so we need to be really thoughtful about what are the rules and the limits that we want to place on the use of these technologies to limit government power and protect the communities that we know are going to be the most disproportionately negatively impacted by this and how do we prevent making privacy and security a right that only the wealthy elite and powerful can afford um also thinking about things like i'm going back to content moderation um not only is it an issue of making sure that words and content that harm the most marginalized communities are being checked and taken down it's also making sure that misinformation that targets our users in their languages is also being paid attention to so it's not enough to simply translate um link content that might be in chinese or korean or spanish we have to really think about what is the history of these communities what are the cultural barriers that exist and how do we make sure that um the messages that they're receiving that are designed to suppress them to oppress them um are being adequately handled by the folks in power that includes lawmakers and tech companies um so we want to look at everything through that lens of what's happened historically and what are the lived experiences of people of color today no emily thank you so much for bringing up uh access to um history right because i think that when we talk about representation oftentimes um we've said it so much and for so long that people kind of glaze over it and and i think to be explicit about the fact that you know when you have a tech force that's predominantly white and male you know they come with also very specific blind spots and it's not that um multicultural tech talent it's not that we have some kind of a magical ability to kind of understand or recognize injustice it's just that through the we are our families have lived through these types of kind of recent american history and injustice um so we have that kind of familiar kind of like biological record that we carry with us and i think are more in tune to the way that our communities have been impacted and and i think that we also know at this point in time that you know the reason that some of our kind of white counterparts have these um blind spots is because they haven't had you know access through an accurate um recording of american history um it's been kind of cherry picked and really kind of um to just promote i think a more kind of a unified version or revisionist history of what we've all kind of lived through um so as we kind of get deeper into this conversation i want to open up this next question to the entire panel you know um so today you know if if we were each to just pose one thing you know one thing that the vitamin harrison administration can do today or within the next 70 days to expand digital opportunity across the country or mitigate the harmful effects of unchecked um hate speech and rhetoric online what do you think that that would be um and and i'm happy to start with with maria what are your thoughts if there is this this top thing at the top of your list what is it um echoing what everyone has said uh the thing at the top of our list is expanding access to affordable broadband um right now the uh emergency broadband benefit program restricts access based on household and not on the number of people who need it they also restrict access on the kind of device that an individual can receive disabled people often need multiple devices just to access the most basic website just to get connected um so we we want to see broadband benefits made permanent we want to see the amount of those benefits increased uh we want to see the eligibility for that broadband expanded to the greatest extent possible anyone who is currently receiving federal support whether that's through snap wic ssi ssdi medicaid medicare should be automatically eligible for a broadband benefit um and the the type of device should not be restrictive to what we think of as normal or normative or standard tech perfect dr harrison um what's the top of your list as you kind of think through these issues um happy to kind of hear your thoughts yeah i mean i definitely agree with what maria is saying that's the emergent urgent issue right now is that there are black and brown communities that don't have access to the internet and particularly for students young folks in lower income community this is essential to succeeding in school right now right i mean this can have long-term impacts with regards to you know the kind of college they can get into type of kind of educational attainment and job that they can obtain and so we really need to be thinking hard about making some type of internet subsidy program long term that really addresses the affordability question right so we known the lifeline 995 uh uh subsidy program is just not adequate for for today was to develop 10 years ago right and even with the 50 subsidy that still may not be enough broadband costs on average 70 a month and when promotional prices are excluded the cost jumps to around 83 a month so that means families might be paying in excess 20 to 30 um a month for internet service for a speed and um you know uh that can uh accommodate the kind of needs that they have but still that may not be um possible for families who are struggling in this moment and so leaders um policymakers need to be thinking about coming together and seeing what is the cost that we need to think about so that families can afford broadband at the same time there's this discussion going on right now amongst republicans to try to block municipal broadband networks and communities and sometimes this is the option that is best for low-income black and brown communities because it's cheaper right and it provides a better speed and capacity for the kinds of things that we need to do online so we also must be um aware of what that conversation and ensure that they are not banning or limiting municipal uh broadband networks so that we can make sure again that we have the access that we need yeah i think today more than ever we know that there is no one-size-fits-all for every community for some community it's really addressing the the issue of cost for some community it's it can be mitigated by bringing resources together and working with local municipalities to ensure that those that education is available in in multi languages and that there's an outreach mechanism to reach communities um and for some communities where there hasn't been um you know rural communities where there hasn't been build out or or um landscapes where it's just it's been a cost prohibited to extend that broadband infrastructure we shouldn't be limiting the options that that community has available um to just do to address the needs of their residents um so absolutely kind of echo that sentiment and understand that that really i think at this point we need all the tools in our toolbox to be available to our communities so claudia would love to hear you know top of your civil rights agenda what what what are you thinking through what are you really kind of working with with congress and and the um fcc and the ftc to to ensure that we are um connecting as many people as possible yeah um i'm actually really glad that maria and dr harrison led with that um it's kind of hard to double down or i would say triple down any better than that um so what i might actually kind of pivot to is this idea of making sure that right that you know really emphasizing this need for tech offices and that have that meet at the intersection of civil rights um or staffers and staff with civil rights backgrounds right i think it's really necessary as we i kind of as i think all of us sort of mentioned um to really make sure that we're centering civil rights in any of these discussions and the only way to do that is to ensure that each of these agencies or have the right kind of staff but the intersectional backgrounds that are needed to actually address this very issue like you mentioned of making sure that we're not developing a one-size-fits-all solution of making sure that we're connecting with hard-to-reach communities to figure out what exactly are their very specific needs and what are the actual sustainable long-term policy solutions that can keep them connected right and it's not gesturing pandemic right as everybody i'm sure is tired of saying we are in the new normal um we will be online for a very long time and even if we transition back to you know in person life the reality is that a large chunk of our lives will remain online and so i think that that's something that is very key to ensure that we have sustainable broadband access um again is really making sure that we have um an agency staff that that is knowledgeable in these sort of histories and the intersections that is necessary to keep these communities online i just wanted to jump in really quickly and add to it claudia said that there are a number of civil rights groups and advocates who have argued that there needs to be more allocation of funds to places like the ftc because they can't afford hiring more staff and so you know we need to again think about how congress can give more money to make sure that the right people are there to examine the current issues that are on the agenda so yeah or to allocate resources for the specific intent right to as as biden said evaluate the agency's culture and their policies to ensure that historically disenfranchised communities are not only at the table but are considered their needs are considered as we move hopefully forward into a more inclusive future that includes all of us um emily what's the top of your list i know that you also leave the uh the asian tech table which is similar to http in that you convene a diverse intersection of national um asian communities to kind of discuss these tech issues so we'd love to hear what's on the top of or what's on your radar and what are you really kind of hoping that the administration takes up um in these next kind of 70 days of their sure um broadband is definitely at the top of our list as well i'll add to what folks have already said to mention that rural broadband does not necessarily just mean you know white populations we need to be thinking about access for tribal lands for pacific islands for hawaii for alaska um think about the people of color who are also living in rural areas and need the infrastructure and also thinking about the urban areas that have historically been redlined have been seen as unprofitable and therefore even when they're located in cities you can be literally across the street or across a bridge and not have access to the infrastructure that is required to connect to broadband so even if we fix the affordability piece these folks are going to be left without internet service unless we also address the infrastructure problem and we also need to have better data on who the individuals and communities are who need these services right now a lot of internet access surveys are only conducted in english are sometimes only conducted online which always makes me laugh a little bit with sadness but you know how do we even figure out which communities are not being served and sometimes we look at historical participation in programs offline like lifeline as an indicator of who needs these services most but we know that because outreach has been flawed that programs aren't designed for the most disenfranchised that that's a problematic indicator and so we need better information and understanding of the life experiences of people and what their needs are another policy priority for us is pushing for a moratorium on facial recognition technologies and this is for two reasons first we know that facial recognition technology is flawed there are numerous studies that indicate that there is a bias against people of color and women um for example in within the asian american community we know that there have been tests conducted that might show that it might say that an asian american is closing their eyes and therefore the facial recognition software fails um so we know that there are a lot of problems in the building of this technology but we also need to make sure that even if the technology were to be perfected we set a clear set of rules and regulations around that use of it and right now that just doesn't exist so we need to pause on use of that technology and better understand both how the tech works but also how government is going to use that data um last i'll add um you know we already talked a little bit about hate speech harassment and violent incidents but with any type of reform around content moderation around privacy legislation we need to make sure that we include the experiences of people of color non-english speaking communities of historically disenfranchised groups because even if we are to update um for example privacy rights with with wonderful things like an accessible um actually understandable privacy policy an opt-out option portability whatever it is none of that is useful to consumers on the ground if they don't actually understand their rights so we need to make sure that whatever new protections are put in place are actually translatable are actually being explained to people on the ground so that practically they are actually able to exercise their rights and it's not just an opportunity for lawmakers and tech companies to say we did our part we improved privacy without actual results no thank you so much for that and thank you all for taking the time to be with us today i know that we are running um close to our time but i heard a couple of things that i really just want to reiterate for our audience number one is we need to ensure that we have a fully funded uh mapping uh broadband mapping uh program uh run for the fcc so that we can clearly identify where the gaps in our broadband infrastructure is and so that we can connect the people that have had um long term have just been left out of economic opportunity because of their lack of a digital at-home connection i think it's important that as we both applaud um and i think it's such a great initiative to establish an emergency broadband benefit program um that will be set up i think here in the next like couple of weeks by the end of february that that program um really um is it expands its eligibility um and and and the way that it's kind of implemented to ensure that we are reaching people that again have been left out historically you know our goal is to cast a wider net and include more people and expand the the the circle of digital opportunity regardless of where people live so i think that you know the ebb really is top of mind for us and i think as dr harrison said it's it's really really important to ensure that we have um representation both in congressional staffs and the fcc staff and the ftc staff and and in key leadership positions people that that understand through their kind of lived experience the unique and compounding layered barriers that our communities face to a digital connection so that we can begin to build back better systems that actually meet the needs of our communities and i think lastly um what what maria said is you know we've we've covered 19 has really allowed us to expand the reach of so many great um social safety net programs including um access to to health care right specifically telehealth it's important that we learn from kind of like the best practices the the the uh the the the guardrails and the framing and the exceptions that we created to ensure that people are able to access um telehealth i'm during the pandemic that those become a permanent option for people that that really were able to benefit from it through koba 19 and who will continue uh to hopefully benefit um after the pandemic so thank you claudia thank you dr harrison maria and um emily chi for being here with us today um thank you for your work and service of the needs of our community and also a big thank you to everyone who is joining from home please make sure to follow our panelists on twitter and while you're there please also follow attp policy to be the first to hear about our upcoming conversations as a part of our connected communities digital forums and so um i think until we see each other again please remember to tune into the conversation to speak up to speak out and to stay connected because the future needs our help until next time see you then [Music] you

2021-03-13 03:23

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