Accessibility and digital inclusion in Brazil

Accessibility as a fundamental right

With the popularization of Internet access around the globe, since the beginning of the 21st century, digital inclusion has been considered a Human Right. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and speech; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of borders.” Despite dating back to 1948, it is a fact that the UDHR stablished: “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media” as a right. Because of that, it is undeniable that the right to Internet access is essential, since that means of communication is part of the reality of over 1 billion people across the planet.

In addition to that, in the year 2011, the United Nations (UN) established the right to Internet access as a Human Right. Such measure had the main objective of providing the freedom for people to share their thoughts during the events of the Arab Spring, in which the protests were planned and organized through social media. But it takes more than Internet access to digitally include the Brazillian people. It is also necessary to develop a series of digital inclusion policies. In addition to the usage of the Internet, digital inclusion also entails teaching the people how to properly make use of the basic tools that make up a computer and the virtual environment. Therefore, teaching people how to use digital media becomes beneficial to the development of the human capabilities.

Digital inclusion in Brazil

In Brazil, the present Constitution, enacted in 1988, does not recognize the access to the Internet as a Human Right, because, at the time when it was being elaborated, the Internet was going through its initial implementation stages, not being accessible to the average consumer and, therefore, being not nearly as important as it is in present times. However, the article 5, paragraph 2, of our Constitution states that “The rights and guarantees announced in this Constitution do not exclude others that result of the policy  and the principles by it adopted, or of the international agreements in which the Federative Republic of Brazil takes part.”, meaning that, even though digital inclusion is not mentioned in our Constitution’s original text as a Human Right, the Constitution itself allows it to become one through an amendment, what, in the socioeconomic and scientific context we are inserted in today, is not only viable, but also a growing need.

Nowadays, for example, the Internet is one of the most important available ways of obtaining information and knowledge, representing practically infinite amounts of information about the most diverse themes. It is not a surprise that, because of that, the Internet became the most used tool for school and academic research, not to mention for access to culture in general. Another very common use of the Internet is communication and social interaction, via social media, for example. Finally, the Internet recently has been used by the State itself as a tool for providing its services, such as the availability of vacancies in public universities through SISU (Unified Selection System). Even the Judiciary system has been using the Internet for uploading its processes and jurisprudences, which represents an extremely important achievement in favor of transparency, greater agility of the processual system and easier public access to that information.

Digital inclusion in Brasil has always happened along with the implementation of the Internet itself in the country, through governmental initiatives dating from the end of the 20th century. Examples of these initiatives are the Brazillian Internet Managing Committee, in 1995; the National Educational Technology Program (Proinfo), in 1997 – responsible for the beginning of the installation of computer labs in schools; the One Computer per Student project (UCA), in 2007 – that aimed the distribution of portable computers for public school students; the National Program for the Support of Digital Inclusion (SID), in 2011; among others.

Digital inclusion policies

There are four main pillars of digital inclusion policies implementation in Brazil. The first of them focuses on the availability of broadband connection infrastructure at accessible prices and with quality in the country, and is mainly represented by the National Broadband Program; the second one is directed to the availability of free public access to the Internet through Telecenters, and is mainly represented by the Gesac Program and by TelecentersBR and Community Telecenters; the third one encompasses measures started by the Digital Cities Program, that include the implementation of high-speed metropolitan networks in City Halls, the availability of electronic government applications and free Internet hotspots in public spaces; finally, the fourth pillar is related to supporting projects and activities for capacitation that aim to promote the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and is mainly represented by the Digital Citizenship Networks program and the Computers for the Inclusion Project.