Narrowing the Digital Divide: Creating Opportunities and Addressing Barriers
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Item type: Item , Neurodivergent Citizens in Search of Wellbeing: Addressing Barriers through Digital Means(2026-01-06) Wróblewska, NinaThis paper investigates how digital technologies can support neurodivergent individuals in navigating urban environments and participating in democratic processes, drawing on in-depth interviews with neurodivergent residents of Warsaw, Poland. Participants described a range of cognitive, sensory, and communicative challenges when engaging with urban infrastructures – from navigating transit systems to accessing online public services. Many public spaces or services were found to be inaccessible or overwhelming, contributing to exclusion from civic life. At the same time, interviewees identified the transformative potential of well-designed digital interventions, such as personalized navigation aids, simplified user interfaces, and platforms that allow for asynchronous civic engagement. Framed through the lens of cognitive justice, this study highlights the need for participatory, neurodiversity-affirming approaches in the design of digital government and smart city initiatives. By centering neurodivergent perspectives, the paper contributes to the discourse on inclusive urbanism and proposes strategies that uphold the right to the city for cognitively diverse citizens.Item type: Item , The Role of Public Libraries in Addressing the Digital Divide in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: The Case of Frisco Public Library(2026-01-06) Huang, Zong-Xian; Przeybilovicz, Erico; Gasco-Hernandez, Mila; Gil-Garcia, J. RamonAs artificial intelligence (AI) gradually integrates into society, growing concerns arise about whether AI technologies might widen the existing digital divide. This study argues that public libraries can be vital actors in narrowing this emerging digital divide in the context of AI. Based on a case study of the Frisco Public Library (FPL) in Texas, U.S., this research analyzes how public libraries may help address the AI-driven digital divide by increasing AI knowledge and skills in the community. Based on nine in-depth interviews conducted with FPL staff, our findings reveal that the FPL offers diverse AI-related programs to enhance patrons’ interest in AI, raise their awareness of its presence, and build their competencies in using generative AI tools. With AI-related programs like these, public libraries can address different dimensions of the digital divide in the AI era by offering free subscriptions to AI learning platforms, designing AI classes to enhance patrons’ skills and usage, and helping patrons leverage advanced AI tools for career and professional development. This study contributes to understanding of the digital divide in the era of AI and demonstrates the enduring, yet evolving, importance of public libraries as inclusive civic infrastructures for local communities.Item type: Item , Rethinking Youth Inclusion and Participation: Toward Civic Empowerment through Digital Tools(2026-01-06) Zbikowska, AgataYoung people under 18 make up nearly 7 million individuals in Poland, yet they remain largely excluded from political decision-making despite being heavily affected by these decisions. This paper explores the structural, educational, and technological barriers that limit youth civic participation and proposes digital pathways to enhance youth agency in local governance. Drawing on policy analysis and existing literature, the paper critically examines how civic education, institutional culture, and societal attitudes restrict young people’s influence. It argues that digital government tools, if inclusively designed, offer a vital opportunity to narrow the democratic divide for minors and foster long-term civic engagement. Framed within theories of cognitive justice and social capital formation, the article proposes a model of youth civic inclusion that goes beyond traditional political structures and integrates digital platforms, informal education, and ethical research design.Item type: Item , Digital Duress: Affective Resistance of Mandated ICT Use in India’s Public Distribution System(2026-01-06) Witt, Christine; Prashant, Rajan; Chopra, Shweta; Mercurio, Kathryn; Huang, Xuemei; Chhabra, VarunThis study theorizes emotion as a form of resistance in government-mandated technology use. Drawing on 176 open-ended survey responses from frontline public workers in India’s Public Distribution System (PDS), we conduct a grounded theory-informed, lexicon-assisted narrative analysis. We identify four affective orientations, anxious, resigned, silent, and workaround, each representing a distinct emotional strategy for navigating digital systems under conditions of infrastructural fragility and institutional compulsion. Rather than treating affect as noise or a post hoc response, we position it as central to the lived experience and subtle forms of resistance to digitization. Our findings extend information systems research by integrating technostress, learned helplessness, and affective publics into a typology of emotional resistance. This work contributes to digital government literature by highlighting the limits of compliance-based evaluation and advocating for emotionally responsive design in high-stakes, low-choice environments.Item type: Item , Introduction to the Minitrack on Narrowing the Digital Divide: Creating Opportunities and Addressing Barriers(2026-01-06) Vitullo, Elizabeth; Thorpe, Stephen; Domaradzka, Anna