Bringing the disadvantaged into the Information Society
Developing services to bring the disadvantaged into the Information Society is the objective of the Herzogsägmühle On-line Information Service project, which is supported by the Community's Information Society Project Office (ISPO). The project is implemented by Herzogsägmühle, a social village of the Lutheran diocese, with partners in Ireland and Northern Ireland. It aims to develop a broad base of information and services designed specifically for the needs of socially disadvantaged users. To establish the content of this service, the project's first phase involves intensive research based on close contact with users. The end result will be a Web Guide, which will catalogue on-line services in German-speaking countries and across Europe. In addition, an on-line help desk will be established, to assist users in dealing with operational or information problems. Parallel to the establishment of these services, the project has a set of education goals. These are to evaluate the abilities and requirements of socially disadvantaged and disabled people to access on-line information services by themselves. This side of the project will result in the development of a curriculum for training this user group in the use of new media.