e-Inclusion or 'digital inclusion', written eInclusion when referring to specific policies, is the term used within the European Union to encompass activities related to the achievement of an inclusive information society. In this vein, new developments in technology turns the risk of a digital divide into "digital cohesion" and opportunity, bringing the benefit of the Internet and related technology into all segments of the population, including people who are disadvantaged due to education (a specific subset called e-Competences), age (called e-Ageing), gender, disabilities (called e-Accessibility), ethnicity, and/or those living in remote regions (subject to the geographical digital divide).

E-inclusion covers mainly the development of appropriate policies, maintenance of a knowledge base, research & technology development and deployment, & best practices dissemeination. At EU level e-Inclusion is part ot the third pillar of the 2010 policy initiative, managed by Directorate-General for Information Society and Media of the European Commission.

e-Accessibility includes computer accessibility; approaches are essentially based on inclusion and the social model of disability as it applies to information technology goods and services; the Design for All principle, also called universal design or inclusive development in other fora, means availability of adequate assistive technology. e-Competences is a new term covering skills, knowledge and attitude relevant to education in the context of an inclusive information society; see also e-Learning and inclusive classroom in this area of accessibility to the differently-abled.

Media-Slave and Search-Inverclyde wishes to ad to this basis. For us it is not just about including everyone that might have difficulties accessing or using technology (mainly internet and IT), but also about educating people on its uses and benefits, as well as breaking through ignorance.

How do we tackle this issue?

• Providing easy to understand Hosting and Web Solutions for Scotland and Inverclyde
• Providing a central Search Engine for Inverclyde
• Forums and blogs about Digital Inclusion and Accessibility on Search-Inverclyde
• Web Design aimed at everyone
• Help, support and easily accessible information
• Free Internet access to our design and hosting clients
• Blogs and info on best practices relating to website usage, broadband and other IT Related topics
• With Search-Inverlcyde we are also trying to get every website in Inverclyde indexed in a search engine. We also want to create a network of link exchanges. In theory this should raise the level of websites in Inverclyde as a whole. Search Inverclyde is completely FREE to use!