Digitally Excluded V2

<h4>Who are you?</h4> You've been made redundant since April 2017 from working as a chef for a local public house. You have been trying to find a job in which you've had many unsuccessful interviews that have led you to question if you will ever afford to have internet access at home. Since losing your job as a chef, you have been living on welfare for a few years. To say it's been difficult living on £400 a month is an understatement to say the least. Having no internet in a house that you share with your grandmother Pippa is difficult. This means you are unable to stay updated with your journal updates that one of the job centre's work coaches sends to you each week, as well as accessing emails and even staying in touch with friends and family. <style> img { max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%; } </style> <div class="old-house-img"> <img alt="house" src="https://umarhassan.neocities.org/Images/old_house.jpg" /> </div> Your old myPhone is still going but on a cheap SIM-only contract which you pay £10 a month for a set amount of mobile phone data, texts and calls. The local library and your phone are the only two reliable places you're able to access the internet, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the library has closed which has left you with no choice but to use the internet on your phone to apply for jobs. You would love to have any job that gets you out of the house, you're not fussy about the job you want to do and you enjoy working in team-based environments. [[Continue the game]] [[Continue living in digital exclusion]]

As you have been living without home broadband for what seems like forever, it's meant that trying to find a job has been next to impossible unless you use the computer in the library to apply for jobs. You have been spending most of the £400 you get from your welfare payment each month on food, energy bills and a cheap SIM-only contract for your phone. However, if you want to get a job, then you will need to be able to install home broadband in your grandmother's house, as well as get a new laptop. Your grandmother is reluctant towards having broadband in her house but you tell her that you need to get online at home and not rely on the internet from the library to have the best chance of getting a job. <h4>What do you do? </h4> [[Convince your grandmother]] [[Don't bother, it's not worth it]]

You spend half an hour convincing Pippa to install home broadband in her house, going as far to show that it will be used to find a job and keep both of you connected with other family members online. Pippa finally gives the go-ahead for you to install home broadband in her house. However, she tells you that it's going to come out of your own pocket. She's also given you a condition that the broadband supplier needs to come from BT1 and nowhere else. <h4> Which broadband provider should you go for? </h4> [[BT1 - Expensive, but fast]] [[Blueyonder - Cheap fibre broadband]] [[Superfly Broadband - Slightly cheaper than BT1, but still expensive]] [[Talk1 - Cheap, but inconsistent]]

You've tried to convince your grandmother to have home broadband installed in her house, but she refused to budge to your repeated requests of getting home internet access. Now, you're facing being permanent digital exclusion from society. Your hopes of getting a job in the past few years are slowly fading away as the lack of home internet access makes it hard to apply for jobs on a daily basis. At least, you have never been sanctioned by your work coach, which you take as a positive as you head into another tough couple of days in a job search which does not seem to end. [[Next ->Heading to the library]]

The stress of being digitally excluded has gotten to you to which you decide to give up living on welfare and the job search altogether. Pippa repeatedly tries to call you on your phone for weeks. She hopes you are okay, but as she has not seen or heard from you since you had a massive argument that is unrelated to having home broadband a few weeks ago. [[The end of the game]]

Makes sense considering Pippa has a BT1 landline in your house that she pays for each month. It is expensive though, the cheapest fibre broadband is £28 a month for 24 months, but if your grandmother is already paying for line rental, then you will need to convince her that you will pay for the entire service that you're getting from BT1. If it means spending a slight chunk out of the welfare money you get each month for fibre broadband from BT1, then so be it! [[Next ->Get BT1 broadband]]

It's cheap and will not take a huge chunk of what you're getting through your welfare payment each month, but your grandmother did say to get the broadband package through BT1. Oh well, after all, you've got to remember that even though there are alternative suppliers around, you have to stick to what your grandmother has requested with getting BT1 broadband. [[Back to the options menu ->Convince your grandmother]]

Your grandmother said to get broadband through BT1 right? This is not BT1 and she has no interest in paying for lots of channels which will be glossed over through the broadband package you recommended to her. Also, paying for a lot of channels you don't watch seems a waste of money considering you only have £400 a month to live on? You only need broadband don't you? [[Back to the options menu ->Convince your grandmother]]

Did you tell yourself that you would never get Talk1 broadband? Your friend who used to have that broadband provider told you of how terrible the customer service and broadband speeds were on Talk1. You are definitely not buying anything from Talk1 anytime soon that's for sure. [[Back to the options menu ->Convince your grandmother]]

<h4>Fibre broadband is coming home! </h4> A week after making the call to get BT1's fibre broadband, a knock on the door is heard throughout the house. You open the door and ask: "Are you the BT1 engineer who will be installing my broadband in my house?" "Yes," asks the BT1 engineer. You tell the engineer to come into the house and you show him where the landline is for installing the broadband in Pippa's home. The BT1 engineer tells you if you have the broadband router so he can install the broadband. You hand the router over to the engineer who is working away with getting the broadband sorted in Pippa's house. So many years of frustration with limited access to the internet are about to become a thing of the past for you as the engineer gets to work setting up the internet connection. [[Next ->Installing the broadband]]

<h4> More bad news... </h4> You walk to the library and head onto the computer to access your welfare journal. Logging onto the welfare website, you read the latest journal update from your work coach: You will be sanctioned for not hitting your target of applying for 20 jobs a week. This means you will not be receiving your monthly payment of £400 for the next three months. If you do not complete the targets that form part of the contract you signed with the job centre, then you will be unable to get your £400 welfare payment each month. You can challenge this appeal in court or accept the sanction of no monthly welfare payments for the next three months. Kindest Regards, Department for Welfare and Employment This journal update hits you so hard that you decide to stop applying for jobs and head back home. It's the first time you have been sanctioned by the job centre and you're in a state of shock right now. [[Next ->Here we go]]

<h4> That sanction hurt </h4> Heading back from the library, you quickly head to your bedroom and uncontrollably sob onto your pillow after receiving the news of being sanctioned by your work coach. Pippa has no idea how you're feeling right now as she knits away at making a new scarf. You wonder if you're going to be digitally excluded forever as you fall asleep to numb the bad news you've received today. [[Next -> The next day]]

<h4> Things can only get better </h4> The next day, you wake up and leave the home without saying a word to Pippa. She assumes that you are heading to the library to continue your job search. Pippa repeatedly tries to call you 10 times during the day for an update. She hopes you are okay, but has no idea if you will ever come back home again. [[The end of the game]]

Thank you very much for playing Digitally Excluded. What I wanted to do was try to create a game around what it would be like to be an individual who is digitally excluded from society. The option to install broadband at home or go without home internet access is one many people and families face in the UK. The Good Things Foundation's Blueprint for a 100% Digitally Included UK report found that <a href="https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/sites/default/files/blueprint-for-a-100-digitally-included-uk-0.pdf" /> nearly a quarter of poor families do not have access at home to broadband or a desktop, laptop or tablet. </a> By creating a game around this subject, it would enable the player to put themselves in the shoes of someone who is living in digital exclusion and is trying to become a digital member of society. Having the aspect of getting a job online would replicate how unemployed people have to navigate the world of having no internet access in their homes to not only get a job, but also access their bank account, pay bills for utilities and book hospital appointments. [[Return to the start of the game->Digitally Excluded]]

You can hardly contain your excitement about having fibre broadband in Pippa's house. The days of constantly going to the library to access the internet are almost coming to an end for you. Three hours later, the BT1 fibre broadband is installed in the house. You and Pippa are very happy at how quickly the broadband has been installed in the house. <style> img { max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%; } </style> <div class="img5"> <img alt="broadband-router" src="https://umarhassan.neocities.org/Images/broadband-router.jpg" /> </div> They thank the engineer for installing the broadband, which makes you and Pippa no longer digitally excluded citizens. However, you remind yourself have an appointment at the job centre at 9am tomorrow that you had not prepared yourself for. [[Next -> Preparation for the job centre appointment]]

<h4>Sanctioned by welfare for the first time</h4> You log onto the welfare website on your phone and find out you've been sanctioned for not applying for the set number of jobs a week allocated by your work coach. As you now have fibre broadband in your home, never will you ever be digitally excluded again, but you fear that you may end up losing your home internet access altogether, plunging you back into digital exclusion. You rush to prepare for your appointment at the job centre by putting together some documents that were printed at the library a few days ago. Time is running out for you to prepare for your appointment tomorrow morning as you rush to get ready before you go to sleep at 9pm. [[Next ->The Job Centre appointment]]

<h4>The next day</h4> <style> img { max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%; } </style> <div class="img6"> <img alt="getting-out-of-bed" src="https://umarhassan.neocities.org/Images/gets-out-of-bed.jpg" /> </div> It's 6am and you get out of bed to prepare for your appointment at the job centre. You're nervous about what the work coach has to say about you after a terrible week of job searching. Pippa wishes you a good day as you leave the house for your 9am appointment with your work coach. It's a sunny day outside, which lifts your spirits as you walk out of Pippa's house to the job centre. [[Next -> Next]]

<h4>Time for your appointment with the work coach </h4> You arrive at the job centre at 8:45am. The work coach calls your name as the clock strikes 9:00am. Your work coach asks how you're doing. You tell your work coach that you are feeling much better than you were two weeks ago and that you have accepted the sanction of going without three months of welfare payments. However, your work coach offers you a lifeline. The full-time job is in a factory. You grab this rare opportunity with both hands and accept the interview offer without hesitating. [[Accept the job interview offer ->Yes?]]

You accept the interview offer for a job working in a factory to which the work coach calls the employer to book the appointment for today. 10 minutes later... You are informed that the job interview is taking place at 1pm this afternoon. You're used to having interviews on short notice as it's where your strengths lie due to your years of working in the hospitality sector. The work coach wishes you good luck as you get ready for your job interview at the factory at 1pm today. [[Continued -> The job interview]]

<h4> Today will be the day you will get a job </h4> It's two hours before the interview for the job at the factory and you have already had lunch. Currently, you are heading to the factory for your job interview. You are nervous about this interview as it's the first one you have had in so long. You wonder if you may never get another opportunity like this for a while so you take a deep breath and relax as you head to the factory for your job interview. It's 12:45pm now as you switch your phone off and head into the factory for your job interview. [[Time for the interview]]

<h4>The job interview </h4> The interviewer calls out your name and you enter the interview room at the factory. You previously used to work as a chef, what makes you well suited for working in a factory? "On many occasions, there were times where I used to have to cook up to 100 guests, requiring discipline, and teamwork to get the meals served to customers on time under extreme pressure. "This means making sure every dish served to a customer was perfect. With this job as a factory worker, the skills that I have acquired from working in the hospitality sector for five years would be applied into creating high quality products for your target audience, which is 18-34 year olds." The interviewee is so impressed with you that they make an offer that you cannot refuse... [[Next->The job offer]]

<h4>You got a job! </h4> After half an hour, the interviewer is so impressed with you that they offer you the factory worker job on the spot. Immediately, you accept the job offer of working in the factory, but the interviewer tells you that this job role starts tomorrow. When you hear that bit of good news, you shake the interviewer's hand and leave the factory with a job, which ends years of unemployment and digital exclusion. You can finally get that laptop that you've wanted for so long. It feels good that you now have a job that can help you buy more infrastructure to continue being able to connect and interact with your friends and family. These dark years are well and truly over for you. [[The end of the game]]