Yvonne Wong of the Internet Professionals Association presented the Hong Kong case study. Approximately 68% of people have PCs at home, while 60% have Internet access. Broadband is universally available, and half of the population utilizes. Perhaps most impressive is Hong Kong’s mobile phone usage rate – 104%, a number made possible by the fact that the average person in Hong Kong has at least one phone.
Despite these positive numbers, Hong Kong has a digital divide, particularly among the elderly, low income families and immigrants from mainland China and other parts of Asia. There’s also a direct correlation between access and education level. There is also a gender divide, in which males are still more likely to be online than women.
Hong Kong has invested in a “Web Care” campaign to promote Internet access for women and the elderly. Over 240 free access points are located around the region, but some of the most popular ones force people to queue up in line for long periods of time before they can go online. Hong Kong has also begun to address Web accessibility as an important issue, encouraging the adoption of accessibility standards in e-government and the private sector. The government produced its own internal accessibility guidelines, requiring compliance by all government websites. To continue raising awareness on the issue, the government hosts an accessibility forum each year, keeping the public and private sector current on the latest accessibility strategies.