Access to public services should not require digital savvy

It was being on the losing end of an interminable game of "I spy" waiting for a bus which never came last week that did it.

I realised I was part of something involving two words beginning with D. D.

The appless burner phone was not up to the task of tracking where the bus might be, so I was trapped by a bus shelter opposite the Botanic Garden, trying to guess clues which were beyond my intelligence quotient.

My nearly-8-year-old fellow traveller had run her artistic eye over the scene and come up with the ultimate flummox. Two words beginning with B. T. She conceded it would be difficult and eventually told me the second word was trees. Big trees? Black trees? Beech trees? Brown trees? No. Eventually, I had to give up.

"Background trees!" she said triumphantly.

Before this moment, I had not really considered myself a member of the digital divide. While I choose not to have a smartphone, I do have a laptop and access to the internet.

Indeed, I had used said internet connection to check the revised bus timetable (in place to help the bus service cope with driver shortages) to find out what would work for an after-school trip to town with my granddaughter.

However, we had side-tracked for a play at the BG and since I had not checked the times applicable to catching a bus there, I was not sure what to expect.

The times display installed near the shelter showed the standard times rather than the reduced timetable. There was no mention anywhere of any changes to the service.

After more than half an hour, traumatised by "I spy" and fending off multiple demands I buy snacks at the supermarket, I gave up, using the burner phone to contact my son who came to pick us up.

As public services increasingly expect people to be digitally savvy, is enough consideration being given to those who are not?

The Citizens Advice Bureau has been campaigning for inclusive public services for some time, concerned at the increasing number of people its volunteers are dealing with who are finding it difficult to access services that are provided primarily, or sometimes only, online.

It says the growth of online platforms and processes is not the problem, rather the over-reliance on them and the removal of people from the delivery of government services. There are times when online does not work and times when people need to speak to someone.

Increasingly, it seems if you try to speak to services on the telephone you will have to endure long periods of being on hold, bombarded by messages every few seconds or subjected to ghastly music. To its credit, the Dunedin City Council has opted for a playlist that includes Dunedin music. I was thrilled to hear a number from The Chills last time I was put on hold there. (The DCC pays Apra New Zealand, almost $12,000 this year, so it can play New Zealand music at some DCC venues and when customers are put on hold. Hopefully, some of this money trickles down to local performers.)

A different tactic seems to be in play at the Waitaki District Council. The music I encountered on hold there appeared to have been chosen to send most callers screaming from the room, reducing the need for any real person to give customer service.

When services interact with us, unprompted, supposedly for our own good, they need to be able to do it in a way which is effective rather than irritating, confusing, or time-wasting for all concerned.

This year, I was perplexed to receive two emails from the Ministry of Health telling me about getting a free flu vaccination. One turned up in early May, but the second came after I had received the vaccination.

The usual tortuous process of getting information from the ministry followed, but eventually I was told the reason I got the second one was because of a time lag in getting the information about my vaccination status uploaded on to the National Immunisation Register. Once this was done, I could expect not to receive any more correspondence on this.

Last week, therefore, I was surprised to receive a cellphone call from the ministry about flu vaccination and whether I had considered getting one. Checking the 0800 number later, I saw it was the Covid-19 vaccination line.

Since this month I would be due for my second booster, perhaps I had mistaken the purpose of the call. No, I hadn’t. I was told the flu vaccination queries are something they are doing now. Who knew? Nothing online appears to link that number with flu vaccinations.

It’s almost enough to make me long for another round of "I spy".

Elspeth McLean is a Dunedin writer.