Conversations in Sketch

XXXII.5 September - October 2025
Page: 14
Digital Citation

Joining the Dots


Authors:
Abd Alsattar Ardati, Andrea Moed, Miriam Sturdee

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"If we don't join the dots, digital poverty will keep slipping through the cracks."

Left page: Title: Joining the Dots. Subtitle: Freddie Quek, chair of the BCS Digital Divide Specialist Group, envisions a world where no one is left behind in the digital age—but it will take collaboration, adaptive design, and responsibility to get there. Pull Quote: "If we don't join the dots, digital poverty will keep slipping through the cracks." Author Information: Interview by Abd Alsattar Ardati, Lecturer in Social Justice and Digital Poverty at the University of St Andrews. Illustrated by Andrea Moed, independent artist and researcher. Conversations in Sketch is curated by Miriam Sturdee, a lecturer at the University of St Andrews working on intersections of art, design, and computer science. Propose your own conversation ? ms535@st-andrews.ac.uk. This page contains the title and front matter for the comic. Additionally, there is a large line portrait showing the head and shoulders of Freddie Quek who has his mouth open, as if to speak. He is wearing glasses and his eyes are looking upward and outward toward page two of the article. Below right is a line portrait of Abd Alsattar Ardati, also of head and shoulders. Abd is looking up toward Freddie with rapt attention. In the background are pale shapes that look like they might be Lego blocks, with some background colour texture overlaid where they intersect Freddie's portrait.

Right page: All images are line drawn in fine lines with Lego brick features picked out in colour. Panel 1 text: "You can't do it alone" That's Freddie Quek's mantra when it comes to tackling digital poverty. Panel 1 image: A four-by-two lego block with a slight shadow. Panel 2 text: It's a massive, complex challenge, and no single person or organization can fix it. Panel 2 image: The text is overlaid in a white box over a jumble of Lego blocks and pieces. Panel 3 text: Joining the dots is Quek's solution. This means pulling together expertise from across research, technology, education and policy. Panel 3 image: Four lego block towers made of pieces of different colours thrust up into the frame. On the left bottom tower a person with long hair steps up to the top and looks through a telescope to someone reading a book of law on the next tower along, their tower has a label saying 'policy' on the side, superimposed on a Greek style pillar image. A lower tower adjacent has the word 'technology' written on the side. To the right is the fourth tower, labelled 'education'. At the bottom right a group of diverse people discuss and gesture. In the centre of the frame is a big pointed flag labelled 'collaboration'. All four towers are joined by rope to each other, and the flag. Panel 4 text: It is about designing systems that are not just scalable but actually inclusive. Tech has a habit of designing for the majority…optimizing for the biggest user base and assuming that's enough. Panel 4 image: A side view of Lego towers growing in size, culminating in a more detailed lego building with a sloping roof. A graph style arrow with data points zags upward following the skyline. Panels 5 & 6 text: "But is it?" Not if you're on the wrong side of the digital divide. The very people who need access the most…(continues in next panel)…are often the ones left behind. Panel 5 image: a pop out circle with Freddie's face in it and a speech bubble. There is a huge wall of Lego bricks, with a crowd of people trapped on one side. The bricks have words on them "opportunity", "support systems", "device access", "connectivity", "wealth", "education", "skills". Panel 6 image: Two people look sadly up at a section of the high wall that they cannot climb. Panel 7 text: That's where personal social responsibility comes in. "We know enough about technology to create amazing things. Why not use that same knowledge to help others?" Panel 7 image: The wall from the previous panel is being scaled with ladders and boats being pulled up by rope. People on the other side are helping those who were stuck over the wall. At the top of the ladder someone holds a flag which says "Adaptive Design" on it. On a Lego plateau at the top of the wall is a garden in a large suspended tarp with vines winding up the poles, and it is full of flowers. Panel 8 text: He sees an opportunity for tech professionals and researchers to rethink their role—not just as innovators— but as problem solvers for society. Panel 8 image: Two people are bridging a broad river with a long Lego brick. Panel 9 text: And it can't just stop at fixing today's problems. "I'd love to see HCI fully embrace inclusive design—make it part of how we educate students". The next generation of designers and researchers will shape the digital world. But will they make it better for everyone including the most vulnerable? Panel 9 image: A Lego bridge frames a stage and podium where Freddie speaks in the distance, with rows of people watching him present. Coming in from the left of the frame is a flag bearing the word "responsibility". Panel 10 text: Digital Poverty isn't just a tech issue. It's a design problem, an education problem, a leadership problem. Fixing it starts with working together. Time to join the dots. Panel 10 image: A row of three Lego bricks stuck onto a larger board, each one is raised by one dot about the other, and together they span the full width of the panel.

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Interview by Abd Alsattar Ardati, lecturer in social justice and digital poverty at the University of St Andrews.

Illustrations by Andrea Moed, independent artist and researcher.

Conversations in Sketch is curated by Miriam Sturdee, a lecturer at the University of St Andrews working on intersections of art, design, and computer science. Propose your own conversation. [email protected]

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Copyright 2025 held by owners/authors

The Digital Library is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2025 ACM, Inc.

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