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After the COVID-19 pandemic pushed most on a regular basis duties into our on-line world, connectivity grew to become an actual drawback for nearly a 3rd of Philadelphians who weren’t on-line in 2019.
Sandra Speight, 78, was certainly one of them. Envious of her 10-year-old granddaughter’s digital savvy, she tried to enroll in the Inexpensive Connectivity Program, a federal profit that debuted in 2021 to assist make the web cheaper for lower-income households throughout the nation.
Mockingly, Speight thought she’d must get on-line to use.
However listening to an area radio station someday, she discovered a solution. Speight heard in regards to the Digital Navigators program — native guides reachable on Pennsylvania’s 211 hotline to assist residents get computer systems, join them to the web, and learn to use them.
Now, Speight doesn’t simply have $30 month-to-month web, she’s additionally bought a free laptop computer.
That’s as a result of she attended an occasion on Wednesday at Esperanza Academy in North Philadelphia, the place Comcast, United Manner of Larger Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, and native companions introduced they’re increasing their digital navigator program to Philadelphia’s neighboring counties in November.
Applause echoed towards the excessive atrium ceiling as a Comcast consultant pulled again a blanket masking 50 laptops donated to Esperanza Academy and contributors of this system — together with Speight.
“That is superior as a result of I’ve had mine since, possibly, 2015 or one thing? I don’t know,” she laughed. The virtually-octogenarian says she’ll use her new machine to study Spanish.
