Media details
Media: User Needs First
Author(s): Jessica Straetemans
Year: 2025
Description: This blog post reports on a panel discussion at the User Needs First International Conference 2025, which explored how governments can become more human-centred in the digital age. The discussion brought together experts from academia and public administration to examine the barriers that bureaucracy, organisational culture, and political priorities create for inclusive digital public services. As one of the invited panellists, I contributed with perspectives from my research on digital government and human rights, highlighting how digital public services can reinforce existing inequalities and exclude vulnerable groups if they fail to account for citizens’ diverse circumstances. I argued that inclusive digital government requires not only user-centred design but also strong legal frameworks, institutional commitment, and recognition of social inequalities.