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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Noel Hidalgo, Executive Director of Beta NYC, on Digital Literacy and Broadband Access
2:26:29
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171 sec
Noel Hidalgo, Executive Director of Beta NYC, testified on the importance of digital literacy and broadband access in New York City. He emphasized the need for viewing digital literacy as critical infrastructure and shared personal experiences highlighting the importance of reliable internet access for education and healthcare.
- Beta NYC has trained over 50,000 New Yorkers in digital and data literacy
- Hidalgo stressed the need for more funding to support digital equity initiatives
- He expressed support for the proposed bill, particularly its inclusion of an advisory board
Noel Hidalgo
2:26:29
All right.
2:26:32
Ready?
2:26:32
Great.
2:26:33
Thank you, dear chair Gutierrez and fellow council members and staff.
2:26:37
Beta NYC is a public interest technology nonprofit dedicated to helping New Yorkers access information and use technology.
2:26:45
I want to preface by saying digital literacy must be viewed as critical infrastructure.
2:26:52
Are, for transparency purposes, we're recipients of the state's Digital Equity Technical Assistance Grant.
2:26:58
And since 02/2008, we have taught a diverse group of people to learn, earn, and grow their networks.
2:27:04
We have trained and employed this committee staff.
2:27:07
We have taught over 50,000 New Yorkers how to use their data and mentor a new generation of civil servants to whom we depend on.
2:27:16
Our work has equipped New Yorkers with digital and data literacy tools accountable.
2:27:20
Additionally, I'm a father of a brilliant 33 old boy who was born with profound hearing loss and many many medical complications.
2:27:28
We've been dependent on telehealth and virtual therapists since his birth.
2:27:33
Twice a week, my wife, son, and I leverage virtual meeting tools to meet with his teacher at Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens.
2:27:40
We use the same technology to meet with representatives from the Department of Education, Early Intervention, who are scattered across the city.
2:27:47
Every day we use Signing Time, Signing Savvy, PBS Kids, YouTube, and a handful of digital media tools to entertain and learn American Sign Language.
2:27:54
At home, I have used every conceivable network connection, cable, DSL, cell phone modems, and it took ten years for Fios to come to my small Greenpoint apartment.
2:28:03
By the way, I'm delighted, but I wish there was more competition.
2:28:06
Your Internet Master Plan would ensure bidirectional high speed internet connections, fueling my work, my education, and my son's future.
2:28:14
About the bills that you proposed today, we have some critical comments, actually more like constructive critiques.
2:28:23
I will submit that in written testimony.
2:28:26
But just to speak highly is that we love your bill.
2:28:30
We love that it has an advisory board.
2:28:32
We propose that your bill should be the foundation for helping OTI execute its digital equity roadmap while ensuring that digital literacy is once again written as critical infrastructure.
2:28:45
In twenty seventeen seconds.
2:28:48
So the high level idea is that really we need a lot more funding.
2:28:54
I think that the previous panel was articulating that very clearly.
2:28:58
We have lost all of the federal research funding, the education funding, any equity funding, and now we're in a situation where we need to ensure that we can baseline our level of work and be invested in as foundation foundationally as we are investing in critical infrastructure.
2:29:18
And I have many more thoughtful written comments.
2:29:20
Thank you.