Abstract
The shift from analogue to digital-first government service delivery positions design as a central gatekeeper of welfare access and civic recognition. However, these systems frequently act upon blanket assumptions regarding trust, digital literacy, and engagement, inadvertently marginalizing the most vulnerable of society. This paper examines how digital welfare interfaces produce forms of non-response, interpreted both as user disengagement and systemic erasure. Grounded in a qualitative, design-led study with marginalized young adults in Ireland’s Youthreach programme, alongside the perspectives of frontline support and service providers. The study documents how these users navigate and resist platforms that presume universal digital competence. Their experienced ambivalence exposes the limitations of public-sector digital transformations, driven primarily by efficiency. In response, the paper advocates integrating an ethics of care and attentiveness into design practice. This approach would treat non-participation and uncertainty as meaningful data. Thus, fostering the development of more human, trustworthy, and inclusive digital systems.
Keywords
public service design; digital welfare; care ethics; participatory design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1566
Citation
Holden, E., White, P., Tuite, A., and Griffin, R. (2026) Erased By Default: Reorienting Digital Welfare Systems with Care and Participation, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1566
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Erased By Default: Reorienting Digital Welfare Systems with Care and Participation
The shift from analogue to digital-first government service delivery positions design as a central gatekeeper of welfare access and civic recognition. However, these systems frequently act upon blanket assumptions regarding trust, digital literacy, and engagement, inadvertently marginalizing the most vulnerable of society. This paper examines how digital welfare interfaces produce forms of non-response, interpreted both as user disengagement and systemic erasure. Grounded in a qualitative, design-led study with marginalized young adults in Ireland’s Youthreach programme, alongside the perspectives of frontline support and service providers. The study documents how these users navigate and resist platforms that presume universal digital competence. Their experienced ambivalence exposes the limitations of public-sector digital transformations, driven primarily by efficiency. In response, the paper advocates integrating an ethics of care and attentiveness into design practice. This approach would treat non-participation and uncertainty as meaningful data. Thus, fostering the development of more human, trustworthy, and inclusive digital systems.