Organisations – even those that aspire to be identity inclusive – lack an understanding of the costs of not building identity inclusion by-design.
That’s according to research by Women in Identity, which examines the economic impact of identity inclusion.
“It’s clear that it costs more to be on the unhappy path for identity verification, still, some companies lack awareness of what it costs them and what tasks are required to build in inclusion-by-design,” said the non-profit.
There are nearly a billion people who cannot prove their identity, and more than three billion people worldwide without a digital identity.
“For all of their promise, most digital identity initiatives are premised on the idea that someone already has ready access to some physical credential issued by an authoritative source,” said Jeremy Grant, coordinator. Better Identity Coalition, in the report.
“While identity exclusion is often seen as a challenging business cost for supporting the identity excluded, this report proposes to reframe the issue from one of dealing with individuals who are on an unhappy path in an identity transaction to the positive steps that can be taken to widen the happy path instead,” says the report.
The report was commissioned as part of the development of Women in Identity’s ID Code of Conduct. This is a set of guidelines for product designers and identity teams that will ensure that identity products and services are designed with a focus on equality, diversity and inclusivity throughout the entire design process.
To help organisations on this journey, the report makes ten key recommendations for the further development:
- Resolve to make addressing identity exclusion an explicit objective of the organisation • Reform identity proofing standards
- Review alternative support opportunities that can assist with identity exclusion
- Restructure birth and death registration processes to be more inclusive
- Rectify issues that arise because of the history of the identity organisation
- Respond to the opportunities that new technological developments offer
- Revise workflows to address the costs of change
- Realign with evolving consumer attitudes to identity exclusion
- Recognise all the hidden work associated with making identity inclusive
- Reuse insights from existing approaches to inclusion from other sectors
