Research Summary: From Digital Accountability to Accountable Digitality Through Needs-Aware Information Systems: The Case of Auditable Child-Welfare Judgments

This research introduces the concept of "accountable digitality," which reverses the traditional focus of digital accountability. Instead of solely making digital systems transparent and auditable, this framework explores how digital transformation can enhance the accountability of established human institutions. It proposes needs-aware information systems as the mechanism to achieve this, using child-welfare judgments as a critical case study to illustrate how such systems can protect children, maintain confidentiality, respect judicial independence, and facilitate collective learning on needs and disparities.

Why it matters

This shift in perspective on digital accountability challenges current approaches by proposing that technology can be a catalyst for institutional improvement rather than just a tool to be scrutinized. It highlights how digital systems, when designed with a deep understanding of institutional needs, can enhance transparency, learning, and equity across complex human processes. This reorientation offers a framework for strategic investment in technology that prioritizes systemic accountability and continuous institutional evolution.

Key insights

• The concept of "accountable digitality" redefines digital accountability by focusing on how digital transformation can improve human institutional accountability.
• Needs-aware information systems are identified as the mediating mechanism for achieving accountable digitality.
• Child-welfare judgment is presented as a hard and paradigmatic case for applying this theory, due to its complex requirements for protection, confidentiality, and judicial independence.
• The approach aims to enable aggregate learning about needs, reasons, exceptions, and disparities within sensitive institutional processes.

Source

arXiv — Computers and Society — https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11125