This study suggests equity of access goes beyond technological availability. Based on a larger exploratory study of the initial implementation stage of the Mexican government's community technology centers, CTCs ("plazas comunitarias"), adult education instructors' perceptions and diffusion practices are described as a mediating factor to understand non-access of poor adults. The theoretical perspective integrates concepts from innovation diffusion studies, while questioning the limitations of this theory in terms of understanding instructors' practices. Thus, the relation between human agency and structure, from Giddens' Theory of Structuration, is incorporated. Qualitative data from 16 CTCs are interpreted inductively. It is concluded that CTCs were a top-down innovation; instructors perceived and diffused CTCs in very different ways, thus limiting equity of access. These social practices stem from social actors' routines, which institutionalized courses of action; understanding them could illuminate the complexity of the diffusion process, generally depicted in linear form.