The Exclusion of Persons with Disabilities Online in China
- Exclusion
Who does this case study involve?
112 Internet Users in China with a range of Disabilities
The case
Although many researchers suggest that the online world provides a very good remedy to the types of exclusion that people with disabilities experience in the real world. The researchers in this work content that this is an overly optimistic perspective, and does not take into account the fact that the online world may very well deepen the digital divide and social exclusion of people with disabilities in many ways, as they ignore the power structure that results in the social and digital exclusion of disability. There is also a concern that they may be more vulnerable to exposure to harmful, manipulative, and exploitative content; they may engage with, or be engaged by others, in antisocial behavior; and they may get negative online contacts.
The research employed an ethnographic participant observation approach and in-depth interviews. They used purposive sampling and snowball sampling to recruit participants. Initially, they targeted specific online forums, including the biggest online forum for people with disabilities on Baidu Tieba, namely, caijiren ba (Forum of people with disabilities) and the biggest online platform for online jobs available to people with disabilities, namely, hubangwang (Website for Helping Each Other). In addition to these online fields, the researchers identified three rehabilitation hospitals for people with disabilities in Guangzhou. From 1 October 2016 to 1 November 2017, the authors conducted 13 months of fieldwork in the above fields. The fieldwork produced field notes of more than 100,000 words, and in addition to participant observations, the authors conducted 82 in-depth interviews. Following this, based on the snowball sampling approach, they conducted another 40 in-depth interviews.
Findings
Some participants with disabilities indicated that they lived in poverty because they were unable to find employment, and the process of obtaining financial support from the government is extremely complicated, therefore, they had limited access to online content. Those who are able to regularly access the Internet have commented how the forums specifically aimed at people with disabilities do somewhat address the exclusion they find in their day-to-day lives, in a few different ways, not only does it alleviate boredom, but it also allows them to access disability and medical information, and it also allows them to find people with similar disabilities and share their stories, and learn from each other. Additionally, access to the Internet provides potential new means of employment, undertaking work in an online context.
However, in addition to the significant benefits outlined above, many participants raised issues and challenges that they have faced because of their Internet usage. A significant majority of the participants indicated that they are using the Internet to hide from their real-world problems, and many are addicted to online games. Additionally, when they see images of people with no obvious disabilities online, they sometimes feel sad and hurt about their conditions. The researchers also found that some disability forums had become very negative spaces where people were constantly sharing their pain and misery to such an extent that it was negatively impacting the mental health of others on those forums.
References
Lin, Z., Yang, L., & Zhang, Z. A. (2018) “To include, or not to include, that is the question: Disability digital inclusion and exclusion in China”, New Media & Society, 20(12), 4436-4452.