Online Information and Communication Services for People with Disabilities

Citation

(1999), "Online Information and Communication Services for People with Disabilities", Internet Research, Vol. 9 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/intr.1999.17209baf.002

Online Information and Communication Services for People with Disabilities

Online Information and Communication Services for People with Disabilities

Principal Researchers: Dr Kirsty Williamson, Director, Information and Telecommunications Needs Research Group, School of Information Management and Systems, Monash University and Senior Lecturer/Researcher, School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW.

Mr Larry Stillman, Diversity Officer, State Library of Victoria.

Ms Amanda Bow, Research Associate, iTNRg.

Postal address: School of Information Management and Systems, Monash University, Level 7, 26 Sir John Monash Drive, Caulfield East, Vic. 3145, Australia. Fax: + 61 3 99032005; E-mail: kirsty.williamson@sims. monash.edu.au; larrys@vicnet.net.au; tnrg@sims.monash.edu.au

Online services, especially the Internet, are opening up new and exciting opportunities for people with disabilities to seek information, and to communicate with others all around the world. Two projects are just beginning in Victoria, Australia, which will investigate two sets of issues relating to online services for people with disabilities. The first concerns access to online services for people with disabilities in public library settings. It is being undertaken by a consortium led by the State Library of Victoria and the Information and Telecommunications Needs Research Group (iTNRg) at Monash University (with funding from the National Office of the Information Economy). The second, being undertaken by the iTNRg with a Small Australian Research Council Grant, concerns the potentialities of online services for blind and sight-impaired people. The aims of these two projects are outlined below.

With regard to the first set of issues, there is a plethora of information on the latest developments in adaptive equipment and on the assessment of individuals to determine the adaptive equipment which is best suited to their needs (e.g. Lifespace Access Profile, 1995). Evaluations of adaptive equipment, which may be suitable for public access, seem not to be included in the literature.

In terms of the second set of issues, there is some discussion in the literature of the information needs of people with disabilities. For example, Roth (1991) says that information needs are likely to include, but not be limited to, service information, the nature of handicapping conditions, environmental accessibility, civil rights, financial assistance and advice, research and statistics, and service delivery models. However, it is not clear to what extent these, and other needs, can be met by online services. There is emphasis in the literature on the importance of the Internet in creating an "independent life" for people with disabilities (e.g. European Commission DGXIII, n.d.). Once again, there is a paucity of research about the specifics of how this can occur.

It is now important that the roles that online information and communication services can play in the lives of people with disabilities are widely investigated. The diversity of these roles needs to be understood, highlighted and broadly communicated. There are also issues concerned with making online services widely available to people with disabilities through the provision of adaptive equipment in public settings.

The theoretical framework

Key issues for people with disabilities have been the need to have their voices heard, the need for empowerment, and the need "to locate the ultimate causes of disability as within the physical and social environments" (Oliver, 1990, p.7). These issues will be the focus of a framework, which will be developed and related to questions concerned with online services for people with disabilities.

A number of models of disability, which are related to definitions of "impairment", "disability" and "handicap", are discussed in the literature (e.g. Abberley, 1987; Oliver, 1990). Oliver (1990) criticises the individual/medical model, where disability is seen as a "tragedy" and disabled people as "the victims of some tragic happening or circumstance" (p. 2). The consequences are that the problems faced by disabled people are reduced "to their own personal inadequacies or functional limitations" (p. 7). Interestingly, given that Foucault's theory of "power" provides "space for possibility and freedom in any context" (Gutting, 1994, p.35), Oliver uses Foucault to explicate the individual/medical model of disability. He says that, central to Foucault's (1965) argument on "madness" is that there can be no such thing as madness without the idea of unmadness (Oliver, 1990,p. 47). By extrapolation, therefore, "the idea of disability as individual pathology only becomes possible when we have an idea of individual able-bodiedness" (p. 47).

Oliver, a strong advocate of the social theory of disability, also referred to as the "social/political model" (Bowles, 1995, p. 32). Bowles says that this model emphasises "the socio-economic environment's role in producing disability, thus viewing people with disabilities as a marginalised minority group, oppressed by a hostile able-bodied environment" (p. 33). While Bowles tends to favour this model, she concedes that feminist writers (e.g. French, 1993; cited by Bowles, 1995) are right to claim that the individual experiences and perceptions of people with disabilities need to be understood (p. 35). Bowles (p. 52) emphasises the need for a multidimensional approach, but stresses that it should not include a post modernist approach, intent on subverting dominant discourses in favour of individual voices. Bowles' (1995) research found that many people with disabilities are passive and completely lack voices.

These approaches to disability can be linked to theories about how people construct meaning. Key theorists for personal constructs and individual "sense making" are Kelly (1955) and Dervin (1992); and for social construct theory, Berger and Luckman (1967). Giddens' (1987) structuration theory provides a useful way of integrating the subjective and the objective. The work of Morley and Silverstone (1992), from the field of cultural studies, which focuses on meaning production related to the consumption of television, seems readily adaptable to online services.

Issues of public access (the first set of issues)

The key objectives for this project include:

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  to develop training packages for different groups of disabilities, based on observation of users (for applications such as email, World Wide Web, and online public access catalogues (OPACs));

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  to define a core set of adaptive equipment, suited to people with a different range of disabilities;

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  to evaluate the performance of each piece of adaptive equipment according to a set of standards developed for the project;

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  to develop standards and policies for appropriate levels of online public access for disability groups.

Method and research plan

The meeting of these objectives will involve the participation of at least 100 people with disabilities (over a two-year period). The full range of disabilities that prevent effective use of online information and communication services will be included: sight, hearing, learning, and motor control (as a result of arthritis, Parkinson's disease, etc.). Participants will take part in ten different library services which will include the State Library of Victoria, plus eight Victorian public library services; and the Riverina Regional Library Service, representing 13 public municipal libraries in their network in the Riverina-Murray area of NSW. The research plan includes:

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  the trialling of different types of adaptive equipment with participants (clients) at these sites;

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  the development of training based on observation of participants using equipment, together with the input of library staff working in the field and local disability groups;

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  the interviewing of participants so that understandings can be developed: about people's lives; the role that online services might play; the psycho-social barriers to the use of online services which users face; and the ways those barriers might be overcome.

To date, trials with two participants have been undertaken: one with an older woman who is legally blind and the other with a young woman whose motor and intellectual skills have been affected by cerebral palsy. Because these two cases were so totally different, the complexity of our task became clear in these trials and confirmed our view that the only possible approach is to use action research.

The potentialities of online services for the sight impaired (the second set of issues)

The second project will focus on the roles which online services can play. This project will be much more theoretical and less practical in its approach, but will also include an empirical component. At this stage this project will target only blind and sight-impaired participants, but it is hoped to extend it to other groups as other funding becomes available. The following are the research questions for the project:

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  What are the information and communication needs of sight-impaired people?

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  To what extent are sight-impaired people using online services to meet those needs now? In what other ways are those needs being met?

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  How readily accessible is adaptive equipment (e.g. public access, cost)? Are there differences between country and city areas?

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  What are the other barriers to the use of online services? Are there differences between country and city areas?

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  What roles can online services play in the lives of people with sight impairments?

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  In what ways will online services enhance, or hinder, social integration?

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  How best can online services be delivered and integrated into the lives of people with sight impairments?

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  How can online services be extended in new and creative ways for the benefit of people with sight impairments?

Method and research plan

The interpretivist paradigm, which is associated with qualitative research methods, will be used for this project. This approach, also known as the constructivist paradigm, is concerned with how people construct meaning in social and individual situations and fits well with the theoretical framework, outlined above. Grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) will also be used. The analysis of data will be assisted by NUD.IST software.

The fieldwork will involve interviews with 30 blind and sight-impaired people. About half will be users of online services and half non-users. About a third of the interviews will be conducted in Wagga Wagga, NSW (and surrounding areas), where the researchers have strong links with Charles Sturt University. Interviewees will be recruited through community organisations. The iTNRg has built its reputation on the undertaking of user-centred research and, once again, users will be the focus.

The fieldwork will also involve two focus groups of six to eight people, one in Melbourne and one Wagga. The focus groups will consist of people who work with the sight-impaired.

Timeframe

The first project will take place over a two-year period, and will be completed by October 2000. At present the second project will run for 12 months in 1999; however, it is hoped that, with further funding, it will be extended to match the timeline of the first project. The second will enrich the first ­ and vice versa. This means that there are considerable benefits from the second project being extended to other disabilities, beyond the sight impaired, and for this latter project to run to the end of 2000.