Digital Divide And Digital Inclusivity Among Persons With Disabilities Ref.No.SSTCRC2678
1. Introduction
Digital access and skills greatly facilitate the social integration of people with disabilities, supporting their academic development and employment including remote work. In fact, inadequate digital skills, rather than disability itself, are the core obstacle limiting disabled people’s career development. However, disabled groups worldwide generally have poor digital literacy, and age and education differences can only partially account for this digital skill gap, as most internet-using disabled people rarely utilise online public services. Communication theories indicate that simply owning digital devices cannot guarantee effective digital participation, and technologies should be tailored to meet diverse user needs. Two mainstream perspectives explain the digital divide: positivist research uses van Dijk’s theory to categorise four digital access barriers, noting that digital inequality has evolved from psychological and hardware shortages to gaps in digital skills and practical usage. Critical scholars view the digital divide as social inequity and apply Bourdieu’s theory of practice to interpret digital capital as a secondary capital shaped by personal economic and cultural resources, despite existing criticisms of this theory. Globally, most relevant studies focus on practical digital inclusion solutions for disabled people, while critical research exploring deep-seated social inequities is extremely limited. Specifically, Indonesia has barely conducted critical studies in this field; its existing research across communication, law and education disciplines only adopts positivist and interpretive approaches to analyse superficial practical issues, with no in-depth critical exploration of the fundamental drivers of digital inequality among local disabled populations.
2. Objectives
This research aims to comprehensively explore the current situation of the digital divide and digital inclusion for people with disabilities, as well as the systematic barriers preventing them from accessing and applying digital technologies. Specifically, this study intends to generate reliable empirical evidence to support the formulation of targeted digital empowerment strategies for disabled groups. Additionally, it seeks to offer valuable references for relevant practical initiatives, so as to further advance the achievement of two key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely SDG 9 focused on industry, innovation and infrastructure, and SDG 10 targeting reduced inequalities.
3. Methodology
This study adopts a qualitative multi-case study research design. This method is selected because digital divide and digital inclusion are evolving phenomena amid the booming digital economy, with blurred boundaries between such research phenomena and their real-world contextual backgrounds. Specifically, this research applies a multi-case and multi-analysis case study design. Purposive sampling is adopted to recruit young disabled labour force participants aged 15 to 29, targeting their access to vocational training, employment opportunities, career progression and digital entrepreneurship development. This specific age group is selected to capture tangible evidence of digital inequality and digital inclusion gaps within employment training, recruitment, job placement, career growth and digital entrepreneurship sectors. Data collection is conducted across four Indonesian provincial capitals covering three provinces with the largest population of young disabled workers, namely West Java, Central Java and East Java, as well as Yogyakarta Special Region with the smallest relevant population for cross-case comparison. To ensure construct validity and accurate conceptual measurement, this research collects data from diverse evidence sources, including official documents, archived records and media reports, field observations, semi-structured and in-depth interviews, physical onsite evidence and credible secondary research data. The standardized data collection procedure follows five sequential steps across all research sites: initial interviews with disability-related non-governmental organizations to clarify local contextual backgrounds and gather preliminary data; direct field observation on disabled people’s daily digital technology usage behaviours; follow-up in-depth interviews with disabled vocational trainees, job seekers, in-service employees and digital entrepreneurs to supplement and deepen primary research findings; collation of documentary and archived materials related to vocational training, recruitment and workplace career development; and collection of valid secondary data from existing relevant studies. All case data are integrated for cross-case comparative analysis and interpreted based on established theoretical frameworks. Moreover, member checking is implemented for data triangulation, where analysed research findings are sent back to research participants for verification, so as to further improve the overall validity and reliability of this qualitative research.
4. Required Cooperation
Funding support and fellow researchers who have similar research experience.