[Air-L] Internet access and accessibility for people with disabilities

[Kevin Gotkin]

Hi all--

I'd like to add to the collection of wonderful sources for this project by suggesting a piece that helps with a larger framing. One of the most important imperatives of the still-incipient field of disability studies is to investigate flows of power and autonomy as we develop and carry out our research designs. There's a fantastic piece from the earlier history of British disability studies called "Parasites, Pawns, and Partners: Disability Research and the Role of the Non-Disabled Researcher" by Emma Stone and Mark Priestley, published in the British Journal of Sociology (1996 Dec; 47(4): 699-716). It develops a notion of "emancipatory research" schemes around people with disabilities so that these populations are not simply the objects of study but are also the voice and audience of our research (important, I think, for however one identifies as a researcher). There are lots of other folks who have written about this, if you'd like more citations.

PDF here: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/927/1/priestleym1.pdf
--
Kevin Gotkin
Ph.D. Student
Annenberg School for Communication
University of Pennsylvania
Tel: (551)427-7907


-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Philippa Smith
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2013 10:10 PM
To: Air list (air-l at listserv.aoir.org)
Subject: [Air-L] Internet access and accessibility for people with disabilities

Dear AOIR members,

I am currently searching the academic literature to  help me in my preparation of a research proposal about internet access and accessibility for people with disabilities here in New Zealand. This will consider not only difficulties in being 'connected' but also what the needs are of people in using computers/the Internet whether they have impairments relating to vision or hearing, or who suffer from physical conditions as a result of diseases such as Parkinson's Disease or arthritis. Really anything in the health area that is relevant to this topic and it should extend to include anything about the benefits of the Internet for people with disabilities such as empowerment.

I am aware that the Pew Report does cover this to some extent, and have also found Dobransky and Harigattai's 2006 paper titled 'The disability divide in Internet access and use' in Information Communication and Society to be useful. But if anyone can offer or direct me to further material I would be very grateful.

Kind regards

Philippa

Philippa K Smith, PhD
Research Manager
Institute of Culture, Discourse & Communication AUT University Auckland NEW ZEALAND _______________________________________________
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