MORE OR LESS PREJUDICE? A STUDY ON REAL-TIME VOLUNTEER APPS FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE

Although digital technologies improve the quality of life for people with visual impairment, their influences on social justice are inconclusive. In this study, we use quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the effect of real-time volunteer apps on prejudice and social connection from the perspective of both visually impaired people (VIPs) and non-impaired people (NIPs). Counterintuitively, our findings suggest that real-time volunteer apps have even a negative effect on reducing the prejudice perceived by VIPs and have no effect on reducing the prejudice of NIPs. For social connection and social acceptance, we find that these apps have a positive impact on both VIPs and NIPs. We hope this study can inspire more IS research on disability and we suggest several ideas for future research

\u27Shad\u27 Never Made Them Happy: Pandemic and a Dis-abling Educational System - Case of Iran

As the pandemic began, Iran quickly faced the worst outbreak in the Middle East during the winter of 2020. Traditional schools were consequently transferred to an online education without implementing appropriate adaptations, and restrictive policies of low-speed Internet and censorship negatively affected the quality of online education. The situation became even worse for Iranian students with disabilities. The Ministry of Education designed a new application, named Shaad (means happy), which was and remains inaccessible for people with disabilities. This qualitative research study explores the educational challenges of the Iranian students with disabilities during the pandemic. The authors argue physical and attitudinal barriers that Iranian students with disabilities have been systematically grappling with, have, in fact, transformed to an online version. The authors situate the findings in the social and political contexts of the Iranian society, showing how an ableist educational system has dis-abled people with disabilities

Evaluation Criteria for Sociotechnical Systems for the Digitally Disadvantaged

This paper addresses the challenge of finding criteria to evaluate social inclusiveness of sociotechnical systems (STS). While IT offers opportunities to reduce inequalities, the digital divide is a growing challenge. This divide between individuals with access and sufficient digital literacy, has economic and social consequences. Although several factors have been identified as barriers to the use of IT or design principles for socially inclusive research, there is a gap in the literature in assessing the final STS in their social inclusivity. This paper aims to identify criteria for evaluating STS in terms of social inclusion of the digitally disadvantaged. Based on the STS perspective, design requirements and principles are derived to help design a checklist of whether needs of digitally disadvantaged have been met. The paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by adding the STS design evaluation step to the current literature

Emancipation Research in Information Systems: Integrating Agency, Dialogue, Inclusion, and Rationality Research

Emancipation is a key concept in critical theories. Prior work suggests that emancipation is a complex and multi-faceted concept. Many conceptualizations of emancipation exist, and emancipation is defined in different ways. Existing empirical studies mainly focus on one or few components of emancipation. To have an integrated understanding of emancipation, we review the literature on emancipation in information systems (IS), with a view toward developing a typology of components of emancipation in the IS field. The typology of emancipation components consists of four components: freedom to act, freedom to express, freedom to belong and freedom to think. These components relate to the concepts of agency, dialogue, inclusion, and rationality, respectively

Mobile phones use by urban refugees in South Africa: Opportunities and challenges

The utilization of mobile phones is increasingly seen as a crucial means of reducing inequalities and ensuring people’s inclusion in society. Yet, an understanding of the factors affecting the use of mobile phones remains inadequate. Drawing from Sen’s capability approach and Bourdieu’s theory of practice, the findings suggest that mobile phone use affords valuable capabilities to the users. However, the generation of these capabilities is contingent on power relations in the social field - between social structures and individual’s agency. In South Africa, the capabilities of empowerment that urban refugees can generate through mobile phone use are either enhanced or hindered by interrelated factors, namely the affordances of mobile phones, socio-environmental factors, and personal factors. This paper contributes to the theory in the field of Information Systems by proposing a dynamic framework with precise constructs for theorizing and explaining the mechanisms and social practices that shape mobile phone use and the capabilities for empowerment

Upper limb rehabilitation in fascioscapularhumeral dystrophy (FSHD): a patients’ perspective

Objective To identify what exercise modalities people living with Facioscapulohumeral Dystrophy (FSHD) are undertaking in the community as a part of their ongoing rehabilitation and 2) what future research projects would gain the support of people with FSHD. Design An online questionnaire comprised of open and closed questions. Conventional content analysis was used for open questions and quantitative analysis was used for closed questions. Setting Online questionnaire distributed to a UK FSHD registry. Participants 232 patients on the UK FSHD registry. Interventions None Main Outcome Measure None Results A response rate of 43.6% was achieved with 232 out of 532 patients completing the survey. Despite 85.8% of patients suffering from shoulder instability which affects daily living, only 44.4% engaged with exercises targeting the upper body. The themes from the data were: Understanding of disease mechanism shaping exercise choice, Lack of understanding about the condition and the benefit of exercise, Support from professionals, Barriers to exercise, and Thoughts about future research. Participants (92.2%) agreed additional research into upper limb exercises is needed and felt a 3-month arm cycling intervention with monthly clinical visits and MRI imaging would be appropriate. Conclusions Exercise selection was variable amongst FSHD patients and lack of information, pain, fatigue, availability and access to facilities, cost and time were identified as barriers to exercise. This may account for the limited engagement with upper-limb rehabilitation despite the high percentage of shoulder instability in patients with FSHD. Further research is needed to develop evidence-based exercise interventions and guidance for upper limb exercise prescription in FSHD and patients are supportive of thi

Prospective memory intervention using visual imagery in individuals with brain injury [pre-print]

Prospective memory deficits are common after brain injury and can create impediments to independent living. Most approaches to management of such deficits are compensatory, such as the use of notebooks or electronic devices. While these can be effective, a restorative approach, in theory, could lead to greater generalisation of treatment. In the current study a metacognitive technique, using visual imagery, was employed under conditions of rote repetition and spaced retrieval. Treatment was provided in an AB-BA crossover design with A as the active treatment and B as a no-treatment attention control to 20 individuals with brain injury. A group of 20 healthy participants served to control for effects of re-testing. Individuals with brain injury demonstrated improvement on the main outcome measure of prospective memory, the Memory for Intentions Screening Test, only after the active treatment condition. In addition, some generalisation of treatment was measured in daily life. Moreover, treatment gains were maintained for one year after treatment was completed

TECHNOLOGY LEAPFROGGING IN EUROPEAN HEALTH SYSTEMS: POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

The 27 Member States of the European Union are highly differentiated by population size, health expenditure, technology access and use, economic profile and demographics. This study builds on earlier digital-divide studies using a ICT and digital health taxonomy that positions countries as frontrunners (quartile 1), followers (quartile 2), leapfroggers (quartile 3), and laggards (quartile 4). The concept of technology leapfrogging is used to analyse the digital divide in Europe’s health systems. Results from multivariate statistical analysis show evidence of technology leapfrogging in some EU countries. However, digital health policy implications show a one-size-fits-all approach to digital health is unlikely to produce optimal outcomes. Rather, EU policy-makers will need to develop nuanced digital health policies which go beyond measuring technical imperatives

Interactional power and support in digital inclusion of an adult with intellectual disabilities:A case study analysis

Digital inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities is not commensurate with those without disabilities. Societal, political, financial, individual and interpersonal barriers help explain this disparity. Caregivers can act as both support and gatekeeper to internet access and use by adults with intellectual disabilities. This study investigated micro-level interpersonal factors influencing access and use of the internet by an adult with intellectual disabilities to explore the balance and interplay of power and support around the processes of digital inclusion and online risk taking. Taking a case study approach, perspectives of three key stakeholders were gathered via interviews: the person with intellectual disabilities, his mother and a paid support worker. Perspectives and experiences were contrasted using systemic functional linguistic analysis of discourse to explore the ways power and support were represented in the language of negotiated digital inclusion. Dynamics between the parent and person with intellectual disabilities and between the parent and paid staff clearly influenced processes of digital inclusion and were affected by varying priorities, positions and perceptions of power to allow, disallow and monitor access and use of the internet. These had the power to shape and drive internet access. Language choices by the person with intellectual disabilities showed that he was not fully aware of the risks involved in engaging with certain aspects of digital inclusion but how he spoke about the internet indicated some autonomy in technology use. Supporting the development of digital competence, confidence and resilience in people with learning disabilities should be combined with support to increase self-awareness regarding digital risk. Those supporting people with intellectual disabilities towards digital inclusion need additional guidance on how to do this effectively for the people they support.</p

Applying a critical approach to investigate barriers to digital inclusion and online social networking among young people with disabilities

Despite the seeming ubiquity of young people's Internet use, there are still many for whom access to the Internet and online social networking remains inequitable and patterned by disadvantage. The connection between information technology and young people with disabilities is particularly under-researched. This article contributes to the field of critical information systems research by exposing significant barriers and facilitators to Internet accessibility for young people with disabilities. It uses Bourdieu's critical theory to explore how the unequal distribution of resources shapes processes of digital inclusion for young people with disabilities. It highlights access needs and experiences that are both disability and non-disability related. The article draws on interviews in South Australia with 18 young people aged 10–18 years with a physical disability (such as cerebral palsy) or acquired brain injury and with 17 of their family members. Interviews evaluated participants' and parents' reflections on the benefits of a home-based, goal-oriented intervention to increase the young person's Internet use for social participation purposes. The Bourdieuian analysis demonstrated how varying levels of accrued individual and family offline capital resources are related to digital/online resources and disability-specific online resources. This revealed how unequal resources of capital can influence technology use and hence digital inclusion for young people with disabilities. Our study demonstrates that young people with particular types of disabilities require intensive, personalised and long-term support from within and beyond the family to ‘get online’. We conclude that Internet studies need to more frequently adopt critical approaches to investigate the needs of users and barriers to information technology use within sub-groups, such as young people with disabilities. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Lt