Disability and the digital divide in the era of a pandemic

In this project we will investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected participation in the digital society for people with impairments and disability rights organisations, if there are differences compared to the population without impairments and also to synthesise and propose measures for digital inclusion of people with impairments in future societal crises.To be prepared for societal crises similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to increase the knowledge of how crisis management should be provided to enable access to digital services and ensure digital inclusion of people with impairments.One of the main societal strategies to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and control virus transmission has been recommendations on social distancing by promoting digital solutions.

Still, very little is known about how people with impairments have experienced the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and how they and their organisations managed to turn to online activities.There is a risk that population-based surveys on the effects of the pandemic will not be able disaggregate data on people with impairments leading to a disability-data-gap when evaluating the impact of the pandemic on people’s life.This project will undertake a nationwide survey to people with impairments and interviews with representatives for disability rights organisations, in order to study the disability perspective of the strategy to use digital solutions to mitigate the pandemic.

We will investigate how digitalisation has facilitated or created barriers for people with impairments and disability rights organisations to manage during the pandemic.

We will use participatory research methods for co-analysis together with people with impairments to present proposals for inclusive and accessible digital solutions for crises management.The results of this project will have impact on society’s future ability to implement and use accessible digital solutions in a pandemic or other global crises.