Factors That Lead to a Second-Level Digital Divide of Children and Adolescents With Down Syndrome

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Children, Adolescents, and the Media Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

The presented paper focuses on the question how children and adolescent with Down syndrome use the Internet and what barriers they face when going online. Therefore a qualitative, inductive study was conducted by interviewing twelve parents who have children with Down syndrome and four experts that work with people with Down syndrome. In a second step eight children with Down syndrome were observed during their Internet usage. The evaluation of the findings is based on the Grounded Theory. The paper presents different kinds of barriers such as content, technical and social barriers and shows how these barriers can lead to a Second-level Digital Divide for children and adolescents with Down syndrome.

Author

• Nadja Zaynel, University of Muenster