To include, or not to include, that is the question: Disability digital inclusion and exclusion in China

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly important for people with disabilities (PWDs), suggesting digital inclusion as a possible social mechanism against the social exclusion of disability. This study suggests a more complicated relationship between ICTs and disability. Situated in a Chinese context and based on research methods of ethnographic participant observation and in-depth interviews, this study explains why and how social exclusion of disability in China leads to PWDs’ exodus to the Internet, where they find a possible habitat of digital and social inclusion notwithstanding the risk of more profound social exclusion. The study finally argues that the Internet habitat of PWDs is both a material enclave and a discourse heterotopia for understanding Chinese society, disability, and ICTs. In addition, future studies should further include PWDs in this field.

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