Media use of persons with disabilities

Abstract

The study “Media use of Persons with Disabilities” (MMB16 [1]) provides data on disabled people’s access to and personal use of media and the limitations in the use of such media. Nowadays, full and effective participation in society [2] is not possible without full and effective participation in media and communication. To date, there is no valid data about media usage by the disabled in Germany. This survey consists of interviews with 610 individuals with visual, hearing or physical impairments, or learning difficulties. Expert interviews and focus groups complete the study. The findings of this study show that impairment comes with specific limitations as regards media access and usage. In general, people with impairments and in particular those with learning difficulties, access connected devices more rarely than the general population. They go on the internet less often and use it less for communication and information. Many blind people are offliners, in particular if they acquired the impairment in adulthood. Age is an important personal factor determining media usage. The interaction of age, impairment and other context factors in particular, leads to the extremely rare use of digital media by older people. The disabled are heterogeneous. Full and equal participation in media and communication depends on the context factors which influence the participation level: age, housing, employment, obstacles and barriers to access, technical and personal support.