Off the pace in the virtual race

As some people have pointed out, the virtual world can be a lot more accessible than the real world!

For example, just think about shopping. More and more of us are doing it online these days. Despite the “credit crunch”, internet shopping in Britain is booming, and over 20 million British people now shop online according to market researchers.

The popularity of online shopping is based on its convenience. For disabled people, online retailing can also help to overcome accessibility problems, communication barriers and transport issues.

Another benefit is clearly the much greater ease with which we can exchange information over the internet, potentially (if not actually) in a variety of accessible formats, large print, audio, easy read and so on. This easy communication is a major boon to self-help, campaigning and support groups of all kinds.

Disabled people are among the most enthusiastic users of social networking. Sites such as Facebook offer a large number of disability related interest groups, and they also offer the opportunity to make your disability “invisible” if preferred. On the downside, those using social networking should be aware that, as Tom Shakespeare has said, such sites “provide a forum which bored idiots can fill with prejudice and filth”.

So, that all sounds great, but disabled people are in fact much less likely than the rest of the population to use the internet.

The Office for Disability Issues report “Experiences and Expectations of Disabled People” found that, in 2007, only 42 per cent of disabled people had home internet access, compared to 65 per cent of the general population. Both of these figures will have risen in the last two years, but there is no reason to think that the gap has closed. Indeed data from Ofcom for 2009 suggests that the gap may be widening, with internet access among the general population increasing strongly to 73 per cent, but increasing more slowly among those with visual impairments, and not increasing at all among those with mobility and hearing impairments. If this trend is confirmed by the more robust data being gathered by the Office for National Statistics, it will make a mockery of the Government’s aim to “narrow the digital divide”.

There are a number of reasons why disabled people’s use of the internet is relatively low. These include physical accessibility barriers (e.g. sensory or dexterity related) and poor website design, but the major reasons lie elsewhere.

Firstly, we know that older people are less likely than younger people to use the internet, and the disabled population has an older profile than the general population. Secondly, we know that the highest levels of internet usage are found amongst more affluent social groups, but the disabled population tends to be more disadvantaged, with lower incomes. Thirdly, some disabled people have specific barriers to internet usage, particularly around cost, confidence, knowledge and worries about data security/viruses.

Clearly many disabled people are missing out on the opportunities that the internet could bring, but more worryingly commercial suppliers are increasingly making products and services available only via online channels. Indeed, government is also attracted to the idea of dealing with the public online, because providing customer services over the internet is much cheaper than doing so face-to-face, or even through call centres. We may see a trend towards faster, more efficient public services delivered online, whilst off-line citizens rely on “special services”, which become overstretched and under-resourced, in an era in which reducing costs is the priority of public services.

Undoubtedly the disabled community should “watch this space” very closely over the next few years. Specifically, the danger to look out for is that whilst the internet enhances the lives of the many, some significant groups of disabled people may find that it reinforces their social exclusion.

• Graham Kelly is Director of the social research company Word of Mouth