Technology Adoption and Disability Digital Divide: an Empirical Study on Sri Lanka

Abstract

Disabled people are not having equal opportunities in accessing Information technology and Internet access compare to the non-disabled working population in Sri Lanka. The differently-abled population in the country has increased due to the 30 years of civil war. Most of them are working in national security forces of the country. Information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure is also developed as part of the Sri Lankan nation. After ending humanitarian operations in 2009 Sri Lankan development strategy focusing on rebuilding the nation. However, still differently-abled community experiences difficulties in use of ICT based services due to various reasons. This is known as the disability digital divide. Taking necessary steps to reduce the disability digital divide will positively impact on national development in the country. This study proposes a framework to develop technology focused model to bridge the disability digital divide in the country aligning with the e-government strategy. The study consists of two phases. The first phase of the study examined the current technology adaption among differently-abled community in Sri Lanka. The second phase examines the problems and issues faced by them. Issues in the three different technologies were analyses to reduce the disability digital divide such as web, mobile and personnel computer tools. This model focuses on evaluating the factors affecting perception on technology by differently abled community, problems in technological factors and other critical factors relating to disability digital divide.