Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
Volume 3, Number 3, 1999
The World Wide Web (WWW) has become an important medium for sharing information. A recent issue of The Research Exchange (Volume 3, Number 1) reported that 88 NIDRR grantees (about 28 percent of all grantees) had Web sites in early 1996 (NCDDR, 1998a). In November, 1998, the NCDDR identified 214 Web sites operated by NIDRR grantees, reflecting 72 percent of all grantees funded at that time.
Who visits these NIDRR grantee Web sites? How many people among this audience have disabilities? Learning about Internet and WWW users can help NIDRR grantees focus on the need to develop more accessible Web sites to best meet the needs of a varied audience.
It is difficult to define who uses the Internet. Across the board, a variety of methods have been used to track the audience of Internet users. A survey of the U.S. population's use of the Internet and online services identified 62 million adults, or 30 percent of Americans age 16 and older, as 'being online' during the last quarter of 1997 (IntelliQuest, 1998). One study determined that 30 million people may use the Internet within a 24-hour period (Commerce Net/Nielsen Media Research, 1997). Another study estimates that 200 million people worldwide will use the Internet by the year 2000 (CyberAtlas, 1998).
Georgia Tech's Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center (GVU) conducts large scale online surveys in April and October each year. Beginning with the Second GVU WWW User Survey in October, 1994, respondents were asked about their disability status, and five percent of the respondents indicated they had a disability. A slight increase in the percentage of respondents with a disability was reported with each new survey. The most recent survey reported, the Ninth GVU WWW User Survey from April, 1998, shows that 6.99 percent of respondents indicated they had a disability. For all GVU Surveys, the category "Vision" was identified by over half of all respondents who indicated they have a disability. Figure 1 shows summary data on disabilities from the GVU User Surveys (GVU, 1998).
| GVU User Survey | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disability Category |
2nd (10/94) n=3522 |
3rd (4/95) *n=13,006 |
4th (10/95) n=23,348 |
5th (4/96) n=11,736 |
8th (10/97) **n=10,109 |
9th (4/98) **n=12,591 |
||
| Vision | 118 (3.35%) | 396 (3.04%) | 802 (3.43%) | 436 (3.72%) | 447 (4.42%) | 520 (4.1%) | ||
| Motor | 23 (0.65%) | 123 (0.95%) | 196 (0.84%) | 116 (0.99%) | 209 (2.07%) | 242 (1.9%) | ||
| Hearing | 20 (0.57%) | 115 (0.88%) | 185 (0.79%) | 102 (0.87%) | 176 (1.74%) | 175 (1.4%) | ||
| Multiple | 10 (0.28%) | 80 (0.62%) | 166 (0.71%) | 75 (0.64%) | **Not a choice | **Not a choice | ||
| Cognitive | 9 (0.26%) | 40 (0.31%) | 74 (0.32%) | 46 (0.39%) | 71 (0.70%) | 96 (0.80%) | ||
| All disabilities | 180 (5.11%) | 754 (5.80%) | 1,423 (6.09%) | 775 (6.61%) | +784 (7.76%) | ++881 (6.99%) | ||
| None | 3,342 (94.89%) | 11,939 (91.81%) | 21,450 (91.87%) | 10,761 (91.69%) | 9,168 (90.69%) | 11,507 (90.3%) | ||
| Rather not say | Not a choice | 311 (2.39%) | 475 (2.03%) | 200 (1.7%) | 157 (1.55%) | 203(1.6%) | ||
*3rd: Total of all categories = 13,004
**8th/9th: The category "Multiple" was not a choice; respondents were asked to check all categories that applied.
+8th: The total of all disability categories is 903. The figure "784" is the total number "n" minus the number of respondents who selected "None" and "Rather not
say."
++9th: The total of all disability categories is 1,033. The figure "881" is the total number "n" minus the number of respondents who selected "None" and "Rather
not say."
NOTE: Disability questions were not asked in the 1st (1/94), 6th (10/96), and 7th (4/97) Surveys
Source: GVU. (1998). GVU's WWW User Surveys. [Online]. Available: http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/user_surveys/
The small but steady growth seen in the GVU WWW User Surveys does show an increase in the participation of people with disabilities on the Internet. The low numbers of people who identified themselves as having a disability may reflect the online, self-selecting nature of the survey, and reinforces the fact that many people with disabilities may not have access to computers or may have problems accessing information on the World Wide Web. The data from the GVU Surveys are considerably lower than the incidence rate for disabilities in the population as a whole, but do support the suggestion that approximately 5 percent of people with disabilities have computers, compared with 30 percent of the general population (Hagins, 1995).
Estimates of the total number of Americans with disabilities vary, depending on the criteria used and the extent of limitations due to disabling conditions. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (Public Law 101-336, 104 Stat. 327) described a population of 43 million people with disabilities in the United States. The Disability Statistics Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (a NIDRR grantee located at the University of California, San Francisco) proposed a figure of 36.1 million, or 14.5 percent of the total population, based on data from the 1990 National Health Interview Survey and additional sources (LaPlante, 1992). This figure increased to 15 percent by 1994 (Kaye, LaPlante, & Wenger, 1996). The National Council on Disability Bulletin (September, 1997) identified 54 million Americans who reported some level of disability between October 1994 and January 1995 (Inactive URI: www.ncd.gov/newsroom/bulletins/b0997.html) NCD, 1997.
Poverty is a consideration that impacts disability rates. LaPlante, Carlson, Kaye and Bradsher (1996) found that: "Across the board, the poverty rate increases substantially when a householder has a disability and even more so when both householders (in partnered families) have disabilities." (p. 3).
• The poverty rate for partnered families without disability is 7.8 percent.
• In partnered families, the poverty rate increases to 14.2 percent when both partners have disabilities.
• The poverty rate rises to 20.8 percent in partnered families with both one partner and one child with a disability. (LaPlante, Carlson, Kaye & Bradsher, 1996).
The incidence of disability among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. also varies. Bradsher (1995) found that Native Americans and African Americans had higher rates of disability than other groups. Figure 2 displays some estimates of disability rate by race/ethnic group.
| Race/Ethnic group | Total Number | Total with disability | Percent with disability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native Americans | 1,649,000 | 361,000 | 21.9 |
| African Americans | 31,420,000 | 6,277,000 | 20.0 |
| Whites | 210,873,000 | 41,521,000 | 19.7 |
| Asian/Pacific Islanders | 7,855,000 | 777,000 | 9.9 |
| Hispanic Origin (may include any race) |
21,905,000 | 3,343,000 | 15.3 |
| All | 251,796,000 | 48,936,000 | 19.4 |
Source: McNeil, J. M. (1993). Americans with disabilities: 1991-92, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current populations P79-33. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.
A study conducted at Vanderbilt University and published in the April 17, 1998 issue of Science magazine concluded that "a racial divide exists on the Internet." Of 5,813 randomly selected high school and college students interviewed from December 1996 through January 1997, 73 percent of White students reported having a computer at home, compared to 32 percent of African American students. Although income tends to impact computer ownership in general, for households with annual incomes below $40,000 a year, Whites were twice as likely as African Americans to own a computer. The study concluded that "income appears to exert its effect on computer access; it is computer access which in turn explains subsequent Web use" (Novak & Hoffman, 1998).
The data from this study are not supported by the findings of other researchers. A Baruch College-Harris Poll survey found that "almost equal percentages of whites, African Americans, and Hispanics logged onto the Web (30 percent, 27 percent, and 26 percent, respectively)" (Birdsell, Muzzio, Krane, & Cottreau, 1998, p. 34). These differences could also be due to the issue of computer access described above, and that those surveyed in 1997-98 already had computer access that facilitated their use of the Web. The reasons for limited use of the Internet by consumers with disabilities have not yet been clarified through careful study, but applying information from research on the population as a whole would suggest that lack of computer access is likely a primary reason.
NCDDR staff conducted a survey of consumers with disabilities affiliated with Independent Living Centers (ILCs) throughout the United States, to learn how they prefer to get information they can use. One question asked about consumers' use of the Internet. Over half of the 1,238 consumers that responded (51 percent) said they had never used the Internet. Twenty percent responded that they had used the Internet once or twice and just over one-quarter had used the Internet often (15 percent) or very often (11 percent) to get information (NCDDR, 1997).
In June, 1998, the NCDDR surveyed 79 administrators of ILCs located throughout the United States to learn about consumers' computer and Internet usage. Only 13 percent of the administrators believed that their consumers generally knew how to use the Internet. Over half of the ILCs (52 percent) offered Internet training for their consumers. A strong majority of administrators (78 percent) felt their consumers do not have adequate hardware and software access to the Internet. Respondents were also asked to estimate the percentage of their consumers that have personal computers with Internet access.
Only 11 percent of administrators estimated that more than 25 percent of their consumers have their own computers. Figure 3 presents the results of this NCDDR survey item (NCDDR, 1998b).
| Percent of consumers with computers | Percent of respondents |
|---|---|
| LLess than 5% | 41% |
| 5 to 24% | 37% |
| 25 to 49% | 9% |
| 50 to 74% | 2% |
| 75 to 100% | 0 |
| No idea | 11% |
Since the WWW was first established in 1989, its purpose was to allow information on a host computer, or server, to be accessed through the Internet by any other computer (Gromov, 1996). The past nine years of phenomenal growth of the Web have also seen the expansion of multimedia capabilities that can affect the accessibility of information for all potential users. The use of graphics, animation, tables, and frames have the potential unintended consequence of limiting, rather than expanding, information access on the Web for some people, for example, those using screenreaders.
The WWW provides creative opportunities within an evolving medium. It is important to keep in mind that all users are different, with unique needs. Many researchers are embracing the Web as an alternate format for communication and information dissemination. NIDRR grantees should be especially aware of the issues related to physical and cognitive accessibility of information placed on the World Wide Web. It is not easy to ensure that the format and content of a Web site are accessible for all users, but that should be each grantee's goal.
Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. [Online]. Available: gopher://trace.wisc.edu/00/ftp/PUB/TEXT/ADA_INFO/LAW_TEXT/ADA.TXT
Birdsell, D., Muzzio, D., Krane, D. & Cottreau, A. (1988). Web users are looking more like America. The Public Perspective 9(3), 32-35. [Online]. Available: http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/pubper/pp93.htm
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Hagins, J. (1995, July). Benefits and barriers: People with disabilities and the national information infrastructure. Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin, Center for Research on Communication Technology and Society.
IntelliQuest Information Group, Inc. (1998, February 5). Sixty Two Million American Adults Access the Internet/Online Services. [Online]. Available: www.intelliquest.com/press/release41.asp [Inactive Link 10/02]
Kaye, H. S., LaPlante, M., & Wenger, B. L. (1996, November). Trends in disability rates in the United States, 1970-1994. Disability Statistics Abstracts No. 17. (Available from the Disability Statistics RRTC, Institute for Health & Aging, School of Nursing, University of California, Box 0646, Laurel Heights, 3333 California St., San Francisco, CA 94143-0646). [Online]. Available: http://dsc.ucsf.edu/abs/ab17.html
LaPlante, M. (1992, December). How many Americans have a disability? Disability Statistics Abstracts No. 5 (Available from the Disability Statistics RRTC, Institute for Health & Aging, School of Nursing, University of California, Box 0646, Laurel Heights, 3333 California St., San Francisco, CA 94143-0646) [Online]. Available: (inactive URI: dsc.ucsf.edu/UCSF/pub.taf?_UserReference=07B2E13F9E6B2B7EC079BBD5&_function=search&recid=51&grow=1
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National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research (NCDDR). (1997). Report of NCDDR consumer survey, p. 1-8.
NCDDR. (1998a). The Research Exchange, 3(1), 1-4. [Online]. Available: http://www.ncddr.org/products/researchexchange/v03n01/
NCDDR. (1998b). [Summary of Results, Survey of Centers for Independent Living, June 1998.] Unpublished survey results.
National Council on Disability (NCD). (1997, September). NCD Bulletin. (Available from the National Council on Disability, 1331 F. Street, NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20004-1107) [Online]. Available: (Inactive URI: www.ncd.gov/newsroom/bulletins/b0997.html)
Novak, T. P. & Hoffman, D. L. (1998). Bridging the digital divide: The impact of race on computer access and Internet use. [Online]. Available: http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/papers/race/science.html
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