Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies
Date Submitted: Nov 4, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Nov 8, 2018 - Nov 9, 2018
Date Accepted: Jul 19, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Online Disabilities Support Groups: Qualitatively Analyzing the Communication Interchange of Individuals with Disabilities Utilizing Facebook, Discussion Forums, and Chat Rooms
ABSTRACT
Background:
Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States are currently living with a form of disability. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has published guidelines to help make developing technology and social networking sites (SNS) more accessible and user friendly to people with a range of disabilities, persons with disabilities (PWDs), on average, have less access to the Internet than the general population. The quality, content, and medium varies from site to site and has been greatly understudied with regards to content or accuracy. Because of this, it is still unclear how PWDs utilize various platforms of online communication for support.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore and compare the interactions and connections among online support groups across Facebook, discussion forums, and chat rooms in order to better understand how PWDs are utilizing different SNS platforms to facilitate communication interchange, disseminate information, and foster community support.
Methods:
Facebook groups, discussion forums, and chat rooms were chosen based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data collected included content posted to Facebook groups, forums, and chat rooms, as well as the interactions among members. Data was analyzed qualitatively using the constant comparison method.
Results:
A total of 133 Facebook posts, 116 forum posts, and 60 hours of chat room discussions were collected and analyzed. Four themes were identified for Facebook posts, three themes were identified for discussion forums, and three themes were identified for chat rooms. PWDs utilized discussion forums and chat rooms in similar ways, but their interactions on Facebook differed in comparison. PWDs choose to interact on a platform based on the functions it offers.
Conclusions:
Online support platforms serve specific purposes that may not be interchangeable. These platforms closely align with social support models. Through participation on different platforms, PWDs are able to provide and receive social support in various ways without barriers and constraints often experienced by this population.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.