Can people with disabilities use the mobile Internet if they want to?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of motivation on the mobile Internet use and mediating effects of digital literacy in people with disabilities through structural equation modeling based on uses and gratifications approach. Multi-group analysis was also used to explore whether differences exist between groups classified by types of disability. The data were taken from the 2018 Digital Information Divide Survey conducted by the National Information Society Agency (NIA) in South Korea. As a result, it was found that the motivation of people with disabilities has a little or no direct effect on the mobile Internet use. However, the mediating effect of digital literacy promotes the use of the mobile Internet. In particular, differences in structural models and some path coefficients also appeared according to the type of disability.