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Understanding Users with Disabilities' Online Experience via a Discursive Approach
Abstract
This paper presents another approach for researchers to access users' understandings of their online experience. The merits of discursive research -a particular kind of qualitative data gathering philosophy and technique, are considered. An empirical example of discursive research is given, which analyses users with disabilities' (UWD) interview data about their online experiences. Research findings demonstrate the benefits of engaging in text-based environments for UWD because of users' ability to control the textual construction of their identity. Considerations are suggested for multi-media design of online environments, where audio and visual enhancements are encouraged. Analysis offers a way into users' conceptualisation of their online interaction, allowing users' ideas to influence the research sphere. Beyond a functional capacity, the online medium is embedded within social practices, which enable users to operate beyond the constraints of a visible category of identity.
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New computer-based communications technologies make possible new or expanded forms of group work. Although earlier researchers suggest that scant social information in these technologies might cause status equalization in groups, no experimental test of this phenomenon has been made. In a laboratory experiment, we compared face-to-face communication with electronic mail in decision-making groups whose members differed in social status. We examined status in two ways: by varying the external status of group members, and by varying the decision task to manipulate expertise. When the groups made decisions in face-to-face meetings, the high-status member dominated discussions with the three low-status members. Also, the high-status member more often was a 'first advocate' in the face-to-face discussions, and first advocates were more influential than later advocates. These status inequalities in face-to-face decision making were pronounced just when the high-status member's expertise was relevant to the decision task. When the same groups made comparable decisions using electronic mail, status and expertise inequalities in participation were reduced. A striking and unexpected result was that 'first' advocacy was shared by high- and low-status members in discussions using electronic mail. This behavior resulted in increased equality of influence across status and expertise. We discuss the implications of these results for research and for design of new communication technologies.
This paper examines electronic mail in organizational communication. Based on ideas about how social context cues within a communication setting affect information exchange, it argues that electronic mail does not simply speed up the exchange of information but leads to the exchange of new information as well. In a field study in a Fortune 500 company, we used questionnaire data and actual messages to examine electronic mail communication at all levels of the organization. Based on hypotheses from research on social communication, we explored effects of electronic communication related to self-absorption, status equalization, and uninhibited behavior. Consistent with experimental studies, we found that decreasing social context cues has substantial deregulating effects on communication. And we found that much of the information conveyed through electronic mail was information that would not have been conveyed through another medium.
Internet statistics indicate a reduction in the gender discrepancy online. Yet, what is the situation within specific online communities like Internet Relay Chat (IRC)? Likewise, what is the gender status of those occupying positions of power online? An exploratory study of chat room operators (those who govern chat rooms) was conducted to investigate gender differences in operator's demographic characteristics and IRC experience. Whether those less satisfied with their real-life occupation were attracted to chat room operator positions was also investigated. A survey of 423 chat room operators was administered, comprising 25% women. Real-life occupations of chat room operators covered a broad spectrum, from professional and managerial to service, sales, and production workers, as well as those not employed. The most common occupational category cited was student, with very similar proportions of men and women occupying high-status positions. Of the occupations listed, 23% fell within the IT industry, with significantly more male than female operators working in this area. Majorities of both genders were satisfied with their real-life occupation. There was no relationship between job satisfaction and IRC experience or time spent as chat room operator. There were no gender differences for IRC experience. Majorities of both genders had been using IRC for 1 to 3 years or more, used IRC daily, and spent most or all of their time on IRC as operators. Ages ranged from 11 to 66 years, with the mean age 25 years. Women were significantly older than men. A significant proportion of men and women were from North America.
Beneficial effects of the online medium have been reported for disabled people in terms of providing a 'levelling ground' where they can be treated on their merits as a person, rather than as a disabled person. If this occurs because impairment is invisible online, how then are disabled people managing disability disclosure within this social context? This paper addresses this issue discursively. Participants were recruited from various disability organisations in New Zealand and were invited to take part in an online interview. A 'choice to disclose' repertoire was identified and was organised around three key resources: relevance, anonymity and normality. Embedded within each resource is the idea that the presence or absence of impairment is constructed as a feature controlled by the individual. Positioning identity within a subjectivity removed from impairment was made possible through these resources and was valued by participants. Political implications associated with the absence of impairment are discussed.
In studying on-line communities, researchers must consider the unique environmental factors involved in order to minimize potential harm to human subjects. In particular, the often commented upon disinhibiting effect of computer-mediated communication can encourage people to agree to or even insist on a kind of public exposure by which they may eventually be harmed. On the Internet, where perceptions of interpersonal affect and effects may be obscured by the nature of the medium itself, care must be taken to guard against not only any increased tendency for researchers to objectify subjects, but also the tendency for subjects to underestimate the potential consequences of consent. The criteria for informed consent that may be sufficient in face-toface research environments are not necessarily so in a medium in which subjective experience is easily objectified and information is easily devalued.
Sherry Turkle is rapidly becoming the sociologist of the Internet, and that's beginning to seem like a good thing. While her first outing, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, made groundless assertions and seemed to be carried along more by her affection for certain theories than by a careful look at our current situation, Life on the Screen is a balanced and nuanced look at some of the ways that cyberculture helps us comment upon real life (what the cybercrowd sometimes calls RL). Instead of giving in to any one theory on construction of identity, Turkle looks at the way various netizens have used the Internet, and especially MUDs (Multi-User Dimensions), to learn more about the possibilities available in apprehending the world. One of the most interesting sections deals with gender, a topic prone to rash and partisan pronouncements. Taking as her motto William James's maxim "Philosophy is the art of imagining alternatives," Turkle shows how playing with gender in cyberspace can shape a person's real-life understanding of gender. Especially telling are the examples of the man who finds it easier to be assertive when playing a woman, because he believes male assertiveness is now frowned upon while female assertiveness is considered hip, and the woman who has the opposite response, believing that it is easier to be aggressive when she plays a male, because as a woman she would be considered "bitchy." Without taking sides, Turkle points out how both have expanded their emotional range. Other topics, such as artificial life, receive an equally calm and sage response, and the first-person accounts from many Internet users provide compelling reading and good source material for readers to draw their own conclusions.
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