Stetten Nichole E, LeBeau Kelsea, Aguirre Maria A, Vogt Alexis B, Quintana Jazmine R, Jennings Alexis R, Hart Mark
College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States.
JMIR Rehabil Assist Technol. 2019 Sep 30;6(2):e12667. doi: 10.2196/12667.
Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States are currently living with a form of disability. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act 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, on average, have less access to the internet than the general population. The quality, content, and medium vary from site to site and have been greatly understudied. Due to this, it is still unclear how persons with disabilities utilize various platforms of online communication for support.
The objective of this study was to qualitatively explore and compare the interactions and connections among online support groups across Facebook, discussion forums, and chat rooms to better understand how persons with disabilities were utilizing different SNS to facilitate communication interchange, disseminate information, and foster community support.
Facebook groups, discussion forums, and chat rooms were chosen based on predetermined inclusion criteria. Data collected included content posted on Facebook groups, forums, and chat rooms as well as the interactions among group members. Data were analyzed qualitatively using the constant comparative method.
A total of 133 Facebook posts, 116 forum posts, and 60 hours of chat room discussions were collected and analyzed. In addition, 4 themes were identified for Facebook posts, 3 for discussion forums, and 3 for chat rooms. Persons with disabilities utilized discussion forums and chat rooms in similar ways, but their interactions on Facebook differed in comparison. They seem to interact on a platform based on the specific functions it offers.
Interactions on each of the platforms displayed elements of the 4 types of social support, indicating the ability for social support to be facilitated among SNS; however, the type of social support varied by platform. Findings demonstrate that online support platforms serve specific purposes that may not be interchangeable. Through participation on different platforms, persons with disabilities are able to provide and receive social support in various ways, without the barriers and constraints often experienced by this population.
美国约五分之一的成年人目前患有某种形式的残疾。尽管《美国残疾人法案》已发布指导方针，以帮助使开发的技术和社交网站（SNS）对各类残疾人更易访问且用户友好，但平均而言，残疾人接入互联网的机会比普通人群少。不同网站的质量、内容和媒介各不相同，且对其研究甚少。因此，目前仍不清楚残疾人如何利用各种在线交流平台来获取支持。
本研究的目的是定性地探索和比较脸书、讨论论坛和聊天室上的在线支持小组之间的互动和联系，以更好地了解残疾人如何利用不同的社交网站促进交流互动、传播信息并获得社区支持。
根据预先确定的纳入标准选择脸书群组、讨论论坛和聊天室。收集的数据包括脸书群组、论坛和聊天室上发布的内容以及小组成员之间的互动。使用持续比较法对数据进行定性分析。
共收集并分析了133条脸书帖子、116条论坛帖子和60小时的聊天室讨论内容。此外，脸书帖子确定了4个主题，讨论论坛确定了3个主题，聊天室确定了3个主题。残疾人使用讨论论坛和聊天室的方式类似，但他们在脸书上的互动有所不同。他们似乎根据平台提供的特定功能在某个平台上进行互动。
每个平台上的互动都显示出四种社会支持类型的元素，表明社交网站能够促进社会支持；然而，社会支持的类型因平台而异。研究结果表明，在线支持平台具有特定用途，可能无法相互替代。通过参与不同的平台，残疾人能够以各种方式提供和获得社会支持，而没有该人群常遇到的障碍和限制。
