Buteau-Poulin Anabel, Gosselin Camille, Bergeron-Ouellet Andréa, Kiss Jocelyne, Lamontagne Marie-Ève, Maltais Désirée, Trottier Christiane, Desmarais Chantal
Rehabilitation Department, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada.
Music Department, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada.
JMIR Pediatr Parent. 2020 Nov 10;3(2):e19669. doi: 10.2196/19669.
The internet is a valuable resource for parents of typical children, who are looking for information about their children's growth and development and how to boost them. However, for parents of children with special needs, especially for non-English-speaking parents, there are anecdotal reports stating that specific and accurate information is not available on the internet.
This study aims to describe the type of information available on the internet for French-speaking parents of children with disability as well as assess the quality of the information collected.
We carried out a search of the existing relevant websites targeted at parents of children with disability. We used a validated instrument to extract structural, textual, and visual characteristics of these websites and evaluate their usability.
In all, 42 websites were analyzed; of these, the information had been validated by a trustworthy source in only 18 (43%) websites. Networking opportunities for parents were available in only 7 (17%) websites. Most websites provided information related to autism spectrum disorder (20/42, 42%) and learning disabilities (19/42, 45%), and only a few websites discussed other disability types such as behavorial disorders and developmental language disorders (4/42, 10% each). Community, social, and civic life (9/42, 22%); domestic life (12/42, 29%); and mobility (15/42, 36%) were the less frequently covered topics. With regard to the usability evaluation, 22 of the 42 (52%) websites received a global score <70%, whereas 20 (48%) scored ≥70.
Although the internet is an infinite source of information, it is not necessarily actionable for parents of children with disability. Some information remains difficult to find online, and networking opportunities with other parents dealing with similar challenges are scarce.
互联网对于普通儿童的家长来说是一个宝贵的资源，他们可以从中查找有关孩子成长发育以及如何促进孩子成长的信息。然而，对于有特殊需求孩子的家长，尤其是非英语母语的家长，有传闻称互联网上缺乏具体且准确的信息。
本研究旨在描述互联网上为说法语的残疾儿童家长提供的信息类型，并评估所收集信息的质量。
我们对现有的针对残疾儿童家长的相关网站进行了搜索。我们使用经过验证的工具来提取这些网站的结构、文本和视觉特征，并评估其可用性。
总共分析了42个网站；其中，只有18个（43%）网站的信息经过了可靠来源的验证。只有7个（17%）网站为家长提供了社交机会。大多数网站提供了与自闭症谱系障碍（20/42，42%）和学习障碍（19/42，45%）相关的信息，只有少数网站讨论了其他残疾类型，如行为障碍和发育性语言障碍（各4/42，10%）。社区、社会和公民生活（9/42，22%）；家庭生活（12/42，29%）；以及出行（15/42，36%）是较少涉及的主题。关于可用性评估，42个网站中有22个（52%）的总体得分低于70%，而20个（48%）的得分≥70。
尽管互联网是一个信息的无尽来源，但对于残疾儿童的家长来说，它不一定是可行的。一些信息在网上仍然难以找到，而且与其他面临类似挑战的家长的社交机会也很少。
