The Digital Divide Objectified in the Design: Use of the Mobile Telephone by Underprivileged Youth in Sri Lanka

Most discussions on the digital divide have predominantly focused on social disparities in the physical accessibility of information and communication technologies (ICT), and the proposed solutions are related to providing low cost access to the underprivileged. The mobile phone has been considered...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of computer-mediated communication 2014-04, Vol.19 (3), p.712-726
Main Author: Wijetunga, Dinuka
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accessibility
Cell phones
Digital
digital divide
human-technology interaction
Inequalities
Information technology
Low cost
Mathematical models
mobile phone
technology affordances
technology design
Telephones
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Summary:Most discussions on the digital divide have predominantly focused on social disparities in the physical accessibility of information and communication technologies (ICT), and the proposed solutions are related to providing low cost access to the underprivileged. The mobile phone has been considered as a good solution due to its relatively low cost. This paper, based on an empirical study in Sri Lanka, demonstrates that even though the underprivileged population has adopted the mobile phone, most of the computer based communication facilities available in the phones are ‘inaccessible’ to such users due the objectification of broader social inequalities in the design of phones. In other words, the digital divide is objectified in the design.
ISSN:1083-6101
1083-6101
DOI:10.1111/jcc4.12071