Use and perception of the Internet by people with intellectual disabilities and their families: changes during confinement due to COVID-19​

Vicenta Ávila, Pablo Delgado, Laura Gil, Beatriz Lucas, Antonio Ferrer and Inmaculada Fajardo

Universitat de València

The Internet represents a tool that expands the opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) to participate in society, but it is also configured as a source of difficulties and risks. During the confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, the use of this tool increased in the population. We present the preliminary results of an online survey conducted with 39 young people with ID and their immediate family members about their use of the Internet and their perceptions of the risks and benefits it entails. Among the main results, we highlight that young people with ID, like the general population, increased their frequency of Internet use and of some of the activities that they usually carry out on the Internet. In addition, the low perception of the risks that their participation in this medium may entail stands out.

Bio

Vicenta Ávila is a professor in the Department of Evolutionary Psychology and Education at the University of Valencia and a member of the ERI Reading

Pablo Delgado is a postdoctoral researcher at the ERI LEctura of the University of Valencia.