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Disability and the Internet: Confronting a Digital Divide, by Paul T. Jaeger. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012. 225 pp. $55.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781588268280.
In this very well-researched book, Paul T. Jaeger argues that access to the Internet is no less than a human and civil rights issue. While the Internet and its related technolo- gies hold the potential to be tremendous tools of inclusion, Jaeger cites that people with dis- abilities access and use the Internet at rates that are half of the general population. His reasoning, perspectives, and examples prove thorough and compelling.
While highlighting different facets of the digital divide, each chapter adds to Jaeger's case detailing the systematic societal exclu- sion of people with disabilities. On one hand some of these trends stem intuitively from the data: Internet access is largely tied to socioeconomics, and people with disabil- ities statistically have higher levels of unem- ployment and lower levels of education than the general population. But people with dis- abilities prove dissimilar from other Internet- disadvantaged demographics. For people in rural areas, for example, special programs may be enough to bridge the gap. For people with disabilities, barriers of cost and access are magnified by technological barriers built into the Internet and its related systems.
Jaeger explains the aspects of exclusion and segregation that result: without...