Abstract

BERRIO ZAPATA, Cristian; CHAVES DOS SANTOS, Zilah Edelburga  and  CHALHUB OLIVEIRA, Tania. Digital exclusion of disabled people's communities in Brazil. Rev. cuba. inf. cienc. salud [online]. 2020, vol.31, n.4, e1567.  Epub Feb 15, 2021. ISSN 2307-2113.

The digital technology pervading information society has perpetuated long-standing social exclusion problems, transforming them into what is now known as the digital gap, which particularly affects disabled people's communities. The present paper reviews the evolution of information accessibility and digital inclusion in these communities, using the Brazil case to illustrate the history of their struggle for equity and autonomy, as well as the challenges they face in this field. Starting from the critical theory applied to technology, a domain analysis was conducted which combined examination of the literature and an integrating bibliographic search with a historical approach. Evidence was found of a large number of cultural and legal hurdles, both historical and present, which converge in the current limitations to free access to scientific knowledge and open code software, lack of stimulus to assistive technology development, and a phase lag in the guidelines for accessibility to the web content of the W3 Consortium. Identification was made of the main hurdles in accessibility and digital inclusion. Problems related to the digital gap and web accessibility are technical as well as cultural, economic and political. As long as disabled people's communities are not perceived as political minorities in search for equity, empowerment and autonomy, assistentialist discourse and preconceptions will continue to digitally exclude those populations. The transformation of that narrative is possible through more research work critically substantiating the alternative views about this situation.

Keywords : Information technologies; accessibility; disability; Brazil; disabled people's communities.

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