Ahead of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December, the Council of Europe presents a new report focusing on children with disabilities in the digital environment. The report describes the experiences of children with intellectual, physical, hearing and visual impairments. It analyses the challenges they face and provides recommendations to the States, digital industry, health services and academic institutions on how to ensure the safe access to the digital environment for these children.
Young people throughout Europe are growing up in a digital world, with one in three Internet users worldwide being under 18 years old. The digital and online lives of children with disabilities are very similar to those of children without disabilities, and they almost never disclose their disability online, the survey found. Their experiences in learning and spending leisure time online are hugely diverse and include playing musical instruments, cooking and gardening.
However, while benefiting from the digital environment, such children can also be disproportionally disadvantaged, even if they do not consider themselves more exposed to potential online risks than their peers without a disability. This calls for far greater attention to be paid by governments, the digital industry, schools and healthcare services to the rights of children with disabilities.
“The digital environment can indeed be an ‘enabler’ and ‘equaliser’ for children with disabilities, providing them with additional opportunities to access information, to communicate, learn and play,” the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić said. “Yet there are multiple barriers that impede their access to digital environment and may compromise their safety – technological, financial, as well as linguistic obstacles with English dominating the online world. We need to create a safe and inclusive digital environment for children with disabilities, to provide them with right tools and equipment that would enable them to integrate into the society, without undermining their right to privacy.”
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The study involved 97 children in six countries (Belgium, Germany, Republic of Moldova, Portugal, Turkey, United Kingdom). The Secretary General welcomed the fact that children participated in the creation of the actual report and stressed that governments, public institutions and private sector should fully involve children with disabilities in the design and delivery of policies that impact their usage of digital environment.
Interview of Gerison Lansdown, one of the authors of the report
Council of Europe
