Document detail

The digital exclusion of women with disabilities: a study of seven low- and middle-income countries

London: GSMA (2020), 43 pp.
"1. Women with disabilities have among the lowest rates of mobile and smartphone ownership. In most countries, ownership gaps are widest between men without disabilities and women with disabilities. Even in countries where the mobile gender gap is small or nonexistent, there is still a disability gap in mobile ownership.<NZ>2. Persons with disabilities perceive mobile as less beneficial than non-disabled persons, and, specifically, women with disabilities perceive benefits the least.<NZ>3. Women with disabilities report various barriers to mobile ownership. In Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Uganda, relevance, literacy and skills, and safety and security were among the most commonly reported barriers.<NZ>4. In most countries, regardless of gender, persons with disabilities are less aware of mobile internet than those without disabilities. While awareness of mobile internet is lower for women than men, it is even lower for persons with disabilities, except in India. Women with disabilities have the lowest level of awareness.<NZ>5. Persons with disabilities tend to have lower levels of internet use than non-disabled persons. Women with disabilities are the least likely to use mobile internet, particularly in India where women are least likely to use mobile internet regardless of disability and the most commonly mentioned barrier to mobile internet is the cost of buying a phone and data." (Key findings)
Contents
The digital exclusion of women with disabilities, 7
Key findings, 11
Mobile ownership among women with disabilities, 13
Mobile internet use by women with disabilities, 22
How mobile is used by women with disabilities, 29
Driving digital inclusion for women with disabilities, 38
Appendix 1: Detailed methodology, 40