Collaborative Research: The Role of People with Disability in the Innovation of Online Technology

互联网是如何改变美国人看待自己作为个体和作为社区成员互动的方式的？虽然对这个问题进行了大量的科学研究，但对残疾人的经历的关注却少得多。这是不幸的，因为这些技术的影响对他们来说可能更明显，因此我们更容易观察和分析。这个项目关注的是残疾人在在线虚拟世界中的体验。在这些三维的、身临其境的网络空间里，残疾人可以随心所欲地出现，做他们在现实世界中可能无法做的事情。研究人员还将研究残疾人在线生活的其他方面，包括在社交网站、博客和电子商务场所的互动。这项研究将有助于改善对残疾人的保健和社会支持。加州大学欧文分校的Thomas Boellstorff和俄勒冈大学尤金分校的Donna Davis将合作探索：(a)残疾人如何在体现和社会互动方面使用数字媒体；(b)这如何改变作为残疾人的自我理解，并影响残疾人在现实世界的体验；(c)具体的在线社会互动的哪些方面与特定的残疾有关；(d)数字化制作的作用以及不同平台和设备的影响。这项研究将涉及在在线数字媒体上进行的一系列人种学方法，以及对配备3D护目镜等设备的一部分残疾人进行采访。虚拟世界访谈将与至少80个人进行，并且将进行较小的密集人种学访谈子集，以解决如何概念化在线具体化的问题。除了为残疾研究、科学技术研究、媒体研究和文化人类学提供学术贡献外，该项目还探索了一个未被充分代表的群体的经历，并为有关数字文化作用的日益相关的公共辩论提供了见解。该项目对残疾人见解的调查将帮助我们更好地理解新的在线技术如何影响人体与技术之间的关系，我们如何在这些大规模技术创新的基础上思考社会互动，以及我们如何思考互联网在日常生活中的作用。

How is the internet changing the ways that Americans think of themselves as individuals and interact as members of communities? While there has been considerable scientific research on this question, there has been far less attention paid to the experiences of people with disabilities. This is unfortunate because the effects of these technologies may be more pronounced for them and therefore easier for us to observe and analyze. This project focuses on the experiences of people with disabilities in on-line, virtual worlds. In these three-dimensional, immersive online spaces, people with disabilities can appear as they choose and do things they may not be able to do in the physical world. The researchers also will study other dimensions of the on-line lives of people with disabilities, including interactions on social network sites, blogs, and e-commerce venues. The research will contribute to improving health care and social support for people with disabilities.Thomas Boellstorff of the University of California, Irvine and Donna Davis of the University of Oregon, Eugene, will collaborate to explore: (a) how people with disabilities use digital media with regard to embodiment and social interaction; (b) how this changes self-understanding as disabled and affects physical-world experiences of disability; (c) what aspects of embodied online social interaction are linked to specific disabilities; (d) the role of digital making and the effect of differing platforms and devices. The research will involve a range of ethnographic methods conducted in online digital media, as well as interviews with a subset of people with disabilities provided with devices like 3D goggles. Virtual world interviews will be conducted with at least 80 individuals, and a smaller subset of intensive, ethnographic interviews will be conducted to address issues of how online embodiment is conceptualized. In addition to offering scholarly contributions to disability studies, science and technology studies, media studies, and cultural anthropology, this project explores the experiences of an underrepresented group, and offer insights into increasingly relevant public debates about the role of digital culture. The project's investigation of the insights of people with disabilities will help us better understand how new online technologies influence the relationship between the human body and technology, how we think about social interaction in light of these massive technological innovations, and how we think about the role of the internet in everyday life.