I Can’t Do It, They Say! – Perceived Stigmatization Experiences of People with Intellectual Disabilities When Using and Accessing the Internet

Stigmatization is a complex process that emerges in manifold forms in a variety of social contexts. This paper sheds light on people with intellectual disabilities (ID) who are often affected by numerous negative prejudices which can lead to restrictions of human rights and various forms of social discrimination. This qualitative focus group study aims to examine perceived stigmatization experiences by people with ID when using and accessing the Internet. Besides, this study focuses on respondents’ behavior and coping strategies to deal with perceived stigmatizations. Therefore, data from a focus group study with 50 participants with ID (23 males, 27 females, aged between 18 and 35) conducted in 2018 was secondary analyzed for this paper. Findings show that participants are well aware of stigmatization by their social environment (e.g., parents, caregivers). Issues include incompetence, lack of media literacy, weak cognitive skills and low decision making abilities. The results also indicate that participants react in different ways to perceived stigmatization. In this paper, we analyze behavior characteristics and arrange them into three different user types: “the Anxious Avoider, “the Help-Seeking-Realist”, and “the Confident All-Rounder”. The three different types differ in terms of Internet usage and coping strategies.