Becoming Digital Citizens

Abstract This book provides the first empirical, in-depth exploration of the relationship between disability, citizenship, and information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the Chinese context. Based on rich empirical evidence, the book examines the citizenship status of disabled people in rapidly changing, digital China, describing them as ‘blocked’ citizens. The book then focuses on disabled people’s ICT-related practices in the civil, economic, political, and cultural domains that claim rights and appeal for a better social position. It demonstrates and explains the process by which disabled people become individual and collective subjects with agency through usage of ICTs, the forms and patterns of their acts in the digital sphere, and their interactions with wider structures and existing citizenship discourse and institutions. From this, digital disability citizenship has emerged with specific features and scenarios. The research for this book was conducted over ten years, with a grounded theory approach and a combination of methods of digital ethnography, content analysis, and in-depth interviews. By presenting a nuanced portrayal of the digital life of Chinese disabled people, the book offers new insights into the norms and practices of digital (non-traditional), Chinese (non-Western), and disabled (non-mainstream) citizenship, which widens the scope of disability and citizenship studies. Also, in looking at the case of China, a newcomer to digitalization but a fast-developing one, and from the perspective of marginalized people, the book discusses the potential and challenges of ICTs in improving inclusion and promoting social justice.