Digital daily activity centers

Description

This project sets out to analyse the digital leap triggered by the lockdown of daily activity centres for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) due to covid-19. During the lockdown, in April 2020, digital activities partly replaced the physical meetings that up until that point had constituted a central feature of these type of venues. Hence, digital activities aiming primarily at maintaining repeated social contact between users at daily activity centres, despite palpable expanses of physical distance, is one of the changes that covid-19 brought about.

In focus for this project is therefore the digitalization that has occurred at five daily activity centres as well as future developments that may be prompted because of it. This project brings attention to the important issue of digital inclusion for individuals with intellectual disabilities. It includes both a retrospective investigation, looking back at what has been, and a forward-looking exploration, seeking to better understand where ongoing changes and developments are headed.

Since the process of digital inclusion for individuals with ID is dependent on the support around them, like access to the Internet, digital equipment, knowledge among staff at daily activity centres and sheltered accommodations, access to this support is also scrutinized in this project.

Thus, the project collects data via interviews with staff members and users, as well as with personal assistants and staff connected to the users’ places of residency. In addition, participant observations at the daily activity centres will be conducted as will be analyses of the digital artefacts that have been produced at these centres since they are deemed to be a testament to how ‘social connectedness’ in the post-covid era is being accomplished.