The tangible and intangible needs of people with disabilities have been neglected in research agendas over the past decades, particularly in China. Bringing more benefits to people with disabilities and combining information delivery with Internet technology to improve their quality of life is impossible if their special needs are ignored. This study employed the crowdsourcing through social media method to investigate information needs of people who are disabled. The results indicate that using the popular social media platforms WeChat and QQ can be an effective means of reaching out to this group. Information needs can be mainly divided into internal and external needs. Leisure, tourism, and entertainment as well as assistive devices are major internal information needs, whereas work, entrepreneurship, and living services are the main external information needs.Keywords: people with disabilities, feedback, crowdsourcing, information needs, social media, China
Use of Social Media in Uncovering Information Services for People with Disabilities in ChinaWhat can assist people with disabilities in improving their social inclusion and social situation? To answer this question, scholars have mainly focused on community participation (Milner & Kelly, 2009) (Carter & Markel, 2001). Therefore, using a range of media to provide information on different levels is critical (Mitchell & Sloper, 2002).Most studies have determined the needs of specific groups through literature surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions (Barrett, 2005;Mitchell & Sloper, 2002). The present study expanded the investigation to all types of disability groups. The rapid development of network technology has brought a new means for solving this problem: crowdsourcing (Ford, Richard, & Ciuchta, 2015;Pitt-Catsouphes & Cosner Berzin, 2015), which is a relatively new development in information outsourcing. It is a virtue of network platforms that cooperation can be extended worldwide through various virtual social groups. Any individual who is interested in or has some understanding about crowdsourcing can participate in crowdsourcing. In addition to reducing costs, crowdsourcing can bring answers that are more comprehensive, richer, and more creative compared with those derived from traditional investigation.Two research questions were addressed in this study: (a) which platform do people with disabilities prefer to use, and (b) what types of service information do people with disabilities in China seek. These questions are critical because they can assist policy makers in both determining how to address the needs of people with disabilities and effectively reaching out to this special group. Therefore, in this study, the needs of various people with disabilities were investigated using the crowdsourcing method to improve the quality of online information services for people with disabilities.The remainder of this article is structured as follows. Section 2 discusses research related to disabled information platforms and crowdsourcing, an...