Council of Europe

Research project on the digital lives of children with disabilities

On 21 April 2015, a brainstorming meeting for the development of a research project on the digital lives of children with disabilities, will be held in Strasbourg. Children with disabilities engage with the Internet in a different way than children without disabilities. This is linked to various reasons ranging from inacceessibility issues to the differing needs of children with disabilities as opposed to children in general.

Children with disabilities must be empowered to take full advantage of all the opportunities the Internet offers while they also need to be educated about the risks they may encounter online. As there is a lack of research on how children with disabilities in Europe engage with the Internet and how they use digital technologies, the Council of Europe intends to develop a participatory research project to learn more about the digital lives of children with disabilities.

This brainstorming meeting will be in the form of a consultation with three experts on the rights of children with disabilities and three young children‘s rights activists with disabilities. The consultations will serve to highlight the issues which the Council of Europe should focus on when moving forward with the development of this research project.