Disability and the Digital Divide. Disability Statistics Abstract Number 22.

This report discusses findings from the Current Population Survey of 1998 that found Americans with disabilities are less than half as likely as their counterparts to own a computer, and they are about one-quarter as likely to use the Internet. Others findings indicate: (1) among persons 65 years of age or older, only one-tenth of those with disabilities have computers at home, compared to 25.3 percent of those without disabilities; (2) only 2.2 percent of elderly people with disabilities use the Internet, a rate of about one-quarter that of those without disabilities; (3) among individuals with disabilities ages 15-64, 32.6 percent with disabilities have computers and 15.1 percent use the Internet, compared to 5.6 percent and 42.3 percent of their counterparts without disabilities; (4) only 12.7 percent of people with disabilities who have not graduated from high school own computers, compared with 34.5 percent of those without disabilities; (5) 11 percent of individuals with disabilities with family incomes under $20,000 a year own computers, compared to 22 percent of those without disabilities; and (6) African Americans with disabilities are much less likely than whites to have a computer or to have access to the Internet. (CR)