How The Digitally Disadvantaged Survive In The World:A Study On The Adoption And Use Of Wechat Among The Visually Impaired

The information revolution has incubated a digital society,which in turn has given rise to the proposition of mediated existence.This thesis focuses on the social integration of the visually impaired in an environment typically characterised by electronic media,and focuses on the adoption and use of WeChat among the visually impaired,using the lens of Actor-Network-Theory to distinguish the influencing factors and the role of these actors in the process.The thesis is divided into two parts,quantitative and qualitative.The former is based on a questionnaire to map the current situation of the adoption and use of WeChat among the visually impaired,and a correlation and regression analysis to find out the distribution of actors in the network,laying the foundation for the subsequent qualitative study.The results show that the perceived popularity of WeChat,the perceived characteristics of WeChat,the perceived needs of the medium and the length of use of smart devices among the visually impaired affect their adoption of WeChat.In contrast,the two independent variables of perceived popularity of WeChat and social support did not positively predict WeChat use and ability of visually impaired people.In addition,the length of use of smart devices and the degree of accessibility both interfered with the subjects’ WeChat usage,but did not constitute a significant relationship with their WeChat usage ability.The qualitative part of the study relies on the blueprint of the quantitative study to map out the distribution of actors,through in-depth interviews with ten representative respondents,in an attempt to further explore and expand on the questionnaires,and then use the ANT transitivity analysis framework to explore the division of labour and utility of the actors in the adoption and use of WeChat among the visually impaired population,and to find out how the core actors and other actors work together to shape the web of connections through continuous transmutation and transitivity.The article concludes with a summary and discussion of the content and a vision of the future of digital inclusion for the visually impaired.