Analysis of the Digital Divide Between Disabled and Non-Disabled People in South Korea

This article analyses the digital divide between disabled and non-disabled people by comparing their personal information capacity. The personal information capacity consists of four subcategories: the "access index", "capacity index", "quantitative usage index", and "qualitative usage index". Using the Oaxaca model, we separate the digital divide into two parts: the digital divide caused by "disability" and that caused by "other individual characteristics" such as education and household income. The main findings of the article are as follows. All four indices are lower for disabled people, and the "usage indices" of disabled people are particularly low compared to that of non-disabled people. As regards young people, "disability" is a much more important factor than "other individual characteristics" in causing a digital divide in their personal capacity index. Regarding middle-aged people, the digital divide between the two groups is mostly caused by "other individual characteristics", among which education is the most important.