How media literacy can improve the inclusion in society of people with a mild intellectual disability

In the Netherlands, media are a part of almost every aspect of society and are becoming more ubiquitous. Using media can bring benefits to its users, but can also have negative effects. In order to profit from its positive aspects and avoid the negative consequences, it is essential to have the skills to use media properly. This is referred to as media literacy. Vulnerable people are often relatively less media literate and can therefore benefit less from the positive aspects that media can offer. One of the positive aspects that can come along with media use is social inclusion. However, little is known about the relationship between media and inclusion. Within this context, even less is known about the group of people with mild intellectual disabilities in particular. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to study how media literacy can improve the social inclusion of people with mild intellectual disabilities. This was researched using a mixed-method approach. First, expert interviews with five experts on the field of media literacy among people with mild intellectual disabilities and inclusion were conducted. Then, in order to assess the topic from multiple perspectives, a survey for people with mild intellectual disabilities and people in their social environment was developed. The former version was a simplified version of the latter. The surveys contained questions about the media environment and media literacy of people with mild intellectual disabilities. Furthermore, different possible negative aspects and challenges of media use and examples of the link between information provided during the expert interviews were empirically tested in these surveys. The literature review and expert interviews showed that media and social inclusion are linked in several ways: first of all, they enable more social (e.g. maintaining social contact through social media) and economic (e.g. looking for a job) capital. Additionally, media can be used to search for (additional) information on difficult topics, such as filling taxes. Also, applications like notepads, reminders and agendas can have useful applications in everyday life and make the life of mildly disabled people easier. Furthermore, they allow people with intellectual disabilities to be more independent from others. Lastly, they allow access to for example financial or governmental services, that increasingly take place online. However, the survey, in which these examples were empirically validated, indicated that both mildly disabled people and people in their environment view this differently: the majority indicated that media did not help in making difficult things easier and in arranging financial and governmental affairs. Being media literate means that people with mild intellectual disabilities have the skills to use media properly and therefore are able 4 to benefit from these benefits that enable participation in society. Because the survey for people with a person with a mild intellectual disability in their social environment had a smaller sample size than initially intended, the results are not generalizable to a larger population. Despite the small sample, the results are still meaningful: this study can be viewed as a pilot project. This means that future research is needed in order to get a more profound understanding of the link between media literacy and social inclusion of people with mild intellectual disabilities.