Discrimination by Experience: Survey Users with Disability About Their Attitudes, Usage, and Satisfaction of Italian Digital Services
摘要
In Italy, where 22% of the population lives with a disability, digital accessibility remains below recommended standards. In line with that, a recent review of websites of Italian national and local public administration indicated that fewer than 12% meet basic accessibility requirements. This study aims to explore the user experience of people with disabilities across widely used categories of digital services (i.e. social media and entertainment, messaging and video calling, information search, product purchasing, banking and essential services, and booking services), as well as perceived usefulness of accessibility overlays and tools for reporting accessibility problems. A survey was conducted with 266 users (77.5% with disabilities), who were divided into three groups: people without disabilities, people with disabilities reporting high autonomy, in using digital services, and people with disabilities reporting low autonomy. Findings reveal that people with disabilities use digital services less frequently and report lower satisfaction, with UMUX-Lite scores ranging from 56.5 to 70 for low-autonomy users with disabilities, compared to scores ranging from 76.2 to 81.5 for users without disabilities. Statistical analysis also shows that engagement with essential services like banking and online shopping is significantly lower among users with disabilities. Accessibility overlays were rated as neutrally useful, with no significant differences in perceived utility across user groups, while reporting tools for accessibility issues were found to have limited impact on accessibility improvements. These findings underscore a systemic gap in accessible digital services and suggest a need for the active involvement of people with disabilities in the design process to improve both technical accessibility and overall user satisfaction.