Online Harms Faced by Disabled, and Neurodiverse User

Description

Despite the growing use on online services, understanding how disabled and neurodiverse individuals experience harms within these digital environments remains limited. Existing research, such as Ofcom’s findings, highlights that more individuals with limiting conditions see harmful content compared to those without, but these insights are fragmented and fail to capture escalating risks across different disabilities and neurodiverse conditions. Current strategies for harm reduction are largely advisory and rely on user vigilance, leaving substantial gaps in effective, systemic protections. Thus this project will attempt to address these concerns through a literature review looking into the online experience of disabled and neurodiverse users, and optional functionality review which would look at the current state of mainly social media sites to see if features or functions present could be adversely affecting users. Ending with a selection of interviews with users or those who represent the target demographics to see understand if the lived experiences match up with what was found within the previous stages.