Disconnected and disabled during the pandemic: Toward more inclusive pandemic response plans in the Global South

Abstract

This study centers on the information world of Persons with Disabilities (PwD) living in the Global South during the COVID-19 pandemic. The intersection between information practices and disability studies have been mainly situated within the context of the Global North although the pandemic has perpetuated the global power imbalance between rich and poor countries. Based on an analysis of qualitative data collected from PwD in Vietnam during the pandemic, we found that the boundaries between individual, social, and professional domains blurred as the PwD used the same digital platforms accessible and affordable for them to meet different information needs arising from the continuous shifts and disruptions the pandemic had brought to their everyday life. The platforms also allowed the PwD to make stronger connections with themselves, others with disability, and the country during difficult times. In tandem, the PwD’s information world was characterized by the need to protect themselves from contracting the virus and to follow official pandemic response guidelines. The findings demonstrate the importance of centering disability rights and digital rights in pandemic preparedness, response, and recovery plans, particularly in countries with limited resources in Southeast Asia.

Introduction

The usefulness of information communication technologies has marked the socio-technical impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Societies shifted to technology-mediated interactions to meet personal, social, and work-related information needs, as physical contacts were restricted given the transmissibility of the virus. People experienced forced immobility as the pandemic killed more than 5.6 million people as of January 27, 2022 (Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, 2022). Besides its economic, political, and public health ramifications, the pandemic has magnified the digital divide. Those with stable internet connection could navigate smoothly through the social and physical disconnection period by going online, whereas those living in areas with poor infrastructure had to endure various challenges including low quality internet connection (International Telecommunication Union, 2021). The pandemic has also been asserted to have halted economic development and widen existing global inequality. Low-income countries in the Global South had limited resources to keep people safe from the virus and were likely to struggle with pivoting from the pandemic effects, perpetuating the current global power imbalance between rich and poor countries (Stiglitz, 2020).

What’s more, the pandemic has amplified the gap between the non-disabled and Persons with Disabilities (PwD) (United Nations, 2020). Many digital and social media platforms gaining traction during the pandemic offered limited accessibility to PwD, particularly among those with visual impairments. As the materials and resources were not designed for diverse users, PwD generally lacked pandemic-related information, demonstrating the obscurity of disability rights in pandemic responses (O’Sullivan and Phillips, 2019). Paired with that, pandemic recovery plans mainly focused on the need of the non-disabled, hence further marginalizing the rights of PwD (Mehrotra and Soldatic, 2021). While the usefulness of information communication technologies and ramifications of the pandemic to PwD in the Global South is evident, its intersection with information studies is scantly understood when compared to the existing studies situated within the Global North. Given that, situated within the context of Vietnam, the largest socialist-communist country in Southeast Asia, this study asks the following two interrelated questions:

• how do digital and social media platforms help alleviate the ramifications of physical and social disconnections among PwD? and

• how does that reflect the characteristics of PwD’s information world during the pandemic?

Context: Vietnam and the pandemic

Vietnam won the fight against the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. However, the rise of the Delta variant in 2021 significantly disrupted the Vietnamese people’s everyday life. In Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s biggest economic force, strictly enforced immobility was placed as a pandemic measure. Hanoi and other cities implemented similar measures soon after numerous COVID positive cases were found in communities. Residents were told to shelter in place as the virus raged. Military personnel were deployed to help poor families (Reuters, 2021). Supermarkets were open in a limited capacity and food delivery service mobile apps were suspended to mitigate virus transmissions. Public transportation and non-essential businesses such as massage parlors and beauty salons were halted. Schools and work shifted to remote mode. Social and physical disconnections were vivid, as the fear of contracting the virus and being sanctioned by the state for breaching pandemic measures loomed (Hayton and Ngheo, 2020).

In such a period, like many in other countries, most Vietnamese resorted to digital and social media platforms for navigating challenges arising from pandemic life. However, a segment of the society could only access them limitedly. Specifically, PwD were often at the periphery as the platforms were inherently inaccessible or unaffordable. Pre-pandemic, the stigma and prejudice toward PwD have become the ingredient for shaping legal and institutional infrastructures (Nguyen, 2015). Although Vietnam, like many Southeast Asian lower-middle income countries, have ratified the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities since 2014, access to information, public services, and infrastructures remains challenging for PwD, indicating an inconsistent implementation of the Convention in the region (Cogburn and Reuter, 2017). The Convention signatory status of Vietnam has manifested subtly in the country’s pandemic response plans, as the communication of information related to health protocols and vaccinations partially considered the diverse needs of PwD (Rohman, 2022a). During the pandemic, Vietnamese mass media often accessorize disability stories with pity and overemphasize disabilities. News on vaccinations were reported through the lens of compassion rather than attempts to meet PwD’s health needs (Rohman, et al., 2023). While progress on disability rights and social inclusion was observable in the largest socialist-communist country in Southeast Asia, socio-economic and cultural stigmas toward PwD persist (Bogenschutz et al., 2021).

Theory of the information world

The theory of Information World elucidates the compartmentalized but intertwined domains in the way people use, seek, and share information and the infrastructure that may enable and constrain them from performing such information practices (Burnett and Jaeger, 2011). The theory shows the intersection of the self, the technology, and the world in people’s interaction with information. This interaction can be smooth if one resides within a condition enabling them to access and control information. That interaction may also reflect people’s intent to eliminate barriers to a better and safer society, primarily when situations are precarious (Rohman and Ang, 2019; Rohman, 2020). Among the historically marginalized and those in oppressive areas with poor infrastructure, the interaction can signify a perpetual struggle. In that circumstance, the information world theory demonstrates an approach to understanding the dynamics and nuances surrounding how people, as individuals and as members of greater social circles and society, meet their information needs (Burnett et al., 2008).

The theory illuminates the role of social norms, social types, information value, information behavior, and boundaries in shaping people’s interactions with information and technologies (Burnett and Jaeger, 2011). Social norms, which are often embedded in the culture, govern the world where one belongs, thus affecting how they interact with information and others (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). Social types, as reflected in the co-presence of others within a particular situation, may determine what information is considered shareable, making information sharing a social performance as one calculates the consequences of sharing in that situation (Chatman, 1999). As such, some information may be seen as more valuable and/or relevant in certain situations and to certain people than others, affecting methods of sharing, seeking, and using it. In that respect, time, space, and context become undetachable considerations for seeking information from who and where, how to use, and sharing it with whom in what situation (Savolainen, 2009). These information behaviors reflect the definition of boundaries that one deems fit for their situation and it may relax, contract, or intersect as the situation changes (Burnett, 2015).

The theory has offered a contextual understanding of people’s information behaviors at different levels. At a micro level, Rohman (2022b) has intertwined it with Chatman’s (1991) concept of small world to illuminate the role of information sharing and changes in people’s worldviews in a post-conflict society in Indonesia. At a macro level, the theory has crossed a path with the idea of deliberative democracy that shaped information access and sharing in post-9/11 US (Jaeger and Burnett, 2005). The information world reflects the entwined dynamic of the “small” and “big” worlds, the “inside” and “outside” worlds, the “private” and “public” worlds. Such domains become connected as people interact with each other and information in various temporal, social, and spatial contexts accessible to them (Burnett, 2015).

The theory helps explain people’s information behaviors at a group level (Veinot and Pierce, 2019), in which constraints to information seeking and sharing may stem from institutions and social interactions, therefore, affecting what information people value in different times, situations, and contexts (Burnett et al., 2001). Among vulnerable groups such as older persons living in natural disaster-prone areas in Southeast Asia, their information behaviors shift from routine to task oriented as they prepare themselves to face and recover from the disasters (Pang et al., 2020). Limited access to information has hindered Thai woman immigrants’ access to recovery programs in post-2011 Japan tsunami (Pongponrat and Ishii, 2018). In the US, expectations for better social support, larger inclusion, and education access have characterized the information world of parents of children with down syndrome (Gibson, 2014).

Building on the above studies, the present study pays attention to the information world of PwD during COVID-19 pandemic. Besides having the potential to reinscribe medicalized discourse on disability, changes in the responses to pandemic and the perceived transmissibility of the virus, have greatly shifted the way people communicate with others, interact with information, and use information communication technologies. This shift seems to have amplified the gap between the rich and poor, the non-disabled and disabled communities (Rohman, 2021). Having said that, it is not the intention of this study to compare the information worlds of these different groups. Rather, this study centers around the nuance and dynamic of the PwD’s information world when navigating life through the pandemic.

The information world of persons with disability

Approaches to disability issues have morphed from medical to social models. A medical model views disabilities as defects that need eradicating, resulting in various efforts to produce cures and increase the functionality of disabled bodies (Campbell, 2009). This model has been seen as Darwinian and eugenic, which often stems from a chronic ableism within societies, and neglects the power of social dynamic that shapes and reshapes discrimination, prejudice, and stigma against PwD (Goodley, 2014). The social model emerges as a direct response to that. It views disabilities as identity, cultural, and political movements in which disability issues are positioned as a force for social change and social inclusion in all life aspects (Sabatello, 2013). This present study weaves the social model into the understanding of PwD’s interactions with information, social, and digital platforms, as their development and deployment call for a stronger inclusion of users with disabilities’ needs (Goggin et al., 2019) and ways of mitigating their socio-cultural and political ramifications (Whittaker et al., 2019).

Access, help-seeking, and design are major themes characterizing the information world of PwD. Barriers to access to information communication technologies are persistent issues (Hill, 2013), indicating that amid rapid technological development and use, PwD continue to experience limited access to information. Attempts to make digital technologies and online spheres more inclusive are on the rise, but they may unintentionally alienate PwD from expressing online identities and exacerbate existing disability stigmas (Tsatsou, 2021). Help-seeking is the personal agency PwD exercise in response to inaccessible technological devices or services (Xie et al., 2018). While help is available from system providers and others (Wylie et al., 2017), many ideas behind the technological design reflect ableism (Goodley, 2014). Hence, inclusive designs are advocated in order to give both the non-disabled and PwD options for meeting their diverse information needs (Berget and MacFarlane, 2020). An inclusive design signifies the intent to attend diverse needs rather than compartmentalizing them, which, if left unchecked, can lead to an unconscious decision to ignore the need of the non-average users such as PwD. Thus, with an inclusive perspective in mind, tech designers will have the power to help mitigate inequality in technological access (Aimi, 2017).

Access to health information is a salient topic in existing studies. In North America, the Internet and health providers are two primary information sources for PwD (French-Lawyer et al., 2021). During the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination programs classified PwD as a priority group given their vulnerability to the virus. However, information specifically catering to their needs was limited or inaccessible, particularly among those with visual impairments (Sabatello et al., 2020). The same purview to this is also observable in responses to previous flu and respiratory pandemics such as SARS and H1N1 (O’Sullivan and Bourgoin, 2010), indicating the persistent obscurity of disability rights within current COVID-19 pandemic response plans. Given these persistent obscurities, PwD make their world “small” as the “big” world is inaccessible to them, or even worse, consists of values, norms, and expectations deeply rooted in ableism (Nario-Redmond, 2020). The inclination to stay in the small world is even greater as the pandemic has brought new threats and risks to their lives.

In the Global South, increasing the capabilities of PwD in work, health, public service, politics, and education is a frequent advocacy topic (ESCAP, 2019), in which disability and technology are included within digital and human rights frames. In this sense, accessibility to various life domains remains a challenge amid a gradual increase in efforts for mainstreaming disability rights (Goggin et al., 2019). As such, it is not uncommon that the information world of PwD revolves around homes as the outside world caters to the needs of the non-disabled (Guffey, 2018). Despite many existing barriers to access, PwD at least had the option to interact with the outside world before the pandemic.

Government responses to the pandemic, however, have taken that away as forced immobility and social distancing measures are put in place (Rohman and Ang 2021). PwD can no longer break the routine, dull circuit of staying in shelter as the outside world is inundated by everyday emergencies (Pineda and Corburn, 2020). Some may have the capability to access the already available digital and social media platforms for resembling the social interactions they used to have before the pandemic hit but, for others, poor infrastructure and a narrow range of accessible and affordable platforms have made sheltering in place unbearable. Living in poverty, difficulty affording the Internet, and being forced to stay at home contribute to an undesirable mixture of situations arising from the pandemic that PwD must endure. In these circumstances, their information world, which was small during the initial stages of the pandemic, shrinks further as the pandemic prolongs and its effects spiral out of control in several countries in the Global South. As such, more inclusive pandemic response and recovery plans are essential (United Nations, 2020)

Method

With the foregoing discussion in mind, we deployed a story completion method (Clarke et al., 2019; Gravett, 2019). Given challenges in managing personal and professional lives during the early stage of the pandemic and the diversity in the participants’ disabilities, the method, compared to interviews, allowed for a less intrusive data collection, as participants, primarily who identified themselves as Blind and Deaf, could conveniently respond to the story prompts according to their availabilities and with the appropriate assistive technologies. We began collecting data by circulating open ended story prompts to PwD from January to May 2020. These prompts asked participants to write about: (a) their everyday life of living through the COVID-19 pandemic as a person with disability (b) the digital and social media platforms they use to navigate through pandemic life (c) the usefulness of such platforms and (d) potential ways of improving them. Although we encouraged participants to write at least 150 words to respond to the prompts, many responses were only in a few short sentences, resulting in brief vignettes rather than a longer story about their lived experiences. Given that data limitation, in this article we only used the vignettes that we deemed adequate for answering the research questions.

Our research team comprised people who identified themselves with and without disabilities. A team member, who identified themselves as a wheelchair user and was affiliated with an organization of PwD in Hanoi, circulated the prompts to various disabled people organizations (DPOs) and 150 PwD through their personal network and social media (e.g. Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and Zalo). In the end of May 2020, data collection stopped as the research project ended. In total, we received 100 responses. The other 50 PwD we contacted were irresponsive or returned their responses after the project ended. Out of 100 participants, 59 and 39 identified themselves as woman and man. Two preferred to not mention their gender. Respectively, 44, 29, 11, and 3 participants identified themselves as persons with motor, vision, hearing, and cognitive disabilities; nine persons identified themselves with Others, three identified as persons with multiple disabilities, and one person chose not to identify themself. The average age of the participants was 30 years, the youngest and oldest were 21 and 45 years. Respectively, 40, 18, 21, 5, 11 participants were college, vocational, high, middle, and primary school graduates. Three and two participants did not attend schools and/or did not mention their education levels. Because of the location of our research team, 75 participants were from the Northern provinces; 12 and 9 were in the Central and Southern; and four did not mention their locations. Participants with visual impairments used assistive software such as Talk Back and Screen Reader for responding to the prompts. If needed, some participants were assisted by their guardians or people they trusted. Participants signed consent forms prior to participating and received VND 150,000 (approximately $5). In this article, participants’ names have been altered to protect their privacy. Only the research team had the access to participants’ responses and personal identities.

Participants’ answers to the story prompts were in the Vietnamese language and then translated into English for further analysis. We gave attention equally to short (2–3 sentences) and long responses (>3 sentences) to sense the participants’ lived experiences. This approach allowed us to use all participants’ responses as data, regardless of their formats and sizes, for gradually seeking themes from it. Thus, rather than focusing on the data size (e.g. the lengths of the responses and numbers of the texts), we centered our attention around the construction of meanings embedded within participants’ answers as a whole (Glasser and Strauss, 1971). For example, when participants mentioned they used Zalo messaging app, we saw it as not only about technology use but also as a continuation of habit, convenience, and affordability, in addition to the embeddedness of Zalo in their personal and professional lives.

Through the research team’s discussions, we deduced the themes that we considered salient for further analysis. With our understanding of the existing literature and participants’ lived experiences in mind, we then identified the broader themes that we deemed relevant to the proposed research questions (Charmaz, 2006). As we collectively read participants’ responses, we encountered, for instance, their preference to use same apps for meeting personal and professional commitments, from which the theme related to the diminishing boundaries between different information worlds emerged. We then sought the functions and consequences of using such apps to better understand their meaning to PwD during the pandemic. Informally, we also shared our initial findings with a few leaders of disabled people organizations, who at that time worked with us in a pandemic-related community project, for feedback (Heller, 1969). As the pandemic was still active at the time of writing of this article, our experiences in going through the pandemic and continuous observation of the intersection of technology and disability issues in Vietnam shaped the way we interpreted the data. Some degree of bias might arise from such circumstances despite our attempts to remain neutral in depicting the life experience of PwD participating in this study. Thus, the findings reported below to some extent reflected our inclination to articulate disability and digital rights in a Vietnamese context.

Findings

The information world of PwD during the social and physical disconnection period were characterized by blurred boundaries between different life domains and the tendency to use digital and social media platforms for curbing the excess of being disconnected, empowering themselves and others, and seeking information to protect themselves against the virus. The accessibility of the platforms and PwD’s capacity to afford them during the period of extreme social distancing allowed for different domains of the information world to connect with one another. The following sections elaborate on each theme emerging from data analysis.

Blurred boundaries

Being socially and physically disconnected during the pandemic conditioned PwD to use diverse platforms for staying connected within personal, social, and work domains. Inherently different, these domains intersected as the apps PwD used allowed for navigating a range of interactions and information sharing activities. The boundaries between the domains blurred as PwD used the same apps for meeting various information needs arising from interacting within the domains altogether. This decision to merge all domains rather than separating them, like many non-disabled users wanted to do during the pandemic, stemmed from convenience and affordance reasons, as Phuong put it:

Among the available digital platforms, Zalo is the one that I’ve used the most for its numerous advantages which include being convenient, useful, and free. Besides serving as my great business assistant, Zalo is also like a bridge for maintaining closeness between me, my friends, and relatives. (Phuong)

The Zalo messaging app was where personal, social, and professional domains intersected. Different from the growing attempt to set a clear boundary between the domains as the world entered the “working from home” period, Phuong considered Zalo as able to accommodate a range of activities needed performing while navigating interactions across the domains. The convenience, functionality, and affordability caused Zalo to become a bridge for personal, social, and professional domains. Such characteristics exuded the view to what worked well in the PwD’s information world as they managed life during the disconnection period and attempted to alleviate economic and socio-technical challenges arising from the pandemic rather than trying to follow the ongoing trend for domain separations during the pandemic. An app like Zalo offered its users options to optimize all resources and technological tools within their reach for surviving from the pandemic.

The boundaries between the inside and outside worlds blurred during the disconnection period as PwD used a range of digital and social media platforms to continuously connect the two worlds. The inside world revolved around the place where PwD were located. For many it was a house shared with other members of the extended family. For others, it was a rented 4 × 3 m room near work. While a range of mobile, digital, and social media platforms have been evidently useful for connecting the two worlds before the pandemic, their usefulness was magnified as the pandemic disrupted routines and further physically disconnected PwD from the outside world. Trang, a PwD whose husband was a migrant worker in Ho Chi Minh City described how chatting apps such as Zalo and Facebook (FB) Messenger were essential for connecting the two worlds when many things were physically disconnected:

During the pandemic, most people who live apart from each other were unable to meet or connect. My husband works away from home. Normally, he comes home several times per month. But due to Covid-19, he couldn’t do so for months. He was afraid of coming into contact with people on public transport while travelling home. In the time of social isolation, bus services were halted. Every day, we spoke on the mobile phone. Thanks to Zalo and FB Messenger, we could talk more easily, and saw each other clearly. . . . I find that these apps are extremely useful for me as a person with a disability. They completely meet my needs. When I get tired of texting, I use Zalo to talk to parents, husband, siblings, and friends freely. I can make friends with people in the same situation in the same locality, even abroad without having to go far away. I can gain valuable experiences or lessons, too. . . . (Trang)

While the inside and outside worlds were physically disconnected by the pandemic, PwD optimized the usefulness of mobile apps that were accessible and affordable to them for staying connected with their loved ones, meeting professional commitments, and expanding their social ties with other PwD. Given the transmissibility of the virus and health conditions, they were afraid of making direct contact with others. Public transportation was halted. Borders were closed. The forced immobility disrupted everyday interactions and demarcated the inside and outside worlds. PwD resorted to the accessible and affordable technologies in response. Considering that many PwD in Vietnam were often in the lowest economic rung and the availability of accessible digital and social media platforms were limited, Zalo and Facebook Messenger were seen as the connector between their inside and outside worlds as many pandemic responses required people to shelter in place.

For those with mobility and communication difficulties, mobile apps narrowed the gulf between the inside and outside worlds, though the boundary between both worlds had become more pronounced. Hoang’s comment exemplified just that:

During Covid-19 was the time when I made the most use of mobile apps. It was like “I can travel around the world right at my home, and with no fee at all.” I use FB Messenger every day to communicate with friends, update information [about the pandemic] and relax. To a person who has difficulties in moving and communicating, such mobile apps make me not feel isolated. . . . (Hoang)

It was clear that the apps Hoang used helped connect the two worlds. As a person with mobility and communication difficulties living in an ecosystem where many infrastructures in the outside world were inaccessible, the apps were like totems to stay connected with the outside world before the pandemic broke out. That functionality of the apps increased as the outside world was seen as dangerous and risky during the pandemic. In this sense, the borders between the two worlds were tightened as not only staying in the inside world was perceived safer but also enforced by authorities. PwD used affordable and accessible apps to meet various information needs in an attempt to mitigate the ramifications of being disconnected further from the outside world physically and socially. That way, the borders between the two worlds were relaxed as PwD could virtually perform their routine activities from the inside world during the pandemic.

Connecting with the self, community, and country

Attempts to build micro, meso, and macro connections were observable in the PwD’s information world during the disconnection period. Such attempts contributed to reorienting views from suffering to self-empowerment and connecting with wider disabled communities and the country. At the micro level, PwD tried to empower themselves and stay connected with their loved ones during the difficult time. Ha, who identified as Deaf, described what her day was like when the outbreak began:

The self-isolation at home gave me a chance to get closer to my family’s plants and garden. I tried to take care of different types of flowers, which I’ve never done before. In the evening, I often read self-help books or learned English. I’ve also spent quite a lot of time improving Photoshop skills, which will be useful in the work domain I will pursue in future. (Ha)

Reorienting views was an act of managing the disconnection period as reflected in efforts to explore new activities and be more connected with family. As work opportunities were becoming few and businesses were halted during the pandemic, PwD resorted to affordable and accessible digital platforms for improving the skills they believed would be useful post-pandemic. Reorienting from the outside to the inside world occurred as PwD were forced to shelter in place. They however did not see the disconnection period as an additional barrier to the existing barriers they had faced before the pandemic. Instead, as a moment where they could advance themself through optimizing any resources and platforms available within their reach. Given that, view reorienting was a form of mechanism for resilience as times got tougher during the pandemic.

Another PwD, Tran, exemplified how reorienting the view from challenges during the disconnected period led to self-empowerment:

Like others, I was filled with sadness because of having to stay indoors all day long. . . . Facebook and YouTube were enormously useful for me to learn and sharpen career skills. I used to attend a class on nail care, but it was quite costly. I had to quit the class and then learned it myself from YouTube and Facebook. Learning through those platforms helps save money, time for travelling, and especially, minimizes the risk of coronavirus transmission. (Tran)

The affordability and accessibility of the platforms allowed for self-empowerment during the disconnection period. The view reorientation was a product of grievance and discontent resulting from being forced to shelter in place. Self-learning new skills that would potentially be in demand when the pandemic ended embodied the efforts to redirect the suffering of social and physical disconnections. Freely accessible platforms such as Facebook and YouTube enabled PwD to do so. In this specific case, the two platforms were deemed affordable compared to the previous offline learning and safer during the disconnection period. More importantly, online self-empowerment could be done without leaving the shelter. Thus, minimizing the risk of contracting the virus and breaching the government pandemic measures.

At the meso level, PwD wanted to better connect with their communities during the disconnection period. Not only did it become a chance to alleviate the emotional and psychological burdens that came from the disconnection period, connecting with communities also allowed for creating an ecosystem for collectively mitigating the pandemic’s economic ramifications. Luong described:

We have a Zalo group of young people with disabilities who are looking for jobs. We share information about online job opportunities and companies that are hiring so that if any of us is suitable for a job, we can apply. . . . I use Skype to talk to my former colleagues, and they all said that their jobs and lives were difficult during the time of Covid-19. Sharing and talking with them helped relieve sadness during the time I couldn’t go out much. (Luong)

Job opportunities and social support were among the main information PwD shared with others from the community. Being disabled in Vietnam had been difficult before the pandemic and was further confounded as the pandemic halted the informal sectors in which many PwD often worked. Multilayer burdens were inevitable as physical and social disconnections were enforced. Staying connected with the disabled community was a sanctuary for support and growing solidarity in difficult times, as many pandemic responses often paid attention to the needs of non-disabled people. Sharing about both job-related information and personal struggles with others reflected a community solidarity, which platforms such as Zalo and Skype facilitated. The community, in this circumstance, became the tie that connected one with another as PwD faced common problems arising from the pandemic. The platforms allowed for the creation of spaces where the self and the social merged as one engaged with another in both professional, personal, and social information sharing.

At the macro level, the rapid development of information communication technologies allowed PwD to strengthen their connection with the country during difficult times, leading to stronger national solidarity and affinity for the country. Dung said:

The benefit of using [information communication] technologies is undeniable, especially during COVID-19 and the recent flooding in our country. In such hard times, communications are limited or even impossible, but technology solves that problem. Rather than just a communication tool, it makes us become closer to each other just like a big family and then strengthens our love for our country. (Dung)

The occurrence of the pandemic and a natural disaster strengthened the PwD’s connection with the country. The technology helped grow that sentiment as PwD could communicate with others affected by various undesirable events. In this sense, the technology permitted the development of an imagined connection with other PwD and the country. A form of nationalism appeared as the desire to collectively help the country out of difficult times grew. The role of the Vietnamese government in galvanizing such a sentiment during the pandemic was noteworthy. Thus, many citizens, regardless of their abilities, tended to comply with the state’s pandemic responses. Mobile phones and social media, in addition to traditional media such as TV and posters, were optimized for gaining support to all state-initiated pandemic responses. As such, PwD’s macro connection with the country seemed to be a byproduct of their inherent love for their country and the intensive patriotic messaging the state circulated during the pandemic.

Information for protection

PwD used a range of information sources already available within the world they lived and accessible to them in an attempt to prevent contracting the virus. Digital and social media platforms, traditional and mass media were a few information sources from where PwD sought COVID-19-related information. Pham pointed out:

The usefulness of Zalo and Facebook is that they provide up-to-date news about Covid-19, especially the cases of tested positive and negative with Covid-19. Also, they help people all over the world connect, share their life stories, or learn and experience new things. . . . [Meanwhile] in the countryside, every day at 5:00 PM, loudspeakers at the Commune Office will broadcast news from Voice of Vietnam (VOV), to update accurate news about the pandemic in Vietnam and different countries, as well as, providing the citizens with guidelines on how to self-isolate safely and efficiently. Thus, people will not be confused or panicked by false information, which is often shared orally. (Pham)

The excerpt suggests that locations shaped what sources of information were relevant and trustworthy to PwD. Urban areas tended to have better Internet connections. Thus, digital and social media platforms were helpful for disseminating COVID-19 related information. In comparison, many parts of rural areas had unreliable Internet connections because of unequal technological infrastructure and economic development. Among PwD living in remote areas and had no smartphones, traditional means of information sharing such as loudspeakers installed within the smallest social structure were used to disseminate information. In tandem, the state-owned media, VoV, was deemed credible for broadcasting pandemic-related information. Given the strong role of the Vietnamese government in the dissemination of pandemic related information, a high level of trust in such media was expected.

Having said that, not all information sources were accessible. Thuy explained her preference for a local TV station for obtaining COVID-19 related information:

For a person with a hearing disability like me, I try to update information about Covid-19 through books, newspapers, and social networking sites. I often watched the news on Vietnam Today on VTV1 Channel at 17:30. This program provided a sign language interpreter, so it was easy for me to understand the content. Doing so, I could be well-equipped with skills and knowledge to protect myself and my family from the virus. (Thuy)

For those with a hearing disability, accessibility manifested in the presence of sign language interpreters. Within the disabled community, there were layers of barriers to accessing COVID-19-related information. In Vietnam, persons with hearing and visual impairments were at the bottom of the information access ladder. The availability of accessible information would allow PwD to better protect themselves during the pandemic. Without that, the capability of PwD to protect themselves would be lower than that of non-disabled people.

Besides using diverse sources to seek information deemed useful and accessible, PwD consulted contact tracing apps (CTA) to stay current with the government’s pandemic responses. In this sense, there was a belief that using CTA would protect them from getting the virus. Binh said:

The NCOVI application was the app that helped me the most during the Covid-19 epidemic. Through this app, I could get updates on the epidemic situation in Vietnam and the world, as well as being aware of the government’s announcements and regulations. I would also be able to declare my health status as required by the local authority online. (Binh)

NCOVI, one of the mobile apps the Vietnamese government deployed to tackle the pandemic, was perceived useful for staying informed of the latest pandemic developments and actions the government required of citizens to collectively defeat it. Declaring health status was mandated to trace the virus spread. Failing to declare would be seen as breaching pandemic response plans, which could lead to monetary sanctions. As such, using NCOVI was one way to keep the virus at bay while at the same time avoiding official sanctions. Put differently, the fear of getting infected by the virus and being fined by the government were among some of the reasons for using CTA. PwD wanted to protect themselves and loved ones by avoiding places highly affected by the virus and at the same time from being fined for not complying with the government’s mandatory health declarations through CTA. Information for protection, at least in this circumstance, stemmed from the fear of undesirable outcomes potentially arising from living with the uncertainties the pandemic had animated. Using CTA was deemed a way to mitigate them.

Discussion

The present findings show that PwD, like the greater population, have resorted to digital and social media platforms for tackling the pandemic’s health and social ramifications. Thus, the findings, despite perpetual socio-technical challenges, amplify the usefulness of such platforms in mitigating the barriers PwD have faced since pre-pandemic (Tsatsou, 2021). The ramifications of the pandemic do not discriminate between the abled and disabled bodies but many pandemic responses have put the need of PwD as secondary, indicating the state’s continuously inconsistent implementation of disability rights (United Nations, 2020). In that regard, the findings to some extent imply the resilience mechanism PwD performed when limited resources are scantily allocated to them during the pandemic.

Different domains intersect within the PwD’s information world as the same mobile apps are used for meeting diverse information needs when shelter in place measures were enacted to respond to the spiraling effects of the pandemic. In Vietnam, Facebook, and Zalo were two mobile apps PwD frequently use for navigating the personal, social, and professional interactions the pandemic has disrupted. A range of mobile apps become the bridge that connects the inside and outside worlds as PwD are forced to disconnect from in-person interactions even further. These mobile apps also facilitate PwD to empower themselves and better connect with their community and country during difficult times.

Besides accessibility (Hill, 2013), affordability is another reason for using such apps. However, as their threshold for accessibility and affordability can be low, PwD tend to opt into the same apps for meeting different needs. These preferences seem to be different for users without barriers to accessing and affording the technologies who prefer to have clear boundaries between personal, social, and professional domains due to work life balance and mental health reasons (Shirmohammadi et al., 2022). In that sense, the boundary preference is a product of available options to access and afford the technologies.

Among PwD, those options can be scarce. Persons with visual impairments tend to face more barriers to accessing mobile apps as the assistive technologies they use are unable, for example, to read interfaces displaying pictures and to keep up with the apps’ latest versions. Among other PwD, the suspension of informal sectors where they often work has led them to reallocate their limited resources to meet basic needs as their costs skyrocketed. Thus, using the same apps they considered accessible and affordable for all needs could be the only option available, limiting their capacity to set personal, social, and professional boundaries.

The findings also reflect the importance of approaching disability issues with a social model for planning inclusive pandemic responses that allow PwD to seek information meaningfully and independently about the state’s pandemic responses, personal hygiene, vaccination programs, and high-risk areas. In a country with a wide digital divide like Vietnam, a mixture of traditional information carriers such as TV, posters, and centralized public service announcements and digital and social media platforms such as mobile messaging services and social media pages is deployed to facilitate people from diverse backgrounds and locations to obtain the pandemic-related information. In this understanding, the intersection between legacy and new information carriers solidifies as PwD greatly use different platforms for staying informed about the pandemic. Broadly, given the diversity in the PwD’s lived situations, one-size-fits-all technological approaches to information sharing within the country’s pandemic responses, if imposed loosely, will potentially leave PwD behind.

One pandemic response was the deployment of contact tracing apps (CTAs). The findings imply that PwD have the reason to believe that a CTA has the efficacy for protecting themselves against the virus, in addition to receiving updates on the latest outbreaks and managing unavoidable movements within their vicinity (Goggin, 2020). The mandatory use of CTA, as observed at the early state of the pandemic in Vietnam, has demonstrated the growing role of digital technologies in addressing public health problems. PwD, at least in the context of this study, do not oppose the nationwide CTA deployment (Rohman and Pitaloka, 2023).

That is, however, a phenomenon that often appears in urban areas highly affected by the pandemic. As the findings have shown, mass and traditional media remain relevant to PwD living in villages and remote areas. Such a pocket of society either cannot afford the Internet or the infrastructure enabling access to it may be poor. Thus, the people living in those areas tend to receive limited pandemic related information compared to those living in urban and better internet connection areas. Considering such a divide, CTA use, if strictly enforced, will only widen the gulf between the non-disabled and PwD, the urban and rural, and the haves and have nots. While useful, in an ecosystem where the digital divide remains a lingering issue, the deployment of CTAs potentially pushes those who are already at the periphery of access to new technologies even further away. In that case, the technological deterministic approach policy makers are inclined to deploy as a pandemic response has outweighed the socio-cultural considerations needed to inclusively protect different members of the society.

On a positive note, being physically disconnected during the pandemic has stimulated PwD to stronger connect with themselves as reflected in various self-empowerment activities, with their community as reflected in their attempts to support each other, and with their country as appeared in the attempt to strengthen national solidarity during difficult times. Digital and social media platforms allow these different domains to intersect (Burnett, 2015). At an individual level, being physically disconnected from the world, more so than before the pandemic, has made PwD resort to online interactions and the platforms that can help them feel connected with others and the country. This finding demonstrates that the pandemic has brought the self, community, and country together as PwD perceive that they cannot face the collective challenges arising from the pandemic alone and its residual effects potentially affect themselves, community, and country when the pandemic eventually ends. While being socially and physically disconnected greatly disrupts the ordinary life of PwDs, it also seems to have the potential for strengthening the camaraderie within the disabled community and solidifying their love for country. In such a circumstance, the embeddedness of the lived experience of PwD in the broader social structures and systems that govern their interactions with others and technologies reflects that disabilities are not just medical conditions.

Conclusion

This study has demonstrated characteristics of the information world of PwD living in the Global South. Based on data collected from Vietnam during the pandemic, it found that the personal, social, and professional domains blurred as PwD used the same mobile apps for meeting diverse needs arising from managing lives linked to the three domains simultaneously. During the social and physical disconnection period, PwD become more connected with themselves, community, and country as digital and social media, together with other traditional information carriers, allow them to develop a sense of camaraderie when the nation is facing difficult times. The affordability and accessibility of such information carriers also enable PwD to seek information for protecting themselves against the virus.

However, several factors limit this study. Having relied on the written vignettes, this study only provided a fraction of contexts in understanding the lived experience of PwD, which would likely appear more salient if other methods such as interviews and observations were employed in data collection. In addition, given its focus on PwD, this study does not directly compare the information worlds of PwD and non-disabled users. Further, this study only captured the situations at the times of data collection and writing. Thus, it misses the opportunity to capture the changes occurring within PwD’s information world as the pandemic entered different stages. Data collection was conducted in the first wave of the pandemic, for which, as noted earlier, Vietnam’s early responses were praised. In response to the later Delta variant, the country deployed stricter lockdowns in major cities such as Ho Chi Minh City. The country then lifted the lockdown in early October and expedited the vaccination program throughout 2021–2022. Gradually, the everyday lives disrupted by the pandemic began to return. Within these different stages, the PwD’s information world may change. Some habits and interactions developed during the disconnected period may persist, affecting the subsequent use of digital and social media platforms in a post-pandemic period.

Given that, together with comparing the lived experiences of disabled and non-disabled users and employing multiple data collection methods, future studies may center on the temporal changes within the information world as PwD shift from being socially and physically disconnected to being reconnected after disruptive events such as pandemics and natural disasters end. Investigating the boundaries between these two temporal contexts may help understand the plasticity and fixability of PwD’s information world, together with the nuances that make informational habits and interactions continue, discontinue, and evolve. In particular, giving more attention to other groups who are historically marginalized when navigating the temporal shift potentially helps create an ecosystem for resilience against future pandemics, leading to more inclusive pandemic preparedness, response, and recovery plans.