Friends - Social media for people with disabilities or neuropsychiatric disabilities, 2012

People with disabilities or neuropsychiatric disabilities often have different and narrower interests than the average population. Such interests can be cultivated on the web. It is well known that relatives and support personnel are often hesitant to let people with disabilities or neuropsychiatric disabilities use the internet and to engage in social media. In many cases it does not seem as carers and support personnel have thought of the joy and benefit these groups might have to use such media to a greater extent, regardless of computer competence and IT comeptence. In these groups, it is often difficult to make social contact face to face. Social digital media can be of vital importance to these individuals opportunity to make new contacts. Presumably the friendships via social media could lead to contact in other ways (such as email, SMS, phone and possibly meetings). It is also a democratic right to be included and to participate. Another aspect is that it can be difficult to meet others with the same special interest for a person who has a particular narrow interest. There is perhaps only one other person in the country who are as deeply interested in one particular airline personnel. Then social media is a fantastic tool for associating with peers, regardless of where you live. With the FRIENDS project we want to help people with disabilities or neuropsychiatric disabilities to get more friends who they can communicate with via social media and, hopefully, by extension, also in real life. We will identify opportunities for the use of social media for individuals with cognitive challenges, particularly with regard to security, privacy and accessibility. We want to create, run, and test a small, sheltered online community: FRIENDS. We will investigate and document how such social networking sites can be managed and handled editorial for it to actually being sheltered and safe. For further information about "Friends - Social media for people with disabilities or neuropsychiatric disabilities, 2012", please contact the principal investigator.残障人士或神经精神障碍（neuropsychiatric disabilities）群体的兴趣往往与普通人群存在差异，且兴趣范围更为狭窄。这类兴趣可通过网络加以培育。众所周知，家属及支持人员通常不愿让残障人士或神经精神障碍群体使用互联网及社交媒体。多数情况下，照料者与支持人员似乎并未考虑到，无论这类群体的计算机能力与IT技能水平如何，使用这类媒体可为其带来的愉悦与益处。此类群体往往难以开展面对面的社交互动。社交数字媒体对这些群体拓展社交联系的机会而言，可能至关重要。据推测，通过社交媒体建立的友谊，可衍生出其他形式的联系（如电子邮件、短信、电话，甚至线下会面）。获得包容与参与亦是一项民主权利。另一层面的问题在于，对于兴趣范围较为狭窄的个体而言，寻觅拥有相同特定兴趣的他人往往颇具难度。例如，该国或许仅有一人对某一特定航空工作人员抱有如此浓厚的兴趣，此时社交媒体便成为与同好建立联结的绝佳工具，无论其身处何地。 借助FRIENDS项目，我们旨在帮助残障人士或神经精神障碍群体结识更多可通过社交媒体进行交流的朋友，并有望进一步拓展至线下现实生活中。我们将识别认知障碍群体使用社交媒体的可行场景，尤其聚焦于安全性、隐私性与可访问性层面。我们计划创建、运营并测试一个小型受庇护在线社区：FRIENDS。我们将研究并记录此类社交网络平台应如何进行管理与编辑审核，以确保其真正具备保护性与安全性。 如需了解更多关于“Friends - Social media for people with disabilities or neuropsychiatric disabilities, 2012”的信息，请联系项目首席研究员。