The use of the Personal Home Page by adults with Down's syndrome as a tool for managing identity and friendship

Abstract

SummaryThere has been considerable debate regarding whether people with a learning disability should be encouraged to develop friendships with disabled or nondisabled people and what influence this might have on their sense of identity. It is also increasingly recognized that the Personal Home Page is a useful tool for making contact with potential friends and for managing identity. This paper explores the extent to which people with Down's syndrome are using Personal Home Pages to make and maintain friendships and, thus, say something about the self‐image they wish to portray. The Personal Home Pages of five Internet Service Providers were sampled and 16 Personal Home Pages of adults with Down's syndrome were found that referred in some way to friendships. A thematic analysis of these pages indicated that the authors could be attempting to present an image of themselves as someone who is capable of having friends. Analysis of the guest‐book messages also revealed that the readers of the Home Pages were responding to these attempts at initiating a relationship. Further work needs to be done to develop the sampling methodology in order to enable further exploration of what influences the publication of these Home Pages.