Understanding the Meaning of Digital Health Access Among People with Physical and Sensory Disabilities: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

Mobile health (mHealth) applications have become a vital component of modern healthcare delivery, yet their design and implementation often fail to consider the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities. Within this context, the subjective challenges faced by users with physical or sensory impairments remain underexplored, particularly in relation to autonomy and digital inclusion. Although previous studies have addressed technical barriers, little is known about how these users emotionally experience and interpret exclusion from digital health platforms. This study asks: How do individuals with physical or sensory disabilities experience mobile health applications in their everyday lives? Using a descriptive phenomenological approach, this research explores the essence of digital exclusion as it is lived and felt by users themselves. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants (five with physical disabilities and four with sensory disabilities), aged between 24 and 61 years, representing diverse gender identities and technology usage backgrounds. The data were analyzed through thematic reduction to reveal core experiential themes. The findings demonstrate that users encounter not only functional barriers but also emotional burdens such as frustration, dependence, and a diminished sense of self-worth. Despite these challenges, participants expressed hope for more inclusive digital futures, revealing a complex interplay between exclusion and resilience. These results offer a deep, person-centered understanding of the phenomenon and highlight dimensions that previous usability-focused studies have overlooked. This study contributes to the field of medical informatics by emphasizing the importance of integrating lived experience into the design of mHealth technologies and encourages further research grounded in phenomenological methods.