Internet applications and beliefs of state agency personnel - Internet Use

Journal of Rehabilitation,  April-June, 2002  by Jeanne Boland Patterson

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Access to and use of the Internet continues to expand. Cole et al., (2000) indicated that the number of Americans using the Internet increased from 19 million people in 1997 to more than 100 million in 1999. "In the first quarter of 2000, more than five million Americans joined the online world - roughly 55,000 new users each day, 2,2889 new users each hour, or 39 new users each minute" (p. 4). Deputy Secretary of Commerce Mallett (2000) stated, "We live in a world in which every one hundred days, the number of people logging onto the Internet for the first time doubles. We've never had an invention take over quite this fast. It took radio 38 years before 50 million people tuned in. It took TV 13 years. It took the Internet only four" (p. 3).

With this kind of growth, numerous applications of the Interact have been proposed for human services, e.g., psychology (Barak, 1999), career counseling (Harris-Bowlsbey, Dikel, & Sampson, 1998), and rehabilitation counseling (Patterson, 1999, 2000). The interest and importance of the Internet to the field of rehabilitation are evidenced by its selection as one of the topics for the 2000 Institute on Rehabilitation Issues (Dew, McGuire-Kuletz, & Alan, 2000).

Although the number of articles regarding Internet applications in the field of rehabilitation is increasing (e.g., Bitter, 2000; Gilbride, Breithaupt, & Hoehle, 1996; Gilbride & Stensrud, 1999; Hampton & Houser, 2000; Patterson, 2000; Riemer-Reiss, 2000), the articles are primarily theoretical and only anecdotal use was reported by Patterson, Knauss, Lawton, Raybound and Oehlers (2000). Therefore, the purpose of this preliminary study was to identify similarities and differences among state directors, district directors, and rehabilitation counselors employed in the state-federal Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Program related to their (a) access to the Internet, (b) beliefs about the Internet and the agency's Intranet system, and (c) perceptions of the ways in which rehabilitation counselors use the Internet.

Method

Instrumentation

The Internet Survey, based on the theoretical article by Patterson (2000) that described Internet applications in rehabilitation, was constructed to gather data on personal access to the Internet, beliefs about the Internet and Intranet, and Internet applications that are used by counselors (e.g., looking up medical terms, identifying state and local resources). The survey was pilot tested with 18 employed rehabilitation counselors who were enrolled in a graduate course in Rehabilitation Counseling. After completing the survey, the pilot test group was asked to provide information regarding the clarity of the items and any general comments. Based on their feedback, minor revisions were made in the wording of the items.

The final version of the Internet Survey consisted of fill-in-the blank items to procure demographic information on state, age, gender, years in the VR system, and years in current position. Individuals were asked to respond using a yes/no format for items related to personal access, agree/disagree for Internet and Intranet beliefs, and yes/no for Internet applications.

Three parallel versions of the survey instrument were developed: Counselor Questionnaire, District Director Questionnaire, and State Director Questionnaire. District directors and state directors were asked to respond based on their own access and beliefs, but to indicate how they perceived counselors using the Internet in the "Applications" section. Counselors were asked to indicate how they were actually using the Internet.

Participants and Procedures

The Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation (CSAVR) reviewed and approved the survey for distribution to all state rehabilitation agencies in the United States. A cover letter, copy of each of the questionnaires, and disk containing each of the questionnaires was sent to the 76 directors of state VR agencies in the United States (both general agencies [n = 51] and agencies serving individuals who are blind [n = 25]). The cover letter indicated that state directors could (a) disseminate the questionnaires on the agency's Intranet system, (b) copy the questionnaires for dissemination, or (c) request print copies for dissemination by the agency. Individuals were given the option of returning the surveys via e-mail, fax, or U.S. Postal Service. Individuals from 34 states, which included representation from all Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) regions, participated in the study.

Results

Respondents included 1034 rehabilitation counselors, 233 district directors, and 27 directors of state VR agencies from 34 states. The total number of responses from a state ranged from 1 to 246. As noted in the demographic profile of respondents (see Table 1), a majority of the counselors were women (59.3%) who had been counselors for 10 years. Given the changing demographics of the state VR program (Emener, Tannenbaum, & Cady, 1990), it is not surprising that age was significantly correlated with gender for each of the three groups, with more older males and more younger females responding to the survey (see Table 1).