Evaluating Digitalization of Social Services from the Viewpoint of the Citizen

Abstract

<p>Finland is known as a welfare state, which has small income gap and good ICT infrastructure. In recent decades, Finnish society has aimed to transfer public administration through digital services. They are nowadays available for different purposes including the social services such as unemployment benefits or housing allowance. However, digitalization have not yet expanded to all types of social services and one area of development is the services for people with disabilities. People with disabilities cannot be seen homogenous group of citizens; instead it includes people in different ages, and having different diagnoses. This study focuses only on one age group, the children, and on one type of diagnosis, the autism spectrum. While the children are the prime beneficiaries of the social services, their parents (or other care givers) are the ones responsible for applying and transferring these services to them. Hence, the unit of analysis in this study is the parents of children on the autism spectrum. Interviews with them represent the citizens’ viewpoint through which the digitalization of social services is evaluated.</p>