Digital Competence of university students with disabilities and factors that determine it. A descriptive, inferential and multivariate study

Taking into account that 15% of the world population suffers from some type of disability, few investigations have been concerned with knowing the level of Digital Competence that students with functional diversity have. This research is based on an initial sample of 17,301 newly enrolled university students from the Andrés Bello University (Chile), of which 650 are selected for having some type of disability. Its main objective is to know the level of self-perception in the Digital Competence of university students with disabilities and the variables that explain it. To do this, an evaluation instrument consisting of 6 dimensions (technological literacy, information search and processing, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, communication and collaboration, digital citizenship, and communication and collaboration) is designed and applied. To calculate the validity of the instrument, the partial least squares (PLS) method is applied through structural equation modeling. Next, data is provided regarding the level of Digital Competence of the students and if there are differences between the types of disability. Finally, the data is subjected to a logistic regression to estimate the relationship between the dependent variable (Digital Competence) and a set of independent variables (sociodemographic variables). The results reveal that the instrument used shows high levels of reliability, which guarantees its use in students with disabilities. Likewise, the average level of Digital Competence is medium low. The factors that affect this variable are discussed and the necessary structuring of digital literacy plans is highlighted. Finally, this paper discusses new techniques for diagnosing students' digital skills.