Pew survey shows 1 in 5 US adults don’t use Internet

Americans with disabilities, a group comprising 27 percent of adults in the United States, are also significantly less likely to go online — with 2 percent of them having a disability that precludes using the Internet at all.

{mosads}Mobile technology, however, is becoming increasingly important in allowing all Americans access to the Internet — 88 percent of Americans own a mobile phone and 57 percent a laptop. E-book readers like Amazon’s Kindle and tablets like Apple’s iPad reach 19 percent of the population each.

The proliferation of mobile access is “changing the story” of the digital divide, the survey said. More and more Americans who previously had no way to go online now do so using smartphones and other wireless devices. Young adults of color, without a college education and with lower incomes, all say their smartphone is the main source of Internet access.