social media & disability activism - university of sydney, march 2, 2015
TRANSCRIPT
From popular culture to social networking:Disability media advocacy comes of age
Guest Presenter: Beth Haller, Ph.D., Department of Mass
Communication and Communication Studies, Towson University, [email protected]
Social media benefits for people with certain impairments
Deaf actress Marlee Matlin: “In Twitter there were no barriers.”
Blind Film Critic Tommy Edison
Social media activism generally
• Using social media to coordinate group gatherings• Assembling organized numbers of people• Using social media to warn like-minded people about
those who are against the group’s activist stance• Real time updates allows a group to adjust to any
actions against it• Getting messages to people not directly involved but
still interested in the activism• Enlist support and/or coverage from the news media
and others around the world
Activists harness social media because that’s where people get their news
Pros & cons of social media news
Why Facebook matters to people with disability
Why New Mobility readers are using Facebook
National ADAPT leverages Twitter
ADAPT Twitter feed posts
• Pictures from ADAPT protestors and others• Information about those arrested.• Links to any media coverage of protests.• Information so someone who wanted to participate
but couldn’t be in DC could follow along.• People not in DC could even become active by
calling the federal legislator in charge of the budget proposing the cuts via the phone # ADAPT tweeted.
Tweets build a cross-disability community
A May 3, 2011 tweet said: “Remember that ADAPT fights for all disabilities: physical, dd, psychiatric, blind, deaf, autism, MCS, everyone. That is why we are here.”
ADAPT protest video makes it onto CNN web page as iReport
ADAPT Minnesota continues the message
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) YouTube channel
Its YouTube channel has:• Training videos, such as information helping
parents understand the special education process and how to advocate for their disabled child
• Disability rights history: “The Power of 504,” a short documentary video about the 1977 civil rights demonstration by people with disabilities that resulted in the first Federal Civil Rights Law protecting people with disabilities.
Social media use during natural disasters: Nick & Alejandra
Alejandra’s Facebook post about their situation
Little Free Radical blog
Blog article that told Nick’s story
Nick’s thank you on Facebook
Boston’s 90.9 WBUR Tumblr about Nick
NPR Talk of the Nation story about Sandy’s impact on people with disabilities
Science show NOVA focuses on the people affected by Sandy
Inaccessible shelters in NYC(Photos from 2011 from Hurricane Irene but nothing had changed for Hurricane Sandy.)
NY disability activist Mike Volkman says:
“What we are doing now with Facebook really shows the true potential of what the Internet can do to transform our society. We are seeing changes that rival historically the invention of the printing press.”
Pop culture and activism
• Comedian Josh Blue• Autism consultant Alex Plank• Promotion of American Sign Language and
Deaf culture on Switched at Birth• Teal Sherer’s My Gimpy Life
Comedian Josh Blue: “I can say things that other people might not be able to get away
with because of having a disability.”
Alex Plank founded autism social media site Wrong Planet in 2004
Alex Plank became the autism consultant on FX’s The Bridge in 2012
Alex Plank Twitter page
ABC Family’s Switched at Birth embraces ASL & Deaf culture
ASL lessons from Switched at Birth
Teal Sherer’s web series, ‘My Gimpy Life’
Pop culture adds visibility
Journalists who cover disability
From byline to tweet
I tweeted this to the journalist who wrote the story on the previous slide. It was information from a Melbourne activist who found the National Disability Summit was only allowing 12 people with disability attend for the discounted rate - $55 versus $1,500.