Paper Short Abstract:

The contribution explores visually impaired creators' content on social media, emphasizing narratives from daily life to advocacy. The interplay between agency and reproduction of ableist cultures offers insights into redefining impairment within digital sensory spaces, reshaping social relations.

Paper Abstract:

This contribution aims to provide an analysis of content generated by visually-impaired or blind creators across social media platforms and live-streaming services (Instagr, TikTok, Twitch). The primary focus will be on creators from Italy and Portugal. The content spans a wide spectrum, ranging from narratives about daily life to advocacy addressing issues inclusiveness, as well as business collaborations.

These narratives may take the form of digital pathographies, or they can extend well beyond the visual impairment aspect. The use of visually-centric and aesthetics-driven social media platforms by individuals, predominantly adolescents/young adults, with visual impairments prompts contemplation on sensory ableism both within and beyond the digital realm. These spaces emerge as arenas for storytelling and agency.

By expanding the concept of agency to encompass its material and ecological dimensions, including the online space, the social media infrastructure, and the mechanisms for online community building, we observe a redefinition of social relationships and a reframing of visual impairment. The dynamic interplay between agency and the ableist social structure provides insights into the processes of (un)doing disability and impaired subjectivities. Through the reproduction, maintenance, or subversion of discourses surrounding bodies, sensory experiences, and disabled subjectivities, presented by diverse creators, we delve into nuanced aspects such as language, the performativity of the body and sensorialities, care relationships, and the politics of emotions. This exploration underscores the potential of digital sensory spaces as possibility of exceeding the constraints of the everyday conditions of impairment, as well as a reproduction of the impairing cultures and structures.