Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Sociology

Major Professor

Jamie Sommer, Ph.D.

Co-Major Professor

Sara Green, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Melissa Sloan, Ph.D.

Keywords

Advocacy, Representation, Boundaries, Fatigue, Intersectionality, Neurodivergence, Self-Narrative, Blackness

Abstract

Black disabled people, especially those with invisible disabilities, are often not included or welcomed by all in the disabled community. In addition, Black disabled individuals also face discrimination and exclusion within the Black community due to ableism. This project will be an investigation of Black disabled community and health culture in online spaces, specifically using Twitter hashtags as a starting point. This research project is about helping to write the whole story, an opportunity that my Black ancestors did not have but still demand, for our generation and those who will come after us. For this project, I conducted an inductive textual analysis, narrative analysis, and observation of Twitter. In comparison to previous research, my findings confirm the exclusion of Black disabled people and need for disabled individuals to create self-narratives of their own. The self-narratives of Black people with disabilities on Black Twitter are reflective of their life experiences and personal struggles. These self-narratives are not specific to just one or two people on Twitter, but a large community of people who share common experiences. Spaces like #BlackandDisabled and #ActuallyAutistic have allowed Black disabled people to empower themselves and others. It also gives them space to speak up about racism and exclusion within the disabled community at large and reframe their identity as Black and disabled people who belong, and always have belonged, within the disabled community.

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