ABSTRACT
Introduction In this chapter, we describe the emergence of a social movement for justice in an area little engaged with in social media; learning disability. This movement, in which we both played key roles, began in response to the preventable death in 2013 of a young man, Connor Sparrowhawk (also known as LB or Laughing Boy), in a National Health Service (NHS) assessment and treatment unit. Typically his death would not be widely known as learning disabled people are marginalised within the UK and fail to generate much coverage in mainstream media. However, LB’s mother (SR) had been writing a blog, My Daft Life , about family life since 2011 and this created an unusual space in which a diverse range of people knew of LB before he died. Mobilising a social movement around ‘learning disability’ has offered both challenges and fascinating insights into the logistics of online campaigning, the ways in which people choose to become involved (or not) and the processes of engagement, disengagement and social networking. Here we highlight and refl ect on how social media ensured that learning disabled people were central to and active participants in a campaign that increased recognition of the humanity of a quirky young man who loved buses. It also demonstrated a mobilisation potential we did not foresee and which contradicts pervasive views about learning disability within the UK. The broad engagement and ongoing support given suggests that learning disabled people do matter to (many) people.
