ABSTRACT
Online technologies have revolutionized communication across the globe and provided a space for personal, controversial and important discussions to take place. This chapter explores such discussions, using the online bulletin board, Reddit as the chosen site of analysis. While the internet has provided a safe and open space for conversations and communities to emerge, it equally presents the opportunity for harmful attitudes about disability to be widely distributed. This chapter considers some of these conversations, particularly in relation to welfare expenditure, genetic screening and euthanasia. It is argued that online forums such as Reddit enable these difficult and complex topics to be debated freely, and with little sensitivity. As a result, disabled people have been used as sites of disposal, taking on the anxieties, fears and frustrations of non-disabled people in a time of financial instability. Importantly, then, these findings highlight the growing normalization of disabling rhetoric, and the role of online media platforms in allowing these conversations to grow.
