ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses several cases that illustrate how, in the 21st century, people with disabilities are developing emergent forms of digital media practices that enable their own self-representation in ways that slowly but surely are expanding our collective sense of personhood and publics. The battles that were fought for ramps, elevators, Braille signage, and visual signals for the hearing impaired, to name a few of the more well-known efforts of disability activists to make public space available to all citizens, are now being extended to the digital media world. The impact of disability in digital media is increasingly evident in the growth of digital photographic and video work and of course 2.0 social media including interactive websites, Facebook groups, virtual worlds, blogging, and YouTube, all of which have dramatically expanded the range of locations for the mediation of disability to a variety of publics.
