ABSTRACT
Background Social media has become a vital element of how we communicate with each other. It has, in a short space of time, risen from the obscurity of dialup bulletin board discussion pages to platforms like Facebook where 936 million people log on every day (Internet World Statistics, 2015). These networks are increasingly integrated into our everyday lives through the proliferation of smartphones and the integration of social media apps that now form the backbone of many of these platforms. However, while social media is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives, its impact on people with disabilities has gone largely unscrutinised. Are people with disabilities using social media in the same way as the majority of the population? Are they able to, or are they excluded from social media spaces in the same ways they are excluded from much of public life and participation? Importantly, how are people with disabilities in different parts of the world engaging with social media? Furthermore, how can an investigation of disability and social media advance interdisciplinary disability studies?
