ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how young disabled people are exposed to digital differentiation, how such differentiation involves more than technological access alone and how differentiation affects possibilities for inclusion in the peer group. It describes how such differentiations emerge through technological shortcomings and social anticipations, especially anticipations and stereotypes of disability and of assistive information and communication technologies (ICT). The chapter draws on data previously publicised in the journal Future Internet. It expands on technology's significance to young people's negotiations of impairment and to common perceptions of disability. The potential effect of ICT on young people's lives has to be studied in its social envelope, which includes the sets of expectations, contexts and social practices that surround it. For many young disabled persons, gaining social access to interactions is associated with difficulties, confusion and exertion, even when physical access to technology is secured.
