ABSTRACT
This chapter delves into the world of disabled podcasters, vloggers, Instagram influencers, and TikTokers. Applying research done about podcasters from the U.S. Black community, this chapter shows that this online audio and video from disabled people is a form of public pedagogy, a concept from Canadian global television scholar Henry Giroux. Giroux explains that democracies are enhanced when citizens use new forms of online media that are not part of the capitalistic media structures that shut out many voices. Even if disabled people do not think of themselves as educating with their online video and audio, audiences are learning about the lived experience of disability through podcasts, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The chapter features an interview with Canadian podcaster Andrew Gurza who is a gay man with cerebral palsy who wants the world to know that disabled people are sexual beings. The chapter features the behind-the-scenes story of the 100-episode Disability Visibility podcast from U.S. disabled activist/writer/media maker Alice Wong, which ran from 2017 to January 2021. Wong’s podcast amplified the many voices of the disability community, and she says the power of disability podcasts is that they can live online forever. Since its beginning, YouTube has provided a way for millions of disabled people to tell their stories and connect with others. Shane Burcaw, who has SMA, and his nondisabled wife, Hannah Aylward Burcaw, say they want their YouTube channel, called Squirmy and Grubs, to help change the media narrative about disability for the better. Across the world from Kenya to Indonesia to Australia, disabled people are sharing videos on a variety of platforms, which empowers them and other disabled people. This chapter also mentions the controversy with the Chinese-owned video platform, TikTok, shadowbanning disabled people who the platform’s executives do not believe are “attractive” enough. With content moderation reminiscent of U.S. “ugly” laws, TikTok hides content from some disabled people from its For You feed.
