Disability and Ordinariness: The Struggle of People with Disability to Define Meanings of Disability in YouTube

Abstract

        The research delved into how narratives about the everyday life experiences of individuals with disabilities in online media shape perceptions of disability. The study aimed to understand these stories’ impact on perceptions of individuals with disabilities. It involved textual analysis of YouTube video clips from 25 foreign and 23 Thai individuals with disabilities.

        This concept encompasses Michel de Certeau’s “practice of everyday life,” seeing everyday life as a battleground where ordinary people challenge society. It covers disability studies, cultural representations, and societal discourse on disability. It also examines how media narratives shape perceptions of disability and how individuals with disabilities communicate to challenge these notions. Moreover, it explores new social movement narratives focusing on the struggles of individuals with disabilities and the role of online platforms like YouTube in shaping societal views. Ultimately, it emphasizes that "reality" is constructed through societal meanings.

        The study found that narrating the everyday life of people with disabilities in online media creates a sense of “ordinariness” through communication channels such as leisure activities, routines, and relationship-related activities. This includes relationships with mother, father, romantic partners, and portraying a perspective that eliminates the conditions of disability. This portrayal includes women, romantic couples, self-defined individuals with disabilities, those self-sufficient, capable individuals, and those who share happiness. Moreover, the communication method emphasizes highlighting the value in human life, encompassing physical freedom, diversity, experiential learning, overcoming obstacles, and happiness. Communication emphasizes individuals with disabilities as the main storytellers, showing their relationships with others and aligning with the content found in online social interactions. Furthermore, the communication method emphasizes that disability is not a condition that is rigidly defined, nor an abnormality, a hindrance to abilities or success, a lack of physical freedom, a beauty standard, a restriction on reproductive rights and child-rearing for women, or a deprivation of happiness in life. The visual and auditory communication aspect involves straightforward, easily understandable. This approach effectively communicates the ordinary aspects of everyday life, delivering a clear and direct message.

        The interesting finding from the research is that narrating the everyday lives of individuals with disabilities online constitutes a form of advocacy for the significance of disability. Through communication on platforms like YouTube, they actively take on the role of communicators, emphasizing the importance of advocating for meaning and normalcy regarding disabilities. This involves fostering an awareness of perceived equality in the meaning-oriented realm of media by portraying the commonplace aspects of the everyday lives of people with disabilities. Communicating the value of disability, which redefines the worth of disability distinct from terms like negative, deficiency, obstacle, or abnormality, transforms it into something considered ordinary and normal for humanity. This communication strategy serves to elevate the human worth that is universally shared and desired by everyone.