To be entirely transparent, my experience with disability and my own social media is quite underdeveloped. One of my first memories of a disabled creator is Molly Burke, a YouTuber who shares her experience with blindness. Molly's content centers around her disability as she often posts videos showing how she does certain tasks as a blind individual or tries new things that might be more difficult for someone with impaired vision. I have not watched her videos in a few years, but I recall finding them educational and entertaining because of who Molly is as a person--not because of her disability.
According to American Community Survey (ACS), Molly would be considered disabled in the "communicative domain" because she "Was blind or had difficulty seeing" (Kidd 108). As I understand it, "disability" is a very subjective, interpretive word. There is no straight-definition for disability and disabilities themselves present in a multitude of ways. For instance, the image of a woman standing from her wheelchair in a liquor store in Kidd's "Disabling a Meme" presents the epitome of disability discourse; some individuals do not understand the complexity of disability and the fact that individuals experience it differently.
This is where my own social media comes into relation with disability. Under the ACS definition presented in Kidd, I would be considered disabled because I am visually impaired and wear corrective lenses to have clearer vision. That said, I would like to preface that I do not personally identify as disabled because of my vision. A quick glance at my social media (Instagram in particular) would not show that I am visually impaired. I guess I preferred how I look without them despite wearing them 24/7 in reality. My Instagram has started to show my glasses more in the past few months, even going so far as to wear them in my profile picture. This is my only personal projection of disability on social media.
There are so many resources to learn how to be accessible and platforms are growing to include more accessible options for users. Tik Tok in particular appears to be doing a good job of promoting accessibility by auto-generating captions on user videos. Hashtags, such as #Disability or #DisabledTikToker, often trend and promote disabled users' accounts, thus normalizing disability for users who might not be familiar disability.
In regard to my other social media, I have lots of improvement to make it more accessible. One of the easiest ways to make my social media more accessible is with closed captioning: "They...enhance the viewing experience for people watching in their non-native language, or viewers in sound-off environments. Captions even benefit children learning to read" (Sehl). I tend not to post videos on Instagram, though will occasionally post a photo on my story that includes a song. Adding CC would make my post more accessible so users with hearing impairments can know which portion of the song is playing.
Another way I can make my accounts more accessible would be to add Alt Text, which is described as "comprehensively describing the image for people using screen readers..." (Belmonte). I feel that Alt Text is the easiest way to be accessible and, at the risk of being hypocritical, the fact that more individuals do not take advantage of it is baffling.
References:
Kidd, Dustin. (2017). Social Media Toolbox. Social Media Freaks: Digital Identity in the Network Society (pp. 193-218). Westview Press.