This document discusses the emergence of online disability activism in response to UK welfare cuts. It analyzes three types of online actors opposing the cuts: formal organizations, digitized activists, and digital action networks. The research focuses on the digital action network "The Broken of Britain" and its Facebook page. Analysis found the group effectively builds consensus online around personal stories and alternative policy frames. However, questions remain around its long-term sustainability and accountability as a new form of online-only disability activism.

1. Disabled Dissent Goes Online:
The Case of Opposition Groups
to Disability Welfare Cuts in
the UK
Filippo Trevisan
f.trevisan.1@research.gla.ac.uk
www.filippotrevisan.net
05 December 2011

2. Overview:
 2010/11: The birth of online disability activism?
 New media, old problems: Disability/internet research so
far
 Exploring the “far side” of disability/internet: A three-step
research strategy
 Case study: online disability opposition to disability
welfare cuts

4. Theoretical enthusiasm vs. Research
focus
Early theorists of the social model hypothesise a positive relationship
between Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the
emancipation of disabled people:
For Vic Finkelstein (1980), technological development will contribute to a
future world in which “impaired persons will […] no longer be oppressed by
disabling social conventions and disabling environments but will be
absorbed in the mainstream of social interactions” (p. 37).
BUT:
 Research to date: dominance of the access/-ibility frame and the internet
as a new source of exclusion for disabled people (Ellis and Kent, 2011;
Goggin and Newell, 2003 & 2007; Dobranski and Hargittai, 2006; Ellcessor,
2010)

5. Internet usage amongst disabled
people in the UK (1)
(Source: Oxford Internet Surveys, 2011: 18)

6. Internet usage amongst disabled
people in the UK (2):
 According to Office for Disability Issues, in 2008 an estimate
42% of disabled people in the UK could be considered to be
regular internet users (Williams et al., 2008)
 OfCom 2009 Customer Satisfaction report: slight differences in
internet usage amongst people with different impairments
(visual, hearing, mobility).
 According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 54%
of disabled Americans are currently internet users compared to
81% non disabled people (Fox, 2011)
 Key for future research: focus on experience of disabled users

7. The Far Side of Disability/Internet: New
Areas Worth Exploring
 Interpersonal, un-mediated relationships (Anderberg and Jönsson,
2005; Seymour and Lupton, 2004)
 Peer-support and positive effects on self-esteem and personal growth
(Obst and Stafurik, 2010)
 Blogs and discussion boards as “spaces” for alternative, un-filtered
representations of disability (Thoreau, 2006; Goggin and Nooan, 2007)
 Participatory platforms hold positive potential against exclusionary
barriers
 Are such benefits also extending/-able to the domain of politics?
What parts of the online realm should researchers focus on to find
out?

8. What disabled users say:
“I don’t think anybody sees it as a luxury; it is,
literally, a lifeline.”
(Interview with disabled blogger and campaigner, July 2011)

9. A three-step research strategy:
Issue
1
selection
Identification of key online spaces and “players”,
2
categorisation, selection of in-depth case studies
Data collection and in-depth analysis:
3
focus on interactivity

10. Issue Selection: Google Insights
for Search
DLA consultation results released
Government Spending Review
WRB Introduced to the Lords
DLA Consultation Closes
Emergency Budget
Hardest Hit March
DLA Consultation Opens

11. 3 Types of Online Actors:
 Formal Organisations Coalition: The Hardest Hit
(www.thehardesthit.org.uk)
 Digitized Activists: Disabled People Against Cuts
(www.dpac.uk.net)
 Digital Action Networks: The Broken of Britain
(www.thebrokenofbritain.org)

12. What do they use digital media
for?
“War” against the mass
media: de-bunk myths
and stereotypes
Build consensus, Influence
engage disabled policy-making
users, gather and (both contentious &
“broadcast” Institutionalised
their voices political action)

13. 1 - Digital strategy survey: Assessing
interaction potential

14. 2 - Is such potential being realised?
The Broken of Britain’s Facebook wall
 Who is talking?
 Are the organisers actually engaging in dialogue with
“ordinary” users?
 Are they talking politics, policy, both, or neither?
 Is this just talk, or is political action also being promoted and
organised?
 One week of content, 8-14 Sept. 2011 (inclusive), preliminary
observations rather than a representative sample

15. 2 - The Broken of Britain: An online
“hybrid”
 Organisers have “monopoly” of conversation starters (90%) and
almost never participate in comment threads (3.6%)
 Significant number of posts contains “personal stories” (16.2%)
mostly posted directly by disabled users (81.8%) and clustered
around political/policy topics
 Traditional socio-economic citizenship frame supplemented by new
frames: political rights (16.3%); civil/human rights (12.4%); lack of
morality (25.6%).
 Posts mentioning/soliciting action (14% of total) concentrate
overwhelmingly on individual action (50.1%)
 A new type of moderate, self-advocacy player in disability politics: a
“permanent campaign” entirely generated and sustained online.

16. The Broken of Britain in their own
words:
 “Shouting/screaming doesn't work. Explaining the reality of our lives
calmly & rationally does. People don't get to ask about disabled
people's lives. There's real desire to understand out there, but fear to
ask.”
(The Broken of Britain lead campaigner-1 on Twitter, Apr 2011)
 “Factual and balanced evaluation and criticism are key social media
is invaluable in gaining supporters and shouldnt be underestimated.
The digital age has completely changed the nature of activism. If you
don't capitalise on it you get left behind. Older methods like demos
work but to reach a lot of people in a short time you need the web.”
(The Broken of Britain lead campaigner-2 on Twitter, Apr 2011)

17. Points to consider:
a. The role of catalyst issues as promoters of online participation
amongst disenfranchised and excluded groups
b. Disability welfare campaigns do relatively well in terms of interaction
potential
c. The Broken of Britain as digitally enabled addition to the landscape of
British disability activism: new leadership style and new “action”
repertoire
d. However, questions need to be asked re: accountability; legitimacy;
long-term sustainability
 International comparison
 Enhance user-generated content coding scheme (automated frame
detection)
f.trevisan.1@research.gla.ac.uk