Nitel Sosyal Bilimler
Yazarlar: Büşra BÜKE
Konular:Sosyoloji
DOI:10.47105/nsb.907791
Anahtar Kelimeler:Disability,Ableism,Discrimination,Microagression,Twitter
Özet: Much research has been conducted on the discriminatory practices those with disabilities face, including in areas such as education, employment, health, politics, justice, access to information, etc. Some examples of ableism are as follows: educational institutions not providing the necessary tools and technologies or failing to make necessary reasonable accommodations, workplaces’ inadequate physical and technical provision and adjustment; employment in positions below with their capability or those without promotion opportunities; lack of access to vocational training opportunities; lack of accessibility to social security and health services; physical and communication deficiencies of public institutions and organizations such as police stations and courthouses in the field of justice; not making the physical environment accessible for their inclusion in society; lack of accessible communication systems, public announcements, websites and applications, etc. Tweets posted by disabled people, as well as the comments and responses further reinforce that discrimination is a reality many regularly face. While discriminatory practices against disabled people may be obvious, micro-attacks against persons with disabilities are implicit and are mostly unnoticed. Micro-aggression, which is considered another dimension of discrimination, impacts the implicit and interpersonal communicative dimensions. Micro-aggression is a statement, action, or incident including an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities. Derald Wing Sue defines micro-attackers as "short, daily exchanges that send derogatory messages to certain individuals because of their group membership." Commenters may not be aware of the potential impact of their words and even people with disabilities themselves may not notice the micro-attacks directed against them. For this reason, the questions of what discriminatory and micro-aggressive practices people with disabilities face and how they convey their experiences will be addressed within this paper. To answer the research questions the literature on discrimination and micro-aggression was briefly discussed, before turning to the digital media platform of Twitter, where people with disabilities express the discriminatory practices and examples of microaggression against them and make their voices heard. The hashtags #engellenmekistemiyoruz ("We do not want to be stopped") and #sağlamcılardışarı ("Ableists, out!"), which were started on Twitter, were then subjected to qualitative content analysis, coding, categorization, and thematic analysis. The denial of identity, secondary status/position, and exoticization themes were arrived at, and the classification and interpretation processes were conducted by including the narratives of disabled users on Twitter. This paper covers the experiences and tweets of disabled people within these themes and shows that they are not only exposed to discrimination in the public sphere, but also implicit discrimination (or micro-aggression) in their daily encounters and contacts. People with disabilities who are subjected to micro-aggressive behaviors and discrimination are deprived of full participation in society. We need to pay more attention to micro-aggression as a form of discrimination and listen to the voices of people with disabilities and implement rights-based practices for full and equal participation in all areas.