Why focus on Black disabled women’s digital activism and cultural work?
Black people, particularly women and LGBTQ folks, have long been at the forefront of online digital activism, including so-called “hashtag activism” on Twitter/X, organizing online mutual aid networks, meme creation, and education/advocacy content on YouTube and TikTok Yet their efforts have often been obscured and not recognized for their larger impact on online culture.
In the book Digital Black Feminism, author Catherine Steele places Black women at the center of conceptualizing technology and digital culture and positions Black women online as the center of the future of communication.
“Black women did not get left behind in the tech industry; instead, the tech industry has not treated Black women’s technological expertise as real or valuable.”
With this in mind, the Disabled Black Women Activism Digital Archive Project will focus on documenting the public-facing online work of disabled Black women activists. A big part of this project is to help correct the future record about Black disabled women as a permanent underclass, not worthy of attention before the digital record is potentially lost forever.
This project is intended to be both community-driven and individual-driven. This means that the intention is not to collect solely personal information but to create a repository for the digital public presence of Black disabled women.
Why Collect This Information Now?
Within archival practices (particularly archives focused on social justice movements), there is often an incongruity between the narratives presented by mainstream media coverage of Black communities and the lived experiences these communities share online. For example, archivists collecting media content for #BlackLivesMatter may find that the mainstream media coverage that they collect disproportionately centers the opinions and bias of conservative journalists or police representatives, as opposed to the opinions and experiences of organizers and activists within the movement.
History can only be studied if there is a record — written, in memories, or some other format. Our digital history is fragile and at risk of deletion due to corporate interests. Collecting social media archives is urgent, with so much social justice activism centered online
Who Is Behind This Project?
Keidra Chaney is a writer and independent scholar. She currently works as a Program Director at Disability Culture Lab, a non-profit media organization focused on reframing narratives on disability.
Her interest in creating this archive is drawn directly from her lived experience as a disabled and neurodivergent Black woman navigating misogynoir and ableism in the workplace and in day to day life.
As an independent scholar and researcher, Keidra explores how marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC and disabled people, use technology and social media to mobilize and connect while navigating structural bias, economic barriers, and access needs. These ideas have guided her writing and day-to-day work in the past decade.
CTRL 