1st Edition

The Routledge International Handbook of Disability Studies and the New Digital Society

Edited By Kristofer Hansson Copyright 2026
652 Pages 31 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

  The Routledge International Handbook of Disability Studies and the New Digital Society  offers important new perspectives on the digitization of society in relation to disability. Featuring the work of leading researchers from around the world, the book explores digitization and disability in a wide range of contexts, including schools, healthcare settings, public transport and working life,... Read more

Lists of figures

List of tables

List of contributors

 

Introduction - Disability and the New Digital Society: Rethinking Digital Transformation and Accessibility

 

Part 1: Reframing Disability in a Digital Society

 

Chapter 1 - Persons with Intellectual Disabilities in the Digital Society: Towards more human-oriented digital advancements 

Anne-Marie Callus

 

Chapter 2 - Digital ability expectations: Reframing inequalities and (in)visibilities in the new digital society

Tuukka Lehtiniemi, Vassilis Charitsis and Karoliina Talvitie-Lamberg

 

Chapter 3 - The Disempowering Algorithm: Forced Digital and the Marginalisation of Women from the Global South

Anupama Roy

 

Chapter 4 - AI and the normative undergrowth: Disability, Normalcy, and the Politics of Technological Solutionism

Frans af Malmborg

 

Chapter 5 - Digital technology and the recognition of the human condition – an ethical reflection concerning eID in Norway

Patrick Stefan Kermit

 

Chapter 6 - Online Disability Activism: Challenges to solidarity among and with disabled South Africans

Lorenzo Dalvit and Bimbo L. Fafowora

 

Part 2: Everyday life with digitalization

 

Chapter 7 - Public transport is important but challenging for people with visual disabilities: digital systems should be tested and assessed by real users

Lena Levin

 

Chapter 8 - Sociotechnical Constellations: Navigating Digital Inclusion in Everyday Life

Anna Hanane Ajlani

 

Chapter 9 - The right to read in everyday life: Exploring legal, technical, and social dimensions of accessibility and digital reading practices

Lisa Olsson Dahlquist and Anna Lundh

 

Chapter 10 - Technocapitalist Inclusionism: Disability and New Digital Societies in Asia

Wenqi Tan, Tay Sze Hwee Jace, and Kuansong Victor Zhuang

 

Chapter 11 - Connected but Constrained?: Entrepreneurs with Disabilities in the Digital Era

Carmen Svastics, Sara Csillag and Zsuzsanna Győri

 

Chapter 12 - Complex Dynamics Beyond Medical Management: Chronic Respiratory Disease, Disability, and Digitalisation in the New Digital Society

Fredrik Nyman

 

Part 3: Social media and computer games

 

Chapter 13 - From Access to Participation: Learning Disability, Social Media, and the New Digital Society

Amy Redhead

 

Chapter 14 - "It's Us Who Produce All This": Collective Media Production and Everyday Advocacy Among Youth with Disabilities

Stine Liv Johansen

 

Chapter 15 - ‘(T)hen I don’t need to fit into any mould’: Role of social media in disabled young people’s activism and its implications for the disability movement in Finland

Reetta Mietola and Pekka Koskinen

 

Chapter 16 - ADHD TikTok as Caring Existential Media: Neurodivergent Discourses, Meaning-Making and Webs of Care on Social Media  

Deanna Holroyd and Amanda Lagerkvist

 

Chapter 17 - Psychological Motivations for Playing Video Games among People with Disabilities: An Exploratory and Entertainment-Centred Approach

Carla Sousa, Mustafa Can Gursesli and Juho Hamari

 

Chapter 18 - Breaking Free: Gaming, Disability, and the Disruption of Social Stigma

Christian Wendelborg and Beate W. Hygen

 

Part 4: Digitalization of welfare and social service

 

Chapter 19 - Disability and Digital Citizenship: Navigating Public Digital Services through Everyday Practices

Anne Marie Dahler and Marianne Staal Stougaard

 

Chapter 20 - Bureaucratic abusive discrimination: Organisational and legal barriers to digital participation for adults with intellectual disabilities

Kristina Engwall and Richard Gäddman Johansson

 

Chapter 21 - ‘The Wi-fi here is really f*ckin’ slow…’ – exploring digital devices as a place-making dimension of orientation at a summer camp for disabled children and young adults in Sweden

Daniel Gustafsson

 

Chapter 22 - Assistive technologies for aging in place with disability: Insights and implications towards a renewed inclusive and community welfare system

Mabel Giraldo

 

Chapter 23 - If those who need it the most are the ones who will use it the least, then transformation to eHealth will fail: Reflections on the effects of digitalisation of healthcare and social services for disabled people

Stefan Johansson and Catharina Gustavsson

 

Part 5: Digitalization, overprotection and risks

 

Chapter 24 - Navigating Desire: Disability, Sexuality, and the Risks of Online Spaces

Alan Santinele Martino, Jiaqiu Cai, Winsome Chow, Sophia LaPointe, Sharmaine Rosal, Kaitlyn Scott-Brown and Feihao Wang

 

Chapter 25 - Between risk and recognition: Neurodivergent youth, sexting, and sexual exploration online

Fanny Gyberg and Jonas Burén

 

Chapter 26 - Protection with(out) participation: Reframing child protection and welfare in the digital lives of children with disabilities

Rose Doolan Maher, Susan Flynn and Julie Byrne

 

Chapter 27 - Navigating Digitalisation in Intellectual Disability Services: Risk, Support, and Organisational Accountability

Camilla Eriksson

 

Chapter 28 - Navigating online risks: Teacher-centred approaches to inclusive digital practices for students with intellectual disabilities

Esther Chiner and Marcos Gómez-Puerta

 

Part 6: Universal Design and Co-creating for better digital solutions

 

Chapter 29 - Universal Design for the Digital Age: Integrating Disability Experience through Co-Creation

Emil Erdtman

 

Chapter 30 - Inclusive research on social media and the Internet: working with an Advisory Group of young adults with intellectual disabilities in Spain

Isabel Macho-de-Cos, Ignacio Haya-Salmón and Susana Rojas-Pernia

 

Chapter 31 - Co-producing Accessible Mobility: Accessibility, Co-production, Digital Transport, Public Transport and Disability

Jamie Bolling

 

Chapter 32 - Development of game-based technology to enhance hearing services for children in underserved populations: How technology may reduce exclusion in school

Tone Øderud, Tron V Tronstad, Gugsa N Germossa, Cosmas B Mnyanyi, Vinay Swarnalatha and Arne H Eide

 

Chapter 33 - Partnership-Based Co-Creation of a Digital Application with Children, Parents, and Professionals: The DigiMetku Application to Foster Children’s Rehabilitation in Everyday Life

Salla Sipari, Nea Vänskä, Anu Kinnunen, Krista Lehtonen and Ira Jeglinsky-Kankainen

 

Index

Biography

Kristofer Hansson is a lecturer at the Department of Social Work, Malmö University and holds an Associate Professorship in Ethnology. His research focuses on children and young people living with long-term sickness and disability. Hansson is also associated with Malmö University’s Sustainable Digitalization Research Centre (SDRC) and K2, the National Knowledge Centre for Collective Mobility. He is the editor of Accessibility Denied. Understanding Inaccessibility and Everyday Resistance to Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities (Routledge, 2021).

"This book explores digitalization as a site of ambivalence and tension, examining the phenomenon through a critical disability perspective. Its nuanced and thoughtful approach makes a valuable contribution to the existing literature. I warmly recommend this book for the way it deepens our understanding of contemporary society."

Hisayo Katsui, Professor of Disability Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland

"An incredibly valuable, impressively straightforward and balanced handbook, offering insight and commitment to a wide range of issues at the intersection of disability and the new digital society. Bringing together critical scholarship and rich empirical perspectives, it illuminates both the opportunities and inequalities of digital transformation. An essential resource for researchers, practitioners, policymakers and students concerned with accessibility, active digital citizenship and inclusive futures."

Martin Molin, Professor of Social Work, University West, Sweden

"Through the lens of disability studies, this fascinating Handbook draws attention to the uneven benefits of digital technologies. While acknowledging that digital technologies can open up opportunities for participation it warns about digital exclusion and argues for inclusive and sustainable digital futures. This Handbook has urgent messages for those interested in the intersection of disability and digitalisation. A must read."

Rannveig Traustadóttir, Professor Emerita, Centre for Disability Studies, University of Iceland

"This Handbook brings together a rich and wide-ranging collection of international scholarship, offering theorising and insight into the emerging digital society. It represents a resource for those in disability studies, technology design, or the social sciences. Grounded in rights-based and disability studies perspectives, this interdisciplinary volume illuminates factors shaping inclusivity within our rapidly evolving digital world."

Darren Chadwick, Professor of Applied Social & Community Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, UK