How Can I Make More Disabled Friends?

Oct 01, 2019

Anonymous asks, quote:
Hey! I’m disabled myself and lonely because I have no disabled friends that I can meet in person. Everyone I know who’s disabled I know online, and it’s frustrating. I was wondering if you had any tips with getting involved with the disabled community? Whether it’s hanging out/meetup scenarios, activism, cripple punk etc. I’m interested in both in‐person and online solutions, but I prefer in‐person.
end quote.

I understand how you feel. Finding other disabled folks to talk to (online or otherwise) can be difficult and frustrating. For finding folks you can meet in person, I recommend either joining or creating a Meetup.

While meeting in person is great, online meetups can be just as beneficial. The key is to use technology to enhance what can otherwise be a “cold” social interaction. For example, when talking with your online friends, use video chat. This lets people see facial expressions and body language as well as interact in real time. I would also set up a slack group that people can join. Slack lets people create “channels” dedicated to a particular topic or interest.

What I’m trying to emphasize is that technology doesn’t have to feel cold or isolating. You can easily leverage existing, free (or at least cheap) techhnology to feel better connected with your online community of disabled friends.