Transcript (made with Speech to text):
Hi my name is Annie Costello I’m a junior at the University of Michigan here and I would like to talk about the disability community and the accessibility features of the app tiktok as a young adult on social media I’ve noticed that tiktok has become a rising Trend amongst College age people tiktok is an app where people post short videos of Trends entertainment talks about things going on in the world and overall sharing your personality likes and dislikes with the world it is a form of social media through videos where people can communicate with each other and create art there’s also many communities set of formed on the app for all different types of people this includes those with unique characteristics such as coming from a certain racial background religious background sexuality as well as disability there are also been rising numbers of disability users on the app one of these users happens to be a student here at the University of Michigan and they prefer to go nameless so we will be referring to them as Max so as Max was telling me he felt that when he used the app at first he was tentative because he has both visible and invisible disabilities he is paraplegic and also has autism he believes that there is a big disability community on the app with people who have become his friends over time and also he thinks that the app is a great space to talk about the video games that he likes as well as talk about some of the difficulties of being paraplegic as well as being on the autism spectrum as I asked him more about the community that he has found on the app he described how he’s found other college age students that are also paraplegic and also those who have autism as well as those who have both he found this incredibly helpful for his life because outside of the app he feels as though he doesn’t have that connection with other people with the same circumstances as him as we begin to talk more we also talked about the struggles of using the app he has limited mobility in his hands so he was saying that some of the buttons especially the like and comment buttons could be more accessible especially with the size of the buttons as they are hard to specifically touch certain buttons when they’re close together and also very small He also mentioned how there are limited text to speech or speech to text features on the commenting and just overall on the app he did however mention that he has friends on the app that are blind and tiktok has been very accessible for those who are blind through not tiktok itself but on iPhones there is a feature where the phone can read to you what is on the screen and for certain videos it is helpful to watch videos that describe what they’re doing or have subtitles for those who are deaf and he really enjoyed having the subtitles anyways even though his hearing is intact he prefers to have some titles on because he thinks that it’s easier for him to follow along with the video as he can sometimes have trouble paying attention or not letting his mind wander as he mentioned another important part I wanted to mention was how receptive other tiktok users are to users that are Disabled on the app as I asked Max he described how he described how he is faced some discrimination on the app where he has had users that comment on his videos where he’s talking about video games or the difficulties that he faces as a college student at the University of Michigan there have been some comments that comment on his appearance or the way that he speaks and this has led to more self-consciousness as he goes throughout his daily daily scroll through tiktok looking through this videos and posting his videos tiktok for him is an outlet for a self-expression and to find community and these people who are saying these hurtful things on the comments he believes are taking it away from him that source of community and happiness he believes that Tick Tock should be a space for everyone even those who are disabled to celebrate diversity to hear stories of people who maybe aren’t privileged or may have a different body than others and he thinks that those who comment just have a lack of understanding and a lack of education so he believes that there should be more activism for people with disabilities on social media especially tiktok and others such as Instagram and Snapchat a lot of young users use tiktok and it’s important that they know that it can be a safe space for them and that they should own their insecurities and the circumstances that they’re living under because it’s what they’re born with or it can be the result some life event that was out of their control as we concluded the interview with Max I wanted to talk about here at the University of Michigan his experience living with disability and also being on tiktok and social media he believes that the University of Michigan is a lot more accepting than his high school when he also posted on tiktok and he thinks that Michigan is overall and accepting place but there can always be more activism and more education and he really believes and fighting for what’s right and as he said he thinks that Disability should not be a barrier for interacting with the world thank you for listening and thank you for hearing Max’s story.
