Online Discrimination Against People with Disabilities

As a person with an innate disability, I have spoken about the discrimination I experienced in South Korea. And as mentioned in that post, thankfully, I have never been overtly discriminated against in person in the United States. In fact, the kindness of Americans has been overwhelmingly generous.

However, online, there are situations where I inevitably have to mention my disability. So, I tend to be forthright about it, though my parents would probably scold me severely if they knew. Nevertheless, the reason I disclose it is solely to offer even a small amount of comfort and courage to those in similar situations.

But today, and a few weeks ago as well, I have occasionally encountered people online who delve into my disability as if they were observing a monkey performing tricks in a zoo, prying into details or revealing my personal information about my disability—a very bad and malicious habit.

A few weeks ago on Instagram, I don't remember whether I blocked that person or if the comment was deleted, but I replied with a sharp tone, "Please refrain from impolite questions. What business is it of yours?", and a small number of people agreed with this comment.

Today's incident happened on Reddit. In the comments of a post, someone mentioned me, saying, "This person has such-and-such disability, and I found this out by Googling them." I was so furious that, rather than blocking them—since blocking prevents future identification—I quietly pressed the report button. Fortunately, there was a section for "violation of personal information," so I clicked that, and a few hours later, a short while ago, I confirmed that the comment had been deleted.

This kind of online discrimination seriously harms my mental health, and the stress feels like it's shortening my lifespan. Therefore, I've realized the urgent need to refrain from mentioning my disability as much as possible from now on. Of course, offline discrimination is equally upsetting.

Still, thankfully, even if I can't speak eloquently like others, I'm a fairly good writer, and I find that if I strongly push back, the other party often becomes silent. That's probably why there's a saying that the pen is mightier than the sword.