Disabled web art and why the small web empowers us (my story)

[EdgyRabbit]

Hello! My life story is pretty unique and i would like to share it with this forum, as i think you would all enjoy it!

At age 2, i was diagnosed with autism and dyspraxia. I was told i would never talk, read, write or draw. Now thats not true anymore, as you can see im typing right now!

Fast forward, it is now 2024, I found most main social media sites to be pretty boring (i had quit instagram, twitter and tiktok 2 years prior) and i found myself pretty bored. Sure i had tumblr and discord, but i wanted a place where i could fully customize my space. Plus i am a Rayman selfshipper, so most people on big social media sites would make fun of me. Then i found out about neocities and the web revival project.

I fell head over heels for the indie and old web, so much so that i based my website off of it. I didnt use any templates, as they were hard for me to understand. Now ive been a webmaster for 7 months! My neocities page is full of content and is themed around my husband. I legitimately couldnt be happier, and im so thankful the small web is well alive and well!

Im very thankful that i am able to share my story with this fourm today! I also hope this thread will be used to discuss how the small web has impacted fellow disabled people!

(and mods, if this thread is against the rules please tell me!)n

[cult_status18]

That's great that this is a safe spot for you to be yourself. The indie web is really great, but it was definitely an adjustment for me and even now, I've just been too busy to enjoy it fully I did see your website and I am very impressed that you made all of that in 7 months It took me forever to make my site look ok

autism can be weird sometimes. When I was younger, I was so much more high-functioning than I am today as an adult during my adolascens I Did a lot of maturing in a very short period of time to be the person I am today and its very strange to look back at my self only 4 or 5 years ago and see a completely different person a lot of the time doctors will underestimate the abilities of high-functioing people and their abilities to grow but that's just my experience

We are glad to have you here （＾◡＾）♡

[edea]

Hey, thank you for sharing your story!

I myself am disabled and a big part of my research in college was specifically designing the web and tech for accessibility. I very much love to see how this more personal web can serve that purpose for more than just me!

Specifically for the purpose of compatibility with screen readers, many small websites, despite being more visually busy, can be more compatible with screen readers than more slick sites because content is often in plaintext html. Additionally, people in these spaces can often have much better adherence to adding alt-text to their images.