Creating Crip Culture
In her post, Crip Community (2013) Eliza Chandler remarks upon a common theme found in the corner of internet Jessica has decided to call her own. Chandler ascribes disability and crip community as “[space] where disabled and mad folks and our allies […] build and sustain activists movements, theorize new meanings of disability and madness, create art that represents the vitality of disability and mad-identity, and learn from and enjoy one another”(Chandler, 2013). Part of what endeared me to Jessica’s channel was the visibility piece; in her videos and her comments disabled people were enganging openly. Titled Coming out… again (2023), my third cultural artifact notes the systems and tools disabled communities used to uplift one another and themselves.
At the beginning of her tell-all style video, Jessica remarks “Congratulations to many of you who guessed this video was coming, because you diagnosed me in the comments” (0:47, Jessica Kellgren-Fozard 2017). The virtual diagnosis Jessica refers to is the most prominent demonstration of critical disability studies as a precursor to the (re)production of disability as culture. Subscribers and viewers of the channel have previously been correct in their disability-related hypothesis (Jessica Kellgren-Fozard 2017), as many also felt the medical model of disability does not account for “root causes of disadvantages experienced” (3, Crow: 1992). The comment section of this particular video serves as a community forum of disability, a form of celebration that Chandler deems “a powerful counter-narrative to the tired, normative rhetoric that our lives are not worth living” (Chandler, 2013).
It is important to note the virtual and accessible role of the platform being used here, as it can illuminate more possibility for disabled congregation. Youtube is currently an online platform that allows user to consume Jessica’s content at no cost, which allows the possibility for more crip-connections. While Jessica is largely transparent in her identify online (with the exclusion of her young son’s face), the platform also has built-in anonymity, should the user choose to enact it. There are multiple ways of engaging with the discourse Jessica is introducing, which is why the sense of solidarity within disabled experiences is so strong among her subscribers. Additionally, her channel was created in 2011. This means that there is longevity in her content and evolution as disabled, queer creator. Similarly to Chandler, Jessica has “found a home […and continues to] meet new, creative, smart, radical, and dedicated [members of] crip communities” (Chandler, 2013).
Chandler, Eliza. 2013. “Crip Community.” Vision, Passion, Action. Nov 26.
Crow, Liz. (1996). Including All of Our Lives: Renewing the Social Model of Disability.











