A streamer has started a campaign for Twitch to introduce a Disability Pride Month on the service.
Streamer QueerlyBee has taken to the UserVoice forum, where Twitch streamers can make suggestions, to request that the streaming platform hosts a Disability Pride Month.
In recent years, Twitch has been more proactive in supporting marginalised groups during things like Black History month, AAPI month, and Pride month. Twitch certainly hasn’t perfectly approached these events, but it’s something.
“Being a content creator as a disabled person adds a whole host of additional challenges, such as navigating algorithms that favor consistency with inconsistent bodies,” writes QueerlyBee in the post. They also noted the difficulties in finding games that are accessible for disabled streamers to play. The post is currently sitting at 628 votes as of writing, and 51 comments all supporting the idea.
Like with most marginalised groups, disabled streamers are massively underrepresented on the platform. It’s odd that they would go so far as to create an animal category before showing any support for disabled streamers. Last year Twitch did add a huge range of tags that streamers could use to help signify their identity. This included a ‘disabled’ tag, as well as transgender, non-binary, and more.
Twitch used to allow custom tags, but removed the feature a few years ago. This meant that streamers were unable to more easily connect with audiences they otherwise would have. The tags have made that somewhat easier. But Twitch isn’t particularly proactive when it comes to responding to UserVoice posts. Hopefully with something as important as this, they’ll pay attention a bit sooner.
Do you think Twitch could do more for disability awareness on the platform? What do you think it should do? Let us know on our social channels.
Featured Image Credit: Twitch