Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I stand here today to shine a light on an incredible initiative created by an IT entrepreneur from Brogo in the Bega Valley. I met yesterday with Nathan Johnston, who is behind a fantastic new social media platform aimed specifically at people with disability. Nathan told me yesterday that, when he tried to connect with people during the peak of last year's COVID lockdown, he realised how challenging it was for people living with a disability to use social media networks like Twitter and Facebook. Nathan has cerebral palsy, and his feeling of isolation throughout the pandemic led him to develop a new and accessible social media site called Disability Club. Nathan used his web development skills to build the platform from the ground up, and he is now preparing to launch the network next week, on 3 December, International Day of People with Disabilities.

Disability Club is about creating a sense of inclusiveness and accessibility among members. It's a safe environment away from mainstream social media, with a lot more accessible features built in. These include the ability to adapt text, colour, contrast and page structure to suit the user. Along with connecting people with a disability, there will also be functions to connect users to service providers. This network has the potential not only to connect people with disability locally but, hopefully, to one day also connect people globally. I encourage everyone to check out Disability Club and support this initiative. (Time expired)

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