| Abstract [eng] |
People with disabilities (PWD) are one of the groups that experience the most discrimination and bullying. Data shows that around 24,324 cases of discrimination occur in the PWD group (Sessions and Kimbal, 2020). Social work is a professional activity to assist individuals, groups and communities to increase or improve their ability to function socially and to create social conditions that enable them to achieve goals (Zatsraw, 2014). The problem of discrimination and bullying among PWD is one of the tasks of social workers in reducing this problem. This research aims to look at the role of social workers on social media to reduce discrimination against PWD. This research uses a qualitative research design and collects data using the interview method with 5 social workers in Indonesia. The results of this research show that the main role of social workers on social media in overcoming/reducing discrimination against people with disabilities is to act as educators and advocates. The role as an educator is to provide all information and knowledge regarding PWD, social workers share this information through social media platforms so that the information can be accessed and known by many people and while the role as an advocate is to voice and convey the rights of PWD, calling out the rights needs of PWD. This is part of advocating for PWD, the aim of this advocacy for community, stakeholders or policy makers can make policies that suit the needs of PWD. As a result, PWD will get equal rights and a disability-friendly environment without discrimination and bullying towards PWD. Moreover, there are several challenges that social workers will face when providing information and advocating regarding the basic needs of PWD on social media, because on social media social workers cannot control who will see the information shared, so the challenge is that social workers must consider various points of view when creating content and social workers must also be ready to accept and understand that social media can backfire on speakers who provide information. |
