While nonverbal communication (such as head shaking, gesturing, facial expressions, etc.) play a significant role in interpreting meaning for face-to-face interactions, they are distinctly absent from most forms of online interactions. While internet speech has adopted emoticons and punctuation as a form of indicating tone, these can prove insufficient for shared understanding of text amongst all communities, as an ellipsis (...) or a smiling face (🙂) can read differently to users depending on factors such as age, neurodivergence, familiarity with the other party, etc. Tone indicators are meant to explicitly state what the intended tone of the message is, so that readers do not have to interpret for themselves what the messenger is trying to convey. 

Why the Need for Tone Indicators?

Professor Mark Poster theorized in his book The Second Media Age that communities will develop into “non-place” communities which exceed geographic boundaries. Rather, they will change to concepts of “communities of accessibility” so that members and prospective members who want to be involved will have easier access to do so. Digital media has allowed people with similar identities and interests to form online communities. This can be especially important for people with disabilities who are often marginalized by real-world society. 

Communities of Accessibility

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

The degree to which an individual culture, be it national, religious, class, education level, or otherwise, has a positive or negative (inclusive or exclusive) response to disabled individuals within their culture. 

Public Attitude Toward Disability

The positive or negative response of individuals towards the disabled make up the public attitude and response toward disability. It has been shown there are four main determinates of whether or not a individual's response to disability is positive or negative to the disabled community within the wider culture.  Those factors are: 

- Knowledge/familiarity with the Disabled
- Contact with the Disabled
- Gender of the individual 
- Education Level

Determinates of Public Attitudes Toward Disability

The impact of religious belief and culture on the acceptance of disability within and outside of religious circles. 

Religious Attitudes Toward Disability

The quality of being discriminatory or prejudiced against those with disabilities.
Ableist behaviors can include stereotyping and devaluing people with disabilities or in some cases violence towards those with disabilities. 

Ableism (Disablism)

- Individualism's Effect on Public Acceptance on Disability

Societal Values' Effect on Acceptance of Disability

Attitudes toward deafness can be divided into two groups: the clinical and the cultural model.

1) The Clinical Model: Deafness is viewed as a handicap, a medical condition, or a deficiency. Deafness is viewed as something needing to be fixed, through such means as hearing aids and cochlear implants.

2) The Cultural Model: People with hearing difficulties are viewed as a linguistic and cultural minority group within a hearing society, marked by difference rather than limitation.

Attitudes Toward Deafness/ Two Conflicting Models

The sexuality of those with disabilities is frequently erased by the public and disabled people are often viewed as being asexual. Having sexual relations with disabled people is also often stigmatized and viewed as taboo.

Public Attitudes Toward Disability and Sexuality

The idea of disability studies within an educational setting has changed academic viewpoints for many areas of study. Essentially, there is growing acknowledgement of how disability studies highlight both hypothetical and practical questions regarding individual and structural standards and expectations that have previously been established by society. 

Attitudes Towards Educational Opportunities

TASH advocates for human rights and inclusion for people with significant disabilities and support needs – those most vulnerable to segregation, abuse, neglect, and institutionalization. 

TASH Organization

The success of the London 2012 Paralympics highlighted new possibilities for individuals with disabilities and opened up discussions about the relationship between elite Paralympians and advanced prosthetic technology. Paralympic athletes such as Oscar Pistorius and Aimee Mullins have contributed significantly to a growing awareness of the cultural impact of prosthetic aesthetics on body image. The discussion surrounding this topic revolves around the relationship between the perceived attractiveness and societal attitudes of individuals with prosthetics.

Societal Attitudes Toward Individuals With Prosthetics and How That Affect Body Image

Individuals with disabilities face varying stigmas based on whether or not their disability is seen as visible or invisible. These stigmas are most prominant in social, vocational, and educational settings. 

The differences in stigmatizing effects of visible versus invisible disabilities 

The visibility of a disability is often determined by the ease of its perception by others and does not often take into concern the impact that the disability has on the person with the disability. This leads to differing attitudes regarding people with disabilities often leading to an inadequate understanding of invisible disabilities. 

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