From Acid Attacks to Amputees, NFTY Collective Brings Disability Representation to Web3
Giselle Mota wants to improve accessibility and representation for disabled individuals while also introducing inclusion to existing platforms such as Sandbox, Adobe, Snap or Instagram.
This is part of Decential’s web3 and blockchain coverage celebrating Pride Month. Read it all here.
Usually when we talk about accessibility in web3, it’s related to the clunky wallet process, long seed phrases and verbiage that’s like learning a new language. But for people who are blind, deaf, amputees or have muscular dystrophy, accessibility means something entirely different.
Technology has long had an inclusivity problem. In 2022, only 34.8 percent of people living with a disability in the United States were employed, let alone in the halls of big tech. A lack of representation in emerging tech is evident with Euro-centric avatars, for example. Not only do these avatars get skin color, hair and body types all wrong, but it negates the traits of the one in four Americans and over a billion people worldwide, 16 percent of the global population, who are living with a significant disability.
Giselle Mota, a dyslexic Afro-Latina and “inclusive futurist,” set out to make virtual realities, the metaverse and web3 a more welcoming place for folks with disabilities. People like Farah Khan, a woman who was the victim of an acid attack in India, which left part of her face and body disfigured. Khan is one of the real people Mota based her NFT character collection on for her project, NFTY Collective.
“We used all real people from around the world who gave us permission to use their likeness as a character,” Mota said to me in a recent interview. “It was important for us not to just use templates of disabled people. With Khan, we didn’t want to mask or hide the deformities. We show it on her avatar and celebrate it because she’s still beautiful.”
The NFTY Collective avatars include people with visible and unseen disabilities. “Some have mobility devices, wheelchairs, a cane, a prosthetic leg, hearing aid and breathing ventilators. For the people who have chronic illnesses or neuro diversities like me, those characters are symbolized with a special design on their glasses that indicate that something’s different with the way my brain processes.”
The intention for NFTY Collective is two-fold. Mota wants to improve accessibility and representation for disabled individuals, while also introducing disability inclusion to existing platforms such as Sandbox, Adobe, Snap or Instagram.
“We exist to support the companies that have the platforms that are building on web3, so they can embed disability inclusion into their design,” she said. “For example, Sandbox has invited us to create a game inside of their platform where, for the first time, we’re thinking about how we can make the metaverse more accessible to someone who is blind, deaf or intellectually disabled.”
Mota said they’re “infiltrating disability inclusion” into filters and experiences in platforms where representation doesn’t currently exist.
Giving disabled people the choice to be seen
A big part of the disabled community identifies as LGBTQ+. “There is an individual we know who, because of their disability, can’t take hormonal treatments to be the transgender representation they see themselves as. They can’t change anything in real-life but if they wanted to, they could customize their avatar to appear that way,” Mota said.
When a disabled person can see themselves in their avatar, it can be a validating experience and create a sense of belonging – especially when access and representation is still lackluster in real physical spaces, Mota said.
The metaverse opens the world up to people with disabilities. The ability to walk through an art gallery, attend an event and socialize with other people are privileges many of us take for granted.
For the disabled, joining a virtual world as their NFTY Collective avatar is as close as they’ve gotten.
With web3, we can take big swings for the people who need it the most. From Nairobi to New York, amputee to athlete, this technology can be the great equalizer if built with intention.