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By virtue of a number of linguistic and discursive investigations, this special issue of the IJLS aims to map out different forms of knowledge concerning disability with a particular focus on the issues of shame and discrimination. The purpose the guest editors had in mind was not only to explore how the phenomenon of disability is portrayed in a series of relevant contexts, but also to tease out the social, moral, cultural, and political implications of such representations and discursive construals. If, as is widely agreed, there are inextricable relations between discourse, cognition, and society (van Dijk, 1996), then discourse structures can be said to express and mirror the structures of mental models. As these models are, in turn, related to permanent social representations such as knowledge, attitudes, and ideologies, they consequently shape definitions, events, and identities. All the contributions included in this special issue explore the role that language and discourse play in the construction of disability, approaching it from a plurality of angles and perspectives. Discourse analysis, with its investigation of language in use (Fairclough, 2001), is the privileged lens adopted by contributors—in the form of Social-Semiotic Critical Discourse Analysis, Social Media Discourse Analysis, Corpus-based Discourse Analysis, Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies, and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. We hope that this Special Issue of the IJLS can serve to enhance awareness of the many existing inequalities that the more vulnerable segments of society still face on a daily basis. New ways of thinking about physical or mental impairments must emerge together with a focus shift away from the vilification of persons with disabilities, the deficiencies of a disabling society, and the fallacies of an ableist culture onto a reflection in terms of identity politics.

Hate Speech Online (HSO) seems to be the result of the degeneration of the ’freedom of expression’ into the ‘freedom for discrimination’ that finds its major amplification on social media where some people use anonymity as a tool to exercise power and dominance over other people. Drawing on a digitally-mediated Social-Semiotic Critical Discourse Analysis, this study investigates a specific, under-researched form of HSO, namely Disability Hate Speech (DHS) by analysing a corpus of comments retrieved from a video of a famous amputee TikToker spreading awareness on disability. The results unveil and explain that people’s discriminatory practices and intolerant attitudes towards people with impairments are based on deep-rooted mental models and beliefs that contribute to increasing the stigmatization against them, thus paving the way to intersectional hateful discourses that create disability through the process of ‘othering’ by naming what is normal/ abnormal according to the dichotomy able-bodiedness/disability. Accordingly, this paper aims to contribute to the emerging literature of studies on disability discourse with a specific perspective on DHS.

The World Health Organisation (WHO, 2021) defines obesity as those who have a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30. In 2016, the WHO registered more than 1.9 billion adults on a global scale as being obese (WHO, 2021). The consequences of obesity have a wide-reaching impact on the individual as well as healthcare systems. Many obese people develop greater and more serious physical pathologies not to mention psychological ones, and therefore obesity is classified as a disability in this case. Obese people often cannot work, are victims of online hate speech, are ill represented in the press and become ostracised by society. The aim of this study was to examine narratives of obesity, discrimination and disability using corpus-based discourse analysis. First-hand narratives were collected from online support forums over a ten-year period using the search terms obesity*, disability* discrimination*, stigma* and shame*. Results show the extent to which obesity is stigmatised by the general public as well as by some healthcare providers.

During the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, social media intensified their role as a channel for the sharing of opinions about health-related risk prevention measures (Zappavigna, 2012, 2018). Yet, the latter arguably gave way to the promotion of a set of common values which resulted in verbal discrimination and hostility directed at specific groups of people. The article provides an analysis of the appraisal of risk communication discourse regarding mask exemptions in a specialised Twitter corpus, specifically compiled to represent the period March 2020-March 2021. The data are analysed according to an approach which draws upon findings in Critical Social Media Discourse Analysis and Appraisal Linguistics. Corpus Linguistics methodological tools are combined with the analysis of context and discourse structural evaluation through qualitative assessments (Baker, 2006; Zappavigna, 2017). The analysis focuses on the lexical and grammatical resources used to express attitude oriented to affect (Martin & White, 2015). It discusses findings related to negative/positive appraisal and adaptive/maladaptive responses, such as activism, solidarity and hate speech in relation to COVID-19 health-related measures and combines the findings on affect with the critical discourse analysis of disablist and ableist discourse. It hopes to contribute to the development of a digital culture of respect and peace and to foster awareness of the core values of inclusion and solidarity in online and offline communication.

Focusing on issues of identity, diversity, disability, labelling and shame, this paper analyses language as a tool to negotiate one’s identity and relationship with the self and the world. The paper examines two international bestsellers by Donna Williams, Nobody Nowhere (Williams, 1992) and Somebody Somewhere (Williams, 1994), about her life before and after being officially diagnosed with autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder implying difficulties in communication and interaction (APA, 2013). Williams’ social media presence has also been explored through her personal website (Williams, n.d.), where mature contributions about her life, work, and diagnoses can be found, and her presence on a social activism website (auties.org). Relying on a Corpus-Based Discourse Analysis methodology, Williams’s language (Waltz, 2005) and the use and distribution of collocates and metaphors in it (Broderick & Ne’eman, 2008) have been investigated to understand their role in the negotiation of her identity with ‘the world’ and with herself, as a person deemed as ‘mad’ first, and autistic later. The analysis revealed that writing enabled Williams to understand her own nature, and that her linguistic choices mirror her thoughts and feelings, which are also expressed through metaphors, despite issues with language, pragmatics, and metaphorical language being commonly associated with autism.

In the last few years, the role of public service announcements (PSA) in conveying a message of social responsibility to a wide audience has increased due to the fact that many governments have adopted a less authoritative approach in favour of policy-making based on promotion and education. Against this backdrop of global changing policies, governments have started to include discourses of diversity and inclusivity in mass media campaigns. For instance, more and more mental health organisations have been launching awareness-raising campaigns on diversity and inclusion featuring a diverse group of individuals to speak out against commonly held stereotypes and the so-called ‘implicit bias’. The present research examined a sample of PSAs on mental disabilities collected from the websites of two non-profit organisations: the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) and the Ad Council, USA. Against the theoretical framework of multimodal critical discourse analysis and visual argumentation, the research aimed to explore how non-profit organizations promote diversity and inclusion through verbal and visual argumentative-persuasive techniques and to what extent multimodal argumentation contributes to fighting stigma and discrimination, changing public attitudes and behaviour towards mental disabilities, especially among the young generations.

The study aims to explore inclusion policies related to disabled people promoted by some companies from the technological field. In particular, the website sections devoted to disability of three tech giants, including Apple, Microsoft and Google will be explored. Methodology will be based on studies from Multimodal analysis (Jewitt et al., 2016; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996, 2001; O’Toole, 2011; Wignell et al., 2018) and the use of metaphors in corporate branding (Csaba & Bengtsson, 2006; Koller, 2009; Morgan, 1986). Specifically, the study will attempt to analyse corporate awareness related to disability and the promotion of inclusiveness while offering job opportunities to disabled people. Outcomes of the study have revealed some different strategies enacted by the three companies under scrutiny to build up their own identity whenever their inclusion policies are promoted.

Discrimination against older citizens in Pakistan’s Sindh province is a serious issue, and the provincial Government of Sindh is introducing laws and health care policies to protect these residents. Before hastening to introduce such laws and policies, it is important to comprehensively investigate ageism. Anti-discrimination policies cannot be effective unless they seek to address the issue of ageist language used against older persons. Therefore, in this research, we seek to explore how older persons perceive ageist language, how it is used against older citizens in Sindh, how it affects older persons’ psychological well-being, and how such language can be neutralised. We argue that ageist language is one of the main causes of discrimination against older citizens, and anti-discrimination policies should criminalise and penalise such use of language. Data collected through narrative inquiry from 30 older citizens have been qualitatively analysed using the concept of ‘ageist language’. Participants were asked to narrate their stories focusing on the ageism they faced in the home and public domains. Findings demonstrate that older persons negatively view ageist language, which, to a large extent, results in discrimination against older citizens in the home and public domains. Ageism can be neutralised with age-friendly language. It is suggested that health care and protection policies devised for older citizens should adopt a comprehensive counter strategy that must address the issue of ageist language.