Digital Gaming, Disability, and Social Capital: Understanding Intersectional Pleasures and Community Formation

This extended abstract outlines a developing mixed-methods research programme examining how adults with acquired brain injury (ABI) participate in digital gaming communities and how these environments support social connection, pleasurable engagement, and belonging. Positioned within disabled play and game studies scholarship, the work argues that existing research has focused heavily on accessibility and exclusion, and that less attention has been paid to how disabled players actively build social meaning through games. It uses ABI as a standpoint to examine how gaming spaces can scaffold, constrain, or transform social participation for disabled players more broadly, drawing on social capital theory and the concept of gaming as affinity spaces rather than bounded communities.

The project proposes that pleasure in gaming is affective and relational, not merely recreational. The authors ground this claim in research on disabled gamers and people with spinal cord injury, which suggests online play can reduce isolation and provide valued opportunities for connection and agency. The rationale is strengthened by broader ABI literature showing that fatigue, mobility limits, communication changes, and stigma restrict social and leisure participation. Games are presented as potentially well suited to this population because they offer structured goals, shared tasks, low-barrier interaction, and flexibility that can adapt to fluctuating cognitive, sensory, or physical capacity.

The planned research unfolds in three phases: a scoping review of existing literature on videogames, disability, and social participation; qualitative interviews or focus groups with adults with ABI about their gaming practices and meanings; and a survey with possible digital case studies examining patterns of play, social interaction, perceived social capital, and wellbeing across a larger sample. The scope deliberately includes game-adjacent practices such as spectating, livestreaming, Discord participation, and fan groups, recognising that social engagement may persist when active play is limited. Preliminary anecdotal and qualitative accounts reportedly point to supportive micro-communities and spaces where disability is less visible, though the authors stress that systematic evidence is still needed.

The work also treats gaming environments as socio-technical systems in which platform design, moderation, accessibility features, and cultural norms shape who can participate and on what terms. Rather than assuming community is inherently beneficial, the project examines when gaming spaces become supportive, exclusionary, or ambivalent, attending to toxicity, ableism, and uneven social recognition. The intended contributions include insights for inclusive design,