NETWORK SOCIETY: Towards the integration of the environment of people with disabilities. The significance of the Internet for the formation of communities of people with disabilities.

New media technologies allow for the creation and functioning of communities of peoplestruggling with similar problems, who want to obtain help, advice and support. Virtualcommunities provide a space where in the conditions of the bottom-up self-help actions and activities arises for them the possibility to communicate, exchange information, shareexperiences and problems. This causes significant changes for the activity of people withdisabilities in the emerging networked society, within which a new method of informationproduction and flow in being formed with the support of the social media networks,influencing the shape of the society on all levels: from the individual to the organizational.A significant part of social activities undertaken in this environment is transferred intothe network, which on the one hand strengthens its integration, but on the other handmay paradoxically deepen the social isolation of people with disabilities, whose activitieswill not go beyond the virtual space. The primary goal of this article is to show – based onthe analysis of the content of their social media profiles – the advantages and disadvantagesof using the Internet indicated both by people with disabilities and others activelyacting on behalf of this environment.