What are disability communities?

Communities for people living with physical, cognitive, and sensory disabilities, as well as caregivers and advocates. Reddit has some of the most active spaces, organized around both general disability discussion and specific conditions. Topics range from navigating daily life and accessibility to sharing resources, venting, and connecting with others who get it.

Where do most disability communities live?

Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (50% of 16 listings).

Are most of these communities free?

94% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.

How big is a typical disability community?

Among listings with public size data, the average is 70K members and the median is 66K.

What do these communities usually include?

Forum is the most common (100%). Others that show up often include live chat and online/offline events.

How does Hive Index collect this data?

Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.

Where can I see the full list?

The full directory is on Hive Index's Disability topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Disability Communities Report: Stats, Platforms, Trends...

Executive Summary

We analyzed 16 disability communities listed on Hive Index to understand where people gather, what these groups offer, and which communities attract the most interest.

The big picture: much of the disability landscape on Hive Index sits on Independent Platforms.

Source: Hive Index community database · Updated 2026-04-28

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Communities: 16
Platforms: 4
Avg members: 70K
Median members: 66K

Where Disability Communities Are Hosted

Independent Platforms
8(50%)
Reddit
5(31%)
Discourse
2(13%)
Mighty Networks
1(6%)

Format mix

Forum / feed-based
15(94%)
Private membership
1(6%)

Most listings are forum / feed-based (94%).

Independent Platforms leads with 50%, but Reddit also has a meaningful share (31%).

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
0(0%)
Small
20-100 members
0(0%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
1(6%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
0(0%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
3(19%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
2(13%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
0(0%)

10 communities have unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

Most communities are free to join.

How Disability Differs From Other Categories

Disability is more free-to-join, and larger, compared with typical Hive Index topics.

Metric	Disability	Hive Index average
Free to join	94%	85%
Median members	66K	25K
Average members	70K	669K
Paid or apply-to-join	6%	15%
Live chat	44%	38%
Topic pageviews / mo	113	714

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Forum
100%
Live Chat
44%
Online/Offline Events
19%

Niche Features

Job Board
6%
Member Perks
6%
Paid Community
6%

Forum appears on 100% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 4

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Independent Platforms	8	50%	2	50%
Reddit	5	31%	2	50%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Independent Platforms hosts 50% of listings and 50% of clicks, so supply and interest line up.

Most-clicked features

Forum
4(100%)
Live Chat
3(75%)

Top-clicked listings

r/ChronicPain
2(50%)
Fibromyalgia Action UK (HealthUnlocked)
1(25%)
The Mighty
1(25%)

A few listings get most of the clicks; the rest split what is left.

Trends

Founded year

Not enough founding-year data to chart yet.

Methodology & FAQ

Methodology

This report uses communities in the Hive Index database tagged as Disability. We exclude removed or suppressed listings. Member counts, traffic, features, reviews, and ratings may vary by source and are updated periodically.

•This is a smaller slice of Hive Index's database, so read trends as directional.
•Last updated 2026-04-28

FAQ

: Communities for people living with physical, cognitive, and sensory disabilities, as well as caregivers and advocates. Reddit has some of the most active spaces, organized around both general disability discussion and specific conditions. Topics range from navigating daily life and accessibility to sharing resources, venting, and connecting with others who get it.
: Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (50% of 16 listings).
: 94% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 70K members and the median is 66K.
: Forum is the most common (100%). Others that show up often include live chat and online/offline events.
: Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.
: The full directory is on Hive Index's Disability topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.