International audienceThis article addresses ableism in 21 st century network society by analysing afford-ances in the practices of visually impaired photographers. The case study details how these photographers use assistive devices, tweaking affordances of both these devices and the photographic apparatus: its technical materialities, cultural conceptualizations and creative expressions. The main argument is that affordances operate in exchanges where sharing differences is key; visually impaired photographers make differences sharable through images, revealing vulnerabilities that emerge within a socio-digital condition that affects users across a spectrum of abilities. The argument unfolds through a rare combination of affordance theory about imaginative and diverse human-technology relations, media theory about technological dependence and disruption, disability studies on normativity and variation, and art historical readings informed by semiotics and phenomenology. The article contributes to cross-disciplinary research by demonstrating that affordances can be tactical, intervening in pervasive socio-digital systems that limit who counts as a normal user
