After a long day at work, Maayan Ziv logs on to the audio-only social media app Clubhouse to unwind with Lullaby Club. Beginning at 9 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, artists play popular hits and tranquil renditions of their music to help listeners fall asleep. “It’s a magical space,” says Ziv, who has muscular dystrophy. “Last night, John Mayer was there playing a song.”

Ziv is the founder and CEO of AccessNow, a mobile crowdsourcing platform that allows people to search for, rate and discover places based on their level of accessibility. She joined Clubhouse, which is invite-only and available for both iOS and Android. “I was immediately hooked,” says Ziv, who lives in Toronto, Canada. “I work with accessibility and disability issues every day and all of a sudden there was a platform that allows me to use my voice in a new, intimate and organic way.”

Clubhouse users select areas of interest, like entertainment, tech, identity (“disabled” is an option) or wellness. Based on those, the app recommends people and rooms, where live conversations take place, to follow or join. Ziv connected with Adriana Mallozzi, a fellow disabled entrepreneur, who had just created the 15% Club. Like a Facebook group, clubs allow users to host more intimate conversations with a specific community. “Adriana invited me in, and I have really taken to it,” says Ziv.

With over 5,000 members and followers, the 15% Club is evolving into the largest disability-led club on the platform, connecting people with disabilities and allies around the world. Conversations are being held on love, relationships, sexual well-being, body confidence, accessible travel, representation in media, digital accessibility and more. “Some topics are more serious in nature about injustices and barriers that people face in the world,” says Ziv, “but we have silly conversations too. We had a room called ‘Disabled people can be assholes too.’”

Mallozzi, who has cerebral palsy and is a quadriplegic, wants the 15% Club to be a space where people feel comfortable to share their experiences. “The disability community has exploded on this platform because it’s really easy to connect with others on here,” she says. “I have met people that I never would have otherwise, and you don’t have to worry about texts and how you look. There is unlimited content, and you can pop in an out of rooms.”

Like a conference panel, each room has a virtual stage made up of speakers that have a microphone icon that can be muted. You can tell who is talking by a subtle gray halo around their photo. If an audience member wants to participate, they click the raise hand button and the speakers can choose to bring them up.

Ziv appreciates the ability to engage with others in real time. “It allows you to get a sense of who someone is in a very different way than the beautifully crafted, sometimes superficial versions of ourselves on other platforms,” she says.

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Ziv and Mallozzi make it clear though that Clubhouse is not perfect. “It’s not fully accessible, particularly to the deaf and hard of hearing community,” says Ziv. “There are no live captions.” The 15% Club holds conversations about these issues that have caught the attention of Clubhouse’s founders and developers. “One of the developers joined our discussion and we now have a Google Doc that we share with him,” says Mallozzi. “On it, is a laundry list of issues they need to tackle.” One of those issues, which Clubhouse has since fixed, was labeling the buttons on the screen so blind users know what they are.

Clubhouse launched in April 2020, early in the pandemic. It now has over 10 million users and is growing. “It’s obvious to me that the success associated with Clubhouse is 100% tied to the times that we live in,” says Ziv. So, what will happen to the social media app in a post COVID-19 world? “There have been rooms where I literally feel like I am at a party, and I think that is what we have been craving this past year,” says Mallozzi. “But typically, on Friday and Saturday nights, people are not going to be on Clubhouse, they are going to be out.”

Media writer Teal Sherer is also the host of New Mobility Live, NM’s online video series. Check it out on Instagram, Facebook or bit.ly/3980Fu4.

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How Do I Get on Clubhouse?

Clubhouse is in the beta testing phase and is currently invite-only. Look for it wherever you get your apps.

The easiest way to join is to be invited by a friend who is already on the app. You can also sign up and join the waitlist and, since users have the option to connect their profile to their Twitter and Instagram accounts, there is a chance someone you know will get an alert and wave you through. Once on Clubhouse, Mallozzi recommends following people and clubs with intent: “There is a search feature where you can put in key words of topics that you are interested in. Room notifications will show up based on the people and clubs you follow.”