There is currently an ongoing organizational change taking place within Swedish sports as national sport federations are increasingly taking on the responsibility of organizing parasports and physical activity opportunities for people with disabilities. This change, called the inclusion process, has become a dominant policy in many western countries for creating sporting opportunities for people with disabilities. Despite this, the process has received criticism in previous research due to its various challenges and non-inclusive outcomes. An area of research that has not received much scholarly attention has been the inclusion process within the realm of social media. This thesis aimed to fill in the gap of research by examining how people with disabilities, parasports, and inclusion are represented on the Instagram pages of Swedish National Sport Federations, as well as what inclusion strategies the federations employ on the platform.

Data was collected from the Instagram pages of Swedish National Sport Federations that have included Paralympic sport operations into their organizations and are responsible for organizing sporting opportunities for people with disabilities. The data was analyzed through thematic analysis, and the interpretation of the results was guided by the Theory of Acculturation.

The results showed that people with disabilities are often represented through competitive parasports, development initiatives and events, and sometimes through inclusive practices. Federations employed inclusion strategies that were defined as accommodation, inclusion (and separation), and marginalization.

The findings suggested that people with disabilities are most often represented on Instagram pages if they are able to conform to the values and norms of high performance sports, or by development initiatives that display them as a charitable cause in need of betterment through sports. Inclusive approaches were rarely realized but some federations displayed noteworthy practices in this matter, providing examples for other organizations. Additionally, parasport related content was found to be largely absent from the Instagram pages. In conclusion, the thesis offers insights into the inclusion process, but more research on the topic is needed.