The IT entrepreneur from Brogo will next week launch Disability Club, a social media network he has built from the ground up to help foster connections.

Fittingly, it is being launched on December 3, International Day of People With Disability.

The idea for Disability Club was born during COVID lockdowns as Mr Johnston looked to overcome the challenges of isolation felt by him as well as others with disability.

"I started it in the very first lockdown when COVID hit for the first time," Mr Johnston said.

"It went through design, to developing the system, to testing with users - we managed to turn it around very quickly. It was all done in a year."

Mr Johnston has previously completed an online web development course and said he built the platform all himself, only outsourcing small elements he was unable to manage.

In February Disability Club was announced as one of only a handful of recipients of a lucrative NBN Co innovation grant, helping him take the concept from development to completion.

It has already drawn plenty of interest, with Mr Johnston saying he already had twice the number of users signed up to Disability Club as he does on his other project, music streaming service DME3, which was released around two years ago.

READ ALSO: Home-grown accessible music streaming service DME3 goes live for listeners

"The platform is growing steadily and there's a lot of interest. Heaps of people are saying they need this and are amazed there's not a platform out there like this already."

DME3, an inclusive music streaming service, incorporates functionality for people with disability. That same sense of inclusiveness and accessibility is the driving factor behind Disability Club.

"It's more of a safe environment away from mainstream social media, with a lot more accessibility features built in," he said.

Those features include the ability to adapt colour contrast, all text and page structure to suit the user.

Along with connecting to others using the network, there will also be functions to connect users to service providers.

"We hope to connect everyone with a disability who lives locally - and eventually globally. The system is easy to use and I'd encourage everyone to join Disability Club...just like DME3 it's inclusive and anyone can join if they wish."

Disability Club will be launched in a virtual event hosted on Microsoft Teams next Friday, December 3 at 11am. Register by clicking here

For more information on Disability Club, visit the website