Photovoice for disability inclusion on campus

Abstract

This study examined the lived experience of disability inclusion on the University of Georgia’s main campus in Athens, Georgia using photovoice. Photovoice is a creative research approach that combines photography with qualitative methods to promote social justice and advocacy related to an issue or topic. Ten project partners from various backgrounds participated in this study for four weeks. Through qualitative analysis of focus groups, nineteen themes were uncovered, fifteen of which were featured in a culminating exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art to promote disability inclusion on campus. The themes representing the lived experience of disability inclusion on campus spanned social, emotional, physical, political, and temporal dimensions. We took the project a step further by collaborating with disabled individuals as project partners and using poetry as a method.

Points of interest

• This article explores the lived experience of disability inclusion on a college campus.

• The research reported here was conducted in collaboration with disabled individuals.

• Project partners’ lived experience of disability inclusion on campus touched on their relationships with time and social, emotional, physical, and political aspects of society.

• Project partners shared their lived experiences with the goal of fostering sustained conversation, thus promoting awareness, advocacy,and outreach for community-building around disability inclusion on campus.

Keywords:

• Photovoice
• disability inclusion
• participatory action research
• creative methods

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the UGA disability community for partnering with the research team. The project partners, research team, student project assistants, student project volunteers, and many others contributed to the success of this research project. Thank you to Alden Loftis and Eli McDonald for your help with project partner recruitment and for transcribing focus groups. Thank you to students in the Fall 2022 First-Year Odyssey and GradFIRST Seminars “A Field Guide to Resilience” for assisting with the exhibition set-up. Thank you to students in the Fall 2022 Disaster Management course “How to Survive the Apocalypse” for assisting with the exhibition set-up and take-down. Thank you to Callan Steinmann and the Georgia Museum of Art for providing exhibition space.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).