Voices of Disability: A Photovoice View from the Mountains

2020

This project is a collaboration between the School of Medicine, the Maternal and Child Health Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) program, School of Art and Design, and the Center for Excellence and Disabilities at WVU Health Science Center. The primary objective of this study will be to use photovoice, along with environmental portraits and photographs and semistructured interviews to capture the lived experiences and perceptions that define what disability means to a diverse group of people with disabilities in West Virginia. Photovoice has been used as a participatory research methodology since 1992. It supplies cameras to people with unique lived experiences so they can share their perceptions of life with a broad audience through the photographs they take. As a result of the storytelling that takes place in the method, photovoice has served as a catalyst for deeper community conversations about social problems and difficulties that groups of people, often those who are marginalized, face. Over 1/3 of WV's state population lives with a disability and the state has highest prevalence of disability across the lifespan, but little work has been done to examine what life with disability in the Mountain State is like. Capturing this information through photovoice will provide the opportunity to examine and discuss steps we can take to ensure better inclusion of people with disabilities into our communities and service provision systems.

Performing Research or Evaluation

Recreation-Related Activities

Adults with Disabilities

None

Mulit-County

N/A