Through the disability lens: challenging disablement using photovoice as a social work pedagogy

Photovoice as a qualitative research methodology can be used to examine pertinent and sensitive issues using images captured by participants. Photovoice has been utilized in a range of disciplines as a creative and engaging teaching method. This article presents an example of a photovoice assessment task used in social work education as a pedagogical tool to examine disablement and ableism. In this assessment, students took photographs to symbolize an issue in their community where barriers for participation by a person with disability were identified. Engagement in this task promoted critical reflection, aiming to develop the student’s self-awareness of biases, assumptions and stereotyping that create societal barriers for people with disability. The task was found to enhance students’ understanding of the issues that underpin disablement and ableism. Since the introduction of the assessment in 2023, variations have been adopted to improve the student experience including the provision of an hour-long preparatory workshop. Ethical approval will be sought to develop a pre and post assessment task survey to evaluate student learning engagement and effectiveness of the task for demonstration of social work student competencies.