Epilogues and Prefaces: Research and Social Work and People with Intellectual Disabilities

It is well established that public photographic representations of people with intellectual disabilities strongly influences what we think we know about people so labelled. This paper reports on the unanticipated outcomes of a research project that looked at the ways in which public photographs often construct people with intellectual disabilities as dysfunctional, from the perspectives of the labelled people themselves. Research participants with intellectual disabilities were asked to critique a sample of public photographic images and then, using the computer software program, Photoshop, to change the images to reflect their critique. These changed images were then shown to a number of non-disabled audiences. In this paper, I address the unanticipated outcomes of the project: the effects on participants and non-disabled others resulting from activities arising from the project. These unanticipated outcomes speak to the power of visual imagery, to the empowerment that can take place when people with intellectual disabilities are enabled to have their voices heard, and the ways dialogue between people with and without intellectual disabilities can work towards new understandings. Social work, in its concern for social justice, has a role in enabling the expression of the voices of people with intellectual disabilities and facilitating opportunities for dialogue.