VCU Research in Action: Photovoice brings focus to communication for job-seekers with IDD

Research in Action is a VCU News series that highlights how faculty, students, labs, community-engaged programs and other VCU initiatives are improving life through an unwavering quest for discovery.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Now, Virginia Commonwealth University researchers are turning the old adage into a modern tool to empower youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities as they transition from school to the workforce.

The researchers are with Project PEACE, part of the VCU School of Education's Partnership for People with Disabilities. Standing for Promoting Employment After high school through Community Experience, the project aims to improve job placement for people with IDD and solidify community-based resources to support them.

One way Project PEACE is supporting students is through photovoice, a research approach in which participants use photography to document their experiences and surroundings as a means of expression, explicitly identifying preferences, needs and strengths.

"It's empowering," said Seb Prohn, Ph.D., the assistant director of research and evaluation at the Partnership for People with Disabilities and the project's leader. "When you're talking about what you did and what you like, you're reifying that to yourself: 'This is who I am, and these are my interests and these are my goals.'"

In the past, Prohn added, the wants of people with disabilities in the workplace weren't always put in focus. But with photovoice, students are able to identify - and convey - what they want as an employee.

Supported in part by a five-year grant from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, the photovoice initiative helps students identify and articulate their interests, preferences and strengths as they take part in work-based learning opportunities built from school-business partnerships, going to job sites, trying tasks and photographing their experiences.

As graduate research assistant Molly Taylor said, "A lot of [the students] had never heard the question, 'What do you want to do when you grow up?' Or they'd never heard the question, 'Where do you want to work? What are you interested in?'"

A photo taken by a student as part of the photovoice project. (Contributed photo)

When asked, "the students [would say], 'I don't know what the right answer is,'" Taylor recalled. "And I said, 'There's no right answer. You get to choose.'"

Over the course of two studies - one conducted virtually and the other in an in-person format - Project PEACE researchers asked students with IDD in public schools throughout Richmond the same two questions: What are your employment goals, and what are your employment barriers?

Then, through photography, student participants provided visual answers. For example, if transportation had been a barrier, a student might take a picture of a delayed bus, or being on a lengthy walk between work and home. Often, photographs captured students' interests and strengths, such as working with animals and plants or using machinery in an agricultural setting or sorting and organizing in a retail environment.

The ultimate goal is to "work with community members, schools, employers, providers and agencies to improve employment outcomes, both by improving the way that the system works altogether and by helping youth identify and explore their areas of employment interests," Prohn said.

According to Amanda Dailey, an intensive support mentor teacher with Richmond Public Schools, Project PEACE has made a huge impact on students as well as the school division.

Through photovoice, pictures taken by students help to explicitly identify their preferences, needs and strengths. (Contributed photo)

"Our students have the opportunity to have a voice in their transition planning, and it is [showing] that our students can do amazing things," she said. "Project PEACE has also been instrumental in creating partnerships with other agencies, businesses and resources for our students and families, [opening] the door for opportunities that have allowed our students to thrive in the community."

For youth with disabilities, the photographs are a multipronged tool, Prohn said.

"Photovoice, as a method in general, has always been used for advocacy among populations that have been traditionally marginalized," he said. "In this case, the students are learning about themselves, but they're also saying, 'Look, people with disabilities want jobs. We loved our work experiences. We were really good at this, and this is how we can contribute.'"

Through photovoice, which blends the students' photos with their discussions of work-based learning experiences, the students are also creating digital portfolios that serve as something like a virtual résumé. The students can take them into their community as they apply for jobs.

Now as the photovoice research enters its fifth year, the curriculum will expand to include all high schools across Richmond Public Schools, with a long-term goal of establishing an enduring platform for communities throughout Virginia.

"The overall goal of the project is to create a sustainable model for community transition plans, where we, as the researchers, can come in, help communities form that plan and then have that sustainably continue" after researchers have left, said Taylor, who is pursuing her Ph.D. in educational psychology. "The goal is to make them self-sufficient."

She added that different communities have different needs. For example, Amelia County - a rural locality southwest of the state capital - won't have the same public transportation options that a city environment such as Richmond might have, which changes the job landscape for someone who may not have a car.

"It's going to look different in each place," Taylor said, "but that's the goal of our plan: to make it really flexible so that we can take it to any community, have them form it and it be sustainable in the long term."

"It's empowering," VCU's Seb Prohn said. "When you're talking about what you did and what you like, you're reifying that to yourself: 'This is who I am, and these are my interests and these are my goals.'" (Jonathan Mehring, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)