This is one of the coresearchers, Taylor, and myself after our final focus group meeting. Taylor and all other photographers of the photos shown on the table consented to the inclusion of themselves, their photos, and their names for this project.

Author: Haley Ulowetz | Majors: Exercise Science and Kinesiology

During the Fall semester of 2021, I conducted my undergraduate research with the students of the EMPOWER Program under the supervision of my research mentor Dr. Tom Smith. This program is a four-year non-degree program at the University of Arkansas that aids individuals with mild intellectual disabilities in attending college. EMPOWER stands for Educate, Motivate, Prepare, Opportunity, Workplace readiness, Employment, and Responsibility. The goal of this research was to gain valuable insight into the point of view of college students with intellectual disabilities using photovoice research. Photovoice is a qualitative research method that falls within a participatory action framework. This allows the participants to take photographs and write original captions that function as the data to be analyzed. For this study, these photos and captions were then used to evaluate the daily experiences of the students enrolled in the EMPOWER program at the University of Arkansas.

With the assistance and guidance of Dr. Lorien Jordan, I dove into a literature review of photovoice studies conducted with individuals with various disabilities and saw a serious lack of specific, applicable, and easily understandable data on the college experience of individuals with disabilities. However, there was an even greater lack of evidence from the point of view of these individuals as coresearchers. Because photovoice is a participatory type of research, it allows the participants to be coresearchers. This means they have control over the photos they submit, and therefore the data to be analyzed and shared with the community.

Thanks to the funding I received from an Honors College Grant, I was able to give each coresearcher a digital camera to use throughout the duration of this study and keep after the study concluded as an incentive and thank you for participating. The coresearchers used these cameras to go out into the community and photograph some of the barriers and facilitators to their daily lives as college students. They were also given a photo-taking print-out guide to use while taking photos out that assisted them in capturing photos of those barriers and facilitators. This guide included prompts such as “What and/or who makes college more enjoyable for you?” and “What obstacles are there in your daily life that make college challenging for you?” The coresearchers then selected five to ten photos to present and share with the group which they felt best expressed the facilitators and barriers of college from their point of view. All these photos were discussed in a focus group meeting that I led, in which all six coresearchers were present and actively participated.

At this focus group meeting, three themes were established from the photos taken: (1) a sense of community, (2) mobility, and (3) resource accessibility. It was concluded that the most valuable theme to the coresearchers was a sense of community. Within that, the greatest barrier affecting the lives of the coresearchers and their sense of community was COVID-19 and the restrictions it had on making new friends and experiencing college. The greatest facilitator of this strong sense of community was the EMPOWER program itself and the supports it offered. Further, I concluded that the EMPOWER program was overall the greatest facilitator to the daily lives of individuals with cognitive and intellectual disabilities at the University of Arkansas. The establishment of a support system through peer mentoring, smaller class sizes, accessibility to on-campus jobs and internships, and connections to other students through this program created a strong sense of community for these individuals. The largest barrier facing students with disabilities at the time of this research was the COVID-19 pandemic, but there were also various barriers with mobility, transportation, campus size, and layout. From these findings, college campuses should be aware of and continue to work to minimize and eliminate these barriers by listening to and accommodating the needs of their students with cognitive and intellectual disabilities.

The collection of photos and captions gained from this research represents the main facilitators and barriers for college students with intellectual disabilities. Sharing these photos enables a better understanding of their experiences. This photo collection will become a great resource to be shared with the community. Further, this research will provide information transferable to other scholarly endeavors utilizing photovoice methodology and college-aged young adults with disabilities. It will also enable a better understanding of the barriers and facilitators these individuals experience at a four-year university. The findings of this research can be shared with other colleges, researchers, and the University of Arkansas community. This will be used to educate the faculty, staff, and students about the barriers and facilitators of experiencing college for individuals with cognitive and intellectual disabilities, as well as highlight the importance of inclusion programs, such as EMPOWER. Hopefully, this will encourage other universities to make changes on their own campuses on behalf of their students with disabilities and work to develop supports, resources, and even their own programs, similar to EMPOWER.

I am so honored to have received the opportunity to conduct this research with the students of the EMPOWER Program. I have a passion for working with individuals with disabilities and am applying to graduate school for occupational therapy so that I can serve this community for the rest of my life. I am so extremely grateful for the Honors College Grant that allowed me to conduct this research and supported me while I conducted this study that meant so much to me. Throughout the duration of this research project, I found another passion for research. While gaining my Doctoral degree in Occupational Therapy I look forward to diving deeper into the literature and research on individuals with disabilities using photovoice as the main form of methodology. I hope to continue conducting research with individuals with disabilities in order to spread awareness and education and further the active inclusion of such individuals within the greater community.