Reframing disability in the online writing centre: How photovoice and generative AI inform the practice of parasupport

A higher representation of students with disabilities choose to learn online because of accessibility, flexibility, the privacy to disclose disability or not, and the affordance to schedule around interruptions in health or challenges exacerbated by disability. However, inequities remain particularly for students with disabilities seeking writing support in the writing centre.

This presentation will describe a study in which four post-secondary participants with disabilities generated images that explore open-ended prompts on ableism, their self-perception as writers, the issue of dependency, and what they need from a writing centre. These prompts allowed the participants to visually explore their experiences in response to socially constructed notions of disability in a writing centre context. Since academic contexts may also be sites of trauma, Dr. Violini will present a trauma-informed approach to ensure a safe setting for participants. The implications of this research highlight the importance of integrating these perceptions of experience in writing centre pedagogy to ensure best - and inclusive - practice.

Registration is not required; all are welcome. For further information and to join the session can be found on the CIDER session site. 

About CIDER Sessions: Call for presenters
The CIDER Sessions are an online, open and free seminar series through which researchers or research groups can present their work to a broad audience of fellow researchers, practitioners, and students from across Canada and around the world.

We invite researchers working in distance, distributed, online, or blended education to join us as presenters in our 2026-27 CIDER Session series. If you have recent research to share with our CIDER audience, contact dwilton@athabascau.ca with a brief description of your research topic and approximate date when it will be available for presentation. Spots are also available for emerging researchers nearing completion of their dissertation or thesis.

About CIDER
CIDER is supported by the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL) and the Centre for Distance Education, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Athabasca University: Canada's Open University and leader in professional online education. For more information is available online.

The Sessions and their recordings are open and available to all, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.