University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa (and online), 4th June 2026
Ngozi Marion Emmanuel, Bev Enion, Bimbo Fafowora, Ria Gualano, Karen Jeynes, Muya Koloko, Wenqi Tan, Kuansong Victor Zhuang
Meryl Alper, Lorenzo Dalvit, Elizabeth Ellcessor, Katie Ellis, Gerard Goggin, Beth Haller, Deanna Holroyd, Chelsea Temple Jones, Jenny Kennedy, Amanda Lagerkvist, Dyah Pitaloka, Samira Rajabi, Valquiria Ramos Obregón, Abdul Rohman, Filippo Trevisan, Zhouxiao Xie, M. Remi Yergeau
Hosted by the University of Cape Town
Supported by ICA Philosophy, Theory and Critique Division
Submission deadline: 1st February 2026 (Anywhere on Earth)
Notification for accepted abstracts: End-February 2026
Preconference: 4th June 2026
A key focus of this year’s preconference is to foster a supportive community of scholars and thinkers across disability, communication, and media research. We are building upon two consecutive preconferences held at ICA 2024 and 2025, which each had more than 40 attendees online and in-person, to provide a space for collaboration, conversation, and mentorship.
The disability, communication, and media preconference will be a hybrid event. It will consist of:
Presentations by postgraduate and early career researchers
Keynote address delivered by South African experts in disability, communication and media studies
Small group breakout sessions led by senior scholars in disability, communication and media studies
In line with ICA 2026's call to look at communication and inequality, the field of disability, media, and communication research has emerged as a well-established site of critical inquiry (Alper 2023; Dokumaci 2023; Ellis and Goggin 2015). Our preconference challenges scholars to engage with the theme Invisible to Indivisible, demanding that disability moves from a specialized, marginal focus to the indivisible core of communication theory and practice. Disability is inherently generative—a necessary critical lens for articulating how all communication phenomena relate to systemic power. This movement from periphery to center recognizes that disability is intrinsically linked to understanding intersecting forms of oppression and resistance (Goodley 2013). Thus, we investigate: what does it mean for disability studies to be established as an indivisible, foundational framework necessary for pursuing communication justice?
This year, the preconference invites postgraduate students and early career researchers* across disability, communication, and media research to present their in-progress work in a collaborative environment, receive mentorship, and learn from established scholars in the field. We are interested in a diversity of projects, including research ideas in their early stages of development (including theses and dissertations), open and critical questions to the field, and the sharing of research results.
Accepted presenters will present their work and receive feedback from a group of peers and experts in the field.
Submissions should focus on the application of disability studies in communication and media research, including, but not limited to the following topics:
Research that deliberates on how disability can be moved from the periphery to the center in communication and media research
Research that spotlights emergent, cutting edge, and exciting areas of disability communication and media research
Research that brings together disability-led perspectives to engage communication and media studies
Research that consider what it means to do disability-led research in the areas of communication, media, and technology
Research that takes stock of disability, communication, and media research to-date
Research that spotlights disability, communication, and media research away from Global North locations
and/or engages with the following questions:
How can/should we represent invisible experiences of disability in media?
How can disability research engage with and enrich communication and media studies and vice versa?
What can all communication scholars learn from disability insights such as ‘crip time’ and ‘spoon theory’?
What are the methodological contours of disability, communication, and media research?
What are the gaps, problems, and areas of concern in disability, communication, and media research?
What is the future of disability, communication, and media research?
We welcome submissions across methodological approaches and mediums. Submissions should also build on the core tenets of disability studies, which demands a critical rethinking of disability in normative societies. We encourage scholars from across the globe, and especially from sub-Saharan Africa, to submit their work.
If interested, please submit a 300-word abstract of your research and a short statement of interest/biography on what you hope to get out of the preconference (maximum 200-words) by 1 February 2026 at this form: https://forms.gle/gJKZTLJG9bamoUoR9
Please indicate if you will be participating in-person/remotely and any access needs**
Please direct any queries at icadisability@gmail.com
If the form above, or some aspects of it, is inaccessible, please email us at icadisability@gmail.com
We will notify accepted abstracts by the end of February
* Please note that early career researchers should be no more than 5 years from award of their PhD; preference will be given to postgraduate students and early career researchers not already in tenure-track positions.
** This preconference will be hybrid, so both physical and remote participation will be possible.
*** Fees, if any, to be announced.
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