Disability Panels/Papers at ICA 2026

Disability-Themed Panels and Preconference organized by the

Working group for Disability, Communication and Media in ICA

at ICA’26

Thursday 4 June 2026

PRECONFERENCE: The Third Disability, Communication, and Media Preconference 2026

Thursday 4 June 2026 9am to 5pm 

Venue: University of Cape Town Campus (Separate registration required) 

https://www.icahdq.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?alias=Disability26

Friday 5 June 2026

(HYBRID) ‘Talking Back’ to Visual Culture: Disability Across Visual Media Forms

Friday 5 June 2026 12:00pm to 1:15pm 

Venue: CTICC Ballroom West (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1. It’s Personal, and It’s Drag: Lady Gaga, Disability Drag, and the Performance of Identity
Jaggar DeMarco

2. Peloton and the Discourse of Digital Adaptive Fitness
Samira Rajabi

3. Negotiating Disability and Gender: Asian Women TikTokers with Disabilities
Yifan Jin; Kuansong Victor Zhuang

4. Transfiguring Stars? Making of videos and Prostheticising a “Disability Look”
Priyam Sinha

5. Embodied Truths: Disability, Journalism, and the Politics of Corporeal Knowledge
Fabiana Battisti

(HYBRID) Disability and Inequality in African Contexts: Implications for Communication Studies

Friday 5 June 2026 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM

Venue: CTICC Ballroom East (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1. Disability, Health and Exclusion in Africa: Notes (and Silences) From the Field

Leslie Swartz

2.    Hidden voices: The inclusion of people with severe communication disabilities in the media

Alecia Samuels

3.    Ambiguous visibilities of disabilities on South African public university websites

Viwe Ndayi

4.    Gender, Sexuality, and Disability in Media in Africa
Tafadzwa Rugoho 

Saturday 6 June 2026

(HYBRID) BLUE SKY: The Future of Disability, Communication, and Media Research at ICA

Saturday 6 June 2026 10:30am to 11:45am 

Venue: CTICC Ballroom East (CTICC1, Lev 1)

Session Notes: Over the past decade and before, disability, communication, and media research has become a rich, diverse, and interdisciplinary field, with increasing presence at the ICA conference. In this Blue Sky session, we invite scholars to engage in a collaborative discussion to reflect on past and current scholarship around disability, communication, and media, discuss support necessary for disability scholars participation in research, and imagine the futures of the field more broadly, but also at the ICA conference.

(HYBRID) Health Communication and Disability Across Popular Media Culture

Saturday 6 June 2026 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM 

Venue: CTICC Ballroom West (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1. “These Are Our Voices”: Disability Influencers and Health Communication during COVID-19

Divya Garg

2. Health and chronic illness in video games: disability as ludonarrative in Citizen Sleeper

Wenqi Tan

3. Putting simulation to the existential test: revealing ‘truths’ of technology, disability and selfhood

Amanda Lagerkvist

4.    Lost in Representation: Portrayal of Disabilities in Indonesian Films, a new form of oppression?

Dyah Pitaloka

Sunday 7 June 2026

(HYBRID) Inequalities in Mediated Disability Activism Across Contexts

Sunday 7 June 2026 1:30pm to 2:45pm 

Venue: CTICC Ballroom West (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1.    Influ-activist ecology of marginalized groups: insights from the study of disabled influencers, communication agencies, and advocacy organizations
Filippo Trevisan; Manuela Farinosi

2.    Designing for Disruption: Developing Inclusive Digital Media Software for Disabled People of Color
Jaz Gray; Thalia Markowski; Emmanuel-Sathya Gray

3.    Coding Against Exclusion: Collaborative Techno-Activism among Visually Impaired Programmers
Jingyi LIAO; Kuansong Victor Zhuang

4.    The Paradox of Visibility in Media Spaces: Slega, Feminist Activism, and the Margins of Disability Justice
Fabiana Battisti

5.    Negotiating Access: Disability, Communication, and Micro-Activism in Indian Universities
Shivpal Chawda

Other disability themed papers/panels accepted to ICA’26

(not organized by the DCM working group)

Note: Inclusion here is based on keyword search of disability related terms in the conference program. We apologise in advance for omissions. 

Friday, 5 June 2026

Panel: Disability, Communication, and Social Justice

Friday, 5 June 2026 9:00 AM - 10:15 AM

Venue: Edward & Schappen (Westin, Mezzanine Level)

1.    Disability-led Accessibility Audits and the Communication Conference: Implications for Communication Studies and Social Justice
Kuansong Victor Zhuang; Sami S Goh; Jordan Yong Sheng Lim; Megan Ong; Quang Khai Chi Nguyen; Wei Chen Lai; Yu Shen Goh; Nurhafiez Nazir Ahmad; Dong Xuan Yeo; Xuen Rong, Tricia Tan

2.    What is the priority in the debate on autism? Mapping claims for recognition in parliamentary, activist and mainstream media arenas in Brazil
Francisco G. Alves; Rousiley C. Maia

3.    When Accessibility Becomes Reciprocity: Understanding Sighted Players’ Collaboration with Blind and Low Vision Players in Mobile Games
Xiyu Li; Zihe Ran

4.    Reconstructing Media Consumption Patterns for Visually Impaired Groups: A Media Affordance Perspective on the “Light Cinema” Project
JINGRU YANG

5.    Extended Abstract: Disability, Identity, and Activism: DPO Activism in the 21st Century
Lisa V. Chewning

Individual papers

AI in Instruction and Communication Professions

Friday, 5 June 2026 9:00 AM – 10:15AM

Venue: 1.63 (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1.    Say it, See it, Keep it: Multimodal Classroom Communication with Autistic Students Using Generative AI

Junyi Guo; Min Hua; Ying Jiang; Mengkun Bi; Lexinyu Huang

Children and Adolescents: Mental Health, Neurodiversity, and Interpersonal Communication 

Friday, 5 June 2026 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

Venue: 1.64 (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1.    Extending the Double Empathy Problem: Communication Barriers Between Autistic Adolescents and Mental Health Screening Tools

Jessica Freedman         

2.    Selective Positivity? Strategic Practices of Illness Disclosure by Children to Parents via Social Media in Geographically Separated Chinese Families

Yuwen Zhang

Mental Health: Sigma and Influencers

Friday, 5 June 2026 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

Venue: 2.41-2.43 (CTICC1, Lev 2)

1.    When Metaphors Hurt and Heal: The Effects of Metaphor Use and Protagonist–Reader Similarity on Stigma in Mental Illness Narratives

Yujie Dong; Yin Yang

Theoretical Advancements in Interpersonal Communication Research: Explicating Concepts and Revisiting Theories

Friday, 5 June 2026 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Venue: 1.42 (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1.    Performing Neurotypicality: A Concept Explication of Autistic Masking as Strategic Identity Communication
Priscilla A. Boateng

Press X for Gender Norms: Masculinity and Femininity in Games

Friday, 5 June 2026 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Venue: 1.63 (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1.    Cruel Performativity and Masculinity among Chinese Male Gamers with Disabilities
Hao Liang; Zhongxuan Lin

Perceptions of Mental Health and Treatment

Friday, 5 June 2026 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Venue: 2.41-2.43 (CTICC1, Lev 2)

1.    “This didn’t exist back then”: A Focus Group Study on Adolescents’ Perceptions of Mental Illness in the Context of Family, Peers, and Social Media

Dora Weubel; Hannah J. Bauer; Kathrin Karsay; Ruth Wendt; Anne-Linda Camerini

2.    Explanatory Beliefs of Mental Health and Illness within Asian American Communities in the United States: A Scoping Review

ShuXian Mai; Jennifer A. Wong; Supriya Misra

Organizational Communication Research Escalator

Friday, 5 June 2026 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Venue: Westin Ballroom West (Westin, Old Harbour Level)

1.    Rethinking the Job Demands–Resources Model for Autistic Employees: A Communicative Exploration of Neurodiversity in the Workplace
April Yue; Scotti Branton; Astrid M. Villamil; Joel Reed; Grace Ji; Weiting Tao

2.    Cripping the Chair: Neurodivergence, Discourse, and Workplace Power in Corporate Hair Salons
Kara L. Starnes; Evan Kirksey

Participation and Reception: Agency Across Sites and Platforms

Friday, 5 June 2026 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM

Venue: Protea (CTICC2, Lev 1)

1.    Going Out to Listen to Movies: Mediatized Offline Film Experiences of the Visually Impaired in China
Ji Zhang; Ying Qin

Top Papers in Organizational Communication

Friday, 5 June 2026 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM

Venue: Auditorium 2 (CTICC1, Lev 2)

1.    Affective Negotiations of Visibility: Neurodivergent Workers and the Politics of Disclosure
Scotti Branton; Astrid M. Villamil; Joel L. Reed; Evan Kirksey

Saturday, 6 June 2026

PARTNER PANEL: AANZCA - Critically Assessing Research and Institutional Agendas

Saturday, 6 June 2026, 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM

Venue: 2.64 (CTICC1, Level 2)

1.    Access labour and the individualisation of inclusive communication: How an ethos of ‘collective care’ can inform more impactful DEIA work
Ashleigh Haw

HIGH-DENSITY: Topics in Mobile Communication

Saturday, 6 June 2026, 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM

Venue: Westin Ballroom East (Westin, Old Harbour Level)

1.    Relational Visibility on Tiktok：How Blind or Visually impaired Vloggers Gain Ties and Social Capital?
Tingting Cao; Tingli Liu

InfoSys: Narrative, Emotion, and Audience Engagement

Saturday, 6 June 2026, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM

Venue: Bluebell (CTICC2, Lev 3)

1.    Narrative Access Without Sight: Toward Emotionally and Semantically Rich Advertising for Blind/Low Vision Audiences
Zihang E; Eunjin (Anna) Kim; Donggyu Kim

Gendered Labour in Platformised Communication

Saturday, 6 June 2026, 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Venue: CTICC Ballroom East (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1.    Nothing About Us Without Us: An exploratory Study on best Practices in Strategic Communication Campaigns with Digital Influencers with Disabilities
Andreia M. Amaro; Dora Santos-Silva

PURR-sistent Digital Divides: From Algorithmic Awareness to Kinship Networks

Saturday, 6 June 2026, 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Venue: Auditorium 2 (CTICC1, Lev 2)

1.    Seeing into the Air：Media Practices of Blind vloggers and the Paradox of Visibility
Sijing Song

2.    Digital Kinship at Fingertips: Smartphone-Mediated Family Communication Among Visually Impaired People
Min Wang; Haomiao Xu; Tingting Wang

Absence and Presence: In(Visibility) Across Cultures

Saturday, 6 June 2026, 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM

Venue: Westin Ballroom East (Westin, Old Harbour Level)

1.    Invisible "seeing": The digital "selfie" experiences of people with visual impairments in China
Fanying Peng

Sunday, 7 June 2026

Intergroup Processes and Social Media

Sunday, 7 June 2026, 9:00 AM - 10:15 AM

Venue: 1.41 (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1.    Disabled Stand-Up on Instagram: A Content Analysis of Reels by Comedians Who Identify as Disabled
Martina Santia; Charisse L. Corsbie-Massay; Emmanuel-Sathya Gray; Nia Mason; Luvell Anderson

CAM Research Escalator Session

Sunday, 7 June 2026, 9:00 AM - 10:15 AM

Venue: Westin Ballroom West (Westin, Old Harbour Level)

1.    Self-Diagnosis of Mental Illness in Adolescence: A Cross-Sectional Study on Predictors and Protective Factors in the Context of Algorithmically Curated Social Media Content
Hannah J. Bauer; Sophie Mayen; Kathrin Karsay; Anne-Linda Camerini; Ruth Wendt

(HYBRID) HIGH-DENSITY: Power, Activism, and Overcoming Inequalities in Global Communication Fields

Sunday, 7 June 2026, 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

Venue: CTICC Ballroom East (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1.    Comedy as an equalizer in disability representation? How disabled comedians disrupt ableist discourse through stand-up shared on social media
Emmanuel-Sathya Gray; Charisse L. Corsbie-Massay; Martina Santia; Nia Mason; Luvell Anderson

Framing the Game: Media Memory and Mythmaking

Sunday, 7 June 2026, 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Venue: Edward & Schappen (Westin, Mezzanine Level)

1.    Framing Disability in Sport Journalism: A Cross-National Automated Framing Analysis of Paralympic News (2012-2024)
Wenwen Guo; Anne C. Kroon

BILLI-eving Stigma: FOMO, Algorithms, and Visual Social Media Impacts 

Sunday, 7 June 2026, 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Venue: 2.41-2.43 (CTICC1, Lev 2)

1.    This Is Not My Authentic Identity: How the Xiaohongshu Algorithm Mediates the Platformed Identity of ADHD
Menghan Yin

CAT Poster Session

Sunday, 7 June 2026, 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM

Venue: Hall 2 (CTICC1, Ground Level)

1.    Making Fiction Visible: Technological Mediation and Creative Audio Description for Inclusive Media Experience
Xuan Tang

Language and Social Interaction Top Papers

Sunday, 7 June 2026, 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM

Venue: 1.42 (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1.    "Depression is a Rich Word": Framing Mental Illness and Stigma in Women's Stand-Up Comedy
Gina Junhan Fu

 
Monday, 8 June 2026

Recovering Repressed Histories of Media, Institutions, and Social Movements

Monday, 8 June 2026, 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

Venue: 1.64 (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1.    Communicating Disability, Silencing Dissent: Veteran Media and Colonial Biopower in Algeria and Senegal.
Russell Adzedu

HIGH-DENSITY: Fields of Play: Negotiating Power, Inclusion, and Careers in Gaming

Monday, 8 June 2026, 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

Venue: Westin Ballroom West (Westin, Old Harbour Level)

1.    From Entrepreneurial Living to Creative Livelihood: Visually Impaired Game Developer’s Identity Work in China
Zheng Fang

HIGH-DENSITY: B.E.S.T. I: Identification, Intersectionality and Vulnerability in Organizational Communication Research

Monday, 8 June 2026, 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

Venue: 8.3 (CTICC2, Lev 2)

1.    The Invisible Labor of Assimilation by Individuals with Stigmatized Identities: A Qualitative Study of Autistic Workers’ Organizational Socialization
Young Ji Kim; Margot Plunkett

#ADHD Content on Social Media: Analysis and Effects 

Monday, 8 June 2026, 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Venue: 2.65-2.66 (CTICC1, Lev 2)

1.    From Problem to Presence: A Comparative Analysis of ADHD Frames on TikTok
Hanbo Liu; Samuel Muzhingi; Yunwen Wang

2.    From Individual Expression to Collective Anti-Stigma: A Content Analysis of Adult ADHD Graphic Notes on Xiaohongshu
Guoyu Wang

3.    Memetic Representations of ADHD Lived Experiences in China and the U.S.: A Critical Discourse Analysis of #ADHDmemes on Instagram and Xiao Hong Shu
Xinna Li; Deanna Holroyd

4.    The ADHD TikTok-Trend: Analyzing the Relationship Between Watching ADHD Content and Users' Self-Reflection and Self-Diagnosis
Katharina Rupp; Kathrin Karsay; Tobias Dienlin

Art Practitioners, Artworks, and Artistic Representations

Monday, 8 June 2026, 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM

Venue: 1.62 (CTICC1, Lev 1)

1.    Inclusive Knowledge Spaces: A Multi-Sited Ethnography of Audio-Described Film Making in China
Kunpeng Miao; Zhaoyang Wang; Lixing Wang; Chun Yang

Marginalized Groups, Social Support and Resilience 

Monday, 8 June 2026, 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM

Venue: 2.65-2.66 (CTICC1, Lev 2)

1.    The Silence of Guarding Benevolence: Family Resilience Communication and the Ethics of Concealment in Chinese Illness Disclosure
Zhengxin Liu