[Air-L] ICA26 Panelists Needed: Disability & Inequalities in Communication

[E. S. Gray]

Apologies! I realised I forgot to include what I meant by ICA26.

This invitation for panelists is for ICA 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa.
The panel will be submitted in response to the conference theme
"Communication and Inequalities in Context."

Link to theme: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/ICA26-theme.

Looking for panelists who feel their work intersects with the panel topic
re-described below (including research, practice, presentation, art, humor,
or performance).

Panel: Addressing Inequalities in Inter-Ability Communication: Explorations
of Practice, Performance, and Presentation

Topic description: This panel will explore how disabled individuals,
scholars, performers, and artists center their narratives through
communication that incorporates or conveys their perceptions, navigation of
the world, or sense of reality. The common social scripts for communication
require communicators to be matched within "norms" of ability and access.
This expectation creates pressure to conform with conventions of delivery
that effectively marginalize any expression that does not fit the
culturally sanctioned scripts, whether due to necessity (e.g., bodily or
neurological limitations) or comfort (e.g., what feels natural within a
particular body). This panel explores what happens when that pressure to
conform is relaxed, and disabled individuals find or create space
(physical, digital, etc) to freely to express themselves according to what
they can do very well, their lived and embodied experiences, and what feels
natural for their bodies or minds.

---

If you are interested in joining me on this adventure to make this panel
happen, please reach me at grayea at mail.uc.edu and send me some information
about the work you'd like to discuss. Looking forward to corresponding with
folks!

Again, apologies for omitting the very important conference information
before.

best,
Emmanuel


On Sat, 11 Oct 2025 at 14:57, E. S. Gray <sathya.gray at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear scholars!
>
> I am organising a panel for ICA26, and would like to invite interested
> panelists. Please see details below if you would be interested.
>
> *Panel: Addressing Inequalities in Inter-Ability Communication:
> Explorations of Practice, Performance, and Presentation*
>
> *Topic Description: *This panel will explore how disabled individuals,
> scholars, performers, and artists center their narratives through
> communication that incorporates or conveys their perceptions, navigation of
> the world, or sense of reality. The common social scripts for communication
> require communicators to be matched within "norms" of ability and access.
> This expectation creates pressure to conform with conventions of delivery
> that effectively marginalize any expression that does not fit the
> culturally sanctioned scripts, whether due to necessity (e.g., bodily or
> neurological limitations) or comfort (e.g., what feels natural within a
> particular body). This panel explores what happens when that pressure to
> conform is relaxed, and disabled individuals find or create space to freely
> to express themselves according to what they can do very well, their lived
> and embodied experiences, and what feels natural for their bodies or minds.
>
> *Looking for panelists who feel their work intersects with this topic
> including:* research, practice, presentation, art, humor, or performance
>
> ---
>
> *About me: *My Name is Emmanuel-Sathya Gray. My interdisciplinary work in
> communication and community psychology currently focuses on what performers
> and artists teach us about breaking patterns of deference to dominant
> narratives, and bringing our realities from the margins to the center
> stage. I have published on activism, climate justice, and resilience, and
> am working on a book chapter (under review) and paper (in progress) related
> to the disruptive use of humor by disabled comedians on social media.
>
> ---
>
> If you are interested in joining me on this adventure to make this panel
> happen, please reach me at grayea at mail.uc.edu and send me some
> information about the work you'd like to discuss. Looking forward to
> corresponding with folks!
>