Reframing the Perspective: A Photovoice Experience in the Final Secondary School Examination with students who encounter barriers in verbal communication

Abstract

This article presents a photovoice experience conducted with two students with intellectual disabilities during the final State examination of upper secondary school. The project emerged from the desire to restore to the students the possibility of selfrepresentation, overcoming linguistic and symbolic barriers that often render them objects rather than subjects of narration. Photovoice, understood as both a pedagogical and research device, was adapted to the evaluative procedures to build a visual and dialogic account of the internship experience. The images produced, despite their technical imperfection, conveyed an authentic and situated perspective, opening new spaces for mutual recognition among students, teachers, and institutions. The experience highlights how Special Pedagogy can critically inhabit normative interstices, transforming formal contexts into spaces of participation and agency.