Advocating emancipatory and inclusive disability social semiotics

The final chapter synthesizes the resemiotization of disability as a social practice and highlights its practical applications for advocacy and inclusive interpretation of disability imagery. While the Visual Discourses of Disability (ViDD) framework has universal applicability, its effectiveness depends on anchoring social interpretations within local cultures, contexts and meaning systems. The conclusion also foregrounds the understanding of alterity in communicating disability, emphasizing how binary ways of speaking and visualizing disability continue to (re)constitute social behaviors. In view of the growing reliance on stock images and artificial intelligence (AI)-generated or modified photographs and graphics, the principles of ViDD remain relevant and vital for guiding targeted AI prompts, contextualizing disability narratives and advancing emancipatory agendas and actions.