Research With "Nonspeaking" Participants: Searching for New Directions in Qualitative Methodologies in Disability Studies

• In Event: Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Casting a Critical "I/Eye" on Alternative Methodological Perspectives in Education

Abstract

This paper, submitted for a roundtable discussion at the 2016 AERA Annual Meeting, interrogates the methodological tensions for doing qualitative research with non-speak participants. Because of the unique challenges experienced by individuals with disabilities that manifest in complex communication needs, Disability Studies scholars are charged with “identify[ing] a new methodology commensurate with fighting the social oppression of disabled people” (Stone & Priestly, 1996, p. 699). Thus this paper discusses contributions from different qualitative traditions including feminist interviewing, emancipatory research and critical qualitative research in hopes of moving closer to answering the question of how, via what means of communication, with what supports, and under what conditions, people with disabilities who do not speak are able to represent themselves?

Author

• Katherine Vroman, Syracuse University