Qualitative Inquiry with Participants with Intellectual Disabilities: Methodological Transformation through Accessibility-Adaptability as Risk

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 1:45 pm - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Access as Method: Adaptive, Embodied, and Disability-Centered Approaches to Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

The paper provides examples and suggestions from an empirical study interviewing students with intellectual disabilities enrolled in Inclusive Postsecondary Education programs. It argues for a disability-centered approach, acknowledging that such approaches incorporate risks from several angles. Risks are necessary to include the population in research about their experiences and occur through the provision of accessibility by adapting qualitative methods to the participants’ needs. These adaptations are risky because they pose a challenge to traditional approaches to reliability and validity. However, post-structural methodologists have critiqued these traditional approaches and argued epistemological validity lies in the congruence of theory and method rather than being derived from procedural control. The paper’s empirical examples inform future researchers to anticipate potential challenges.

Author

• Andres A. Arrazola, Florida International University