The ‘Collaborative Personal Statement’: a more inclusive method of data-gathering than audio recording interviews with vulnerable people

ABSTRACT

Inclusive research with people with learning disabilities often involves audio-recording interviews. However, although barely acknowledged in the literature, participants may not understand that every word recorded will be scrutinised forensically, from which possibly erroneous conclusions may be drawn. This paper describes an alternative method: the ‘Collaborative Personal Statement’ (CPS), which eschews the standard practice of making data gathering an unobtrusive, hidden audio-recording exercise in favour of dynamic interactive note-taking, in which participants’ notes are read back to them, to be clarified, edited and augmented as part of interview sessions. The resulting narrative is also reviewed and finalised to produce the CPS. The paper argues that this obviates problems around, in particular, member checking, as participants are not burdened days later with the onerous task of examining and amending lengthy verbatim transcripts, often replete with various unflattering disfluencies. Also, the constant refining and clarification entailed in producing the CPS helps enable researchers to better explore, understand and analyse participant perspectives and meanings. To put the method into a research perspective, a case study of its use is outlined – the creation of a ‘living electronic archive’ relating the use and impact of mobile technology on the lives of people with learning disabilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Qualitative research
• methods
• recording interviews
• inclusive research

Acknowledgments

This study is part of a research project generously funded by The British Academy as a Post-doctoral Fellowship. The author would also like to thank his steering group, Prof. Barrie Gunter, Dr Andrew MacFarlane, Dr Mina Vasalou, Dr Rob Miller and (during Rob’s sabbatical) Prof. Elizabeth Shepherd, for their constant invaluable help and advice. Thanks, too, to all the participants and supporters at the various sites where the research was undertaken.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The US organisation Teaching Tolerance has some excellent teaching materials on inclusion and acceptance: https://www.tolerance.org/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the British Academy Post-doctoral Fellowship scheme under Grant number [pf160147].

Notes on contributors

Peter Williams

Peter Williams is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Information Studies, University College London, UK. He has spent the last 25 years investigating the role and impact of digital technology – in particular the Internet - in the health service, media and education. He recently completed a British Academy Fellowship on 'The Digital Lives of People with Learning Disabilities', extending and complementing his PhD thesis which examined web site design for the same cohort. Peter is the author/co-author of three books and over 130 journal articles and book chapters.