Reflection on the benefits and limitations of participant-generated photography as an adjunct to qualitative interviews with participants with aphasia

Abstract

Background: Visual methods, including participant-generated photography as a stimulus to qualitative interviews, have a long history in the social science research as a means of enriching qualitative research data. However, little is known about their use with people with a communication disability such as aphasia. In this article, we provide a commentary on the benefits and limitations of participant-generated photography as an adjunct to qualitative interviews for individuals with aphasia. We base our reflections on experiences using this method in a study exploring the meaning of living successfully with aphasia from the perspectives of 25 participants with chronic aphasia.

Reflections: Benefits of the method include facilitation of rapport and animated discussion that provided a greater voice of authority and a sense of research ownership for participants. An additional benefit we identify is the use of photographs as communication aids during interviews. Limitations we discuss are: participants’ spouses taking photographs for them, participants’ physical difficulties using cameras, and ethical issues of photograph use in research.

Conclusions: Based on our findings, we support the use of the participant-generated photography and advocate for researchers to consider diverse methods to capture the voices of individuals with communication disabilities.

Keywords:

• Aphasia
• Qualitative
• Photovoice
• Photography
• Visual methods