AMANDA HYNAN FINAL THESIS PDF

content. Livingstone (2004) also identifies issues such as invasion of privacy,
difficulty capturing experiences which may seem trivial to users, revealing
information about transgressive material (e.g. pornography), researcher unfamiliarity
with certain aspects of technology and concerns about harm. The lack of available
research into exploring online behaviour with people who use AAC required
remaining open and flexible to new obstacles.
Building awareness of possible challenges helped the navigation of hurdles that arose
especially in relation to the potential invasion of privacy and alternative data
collection methods. When considering how to collect data it was tempting to consider
doing this through online methods considering the focus of the research topic.
However, collecting data through engagement with participants through online social
media sites such as Facebook was discounted as it raised ethical concerns around
consent and privacy for family and friends on the site and was judged to potentially
transgress agreed professional boundaries with educational settings. It may have also
made my position as a researcher unclear, especially around ‘friendship’ and
negotiating exit strategies. Using email with participants was considered acceptable as
it does not have the associated social boundary ambiguities as other forms of online
social media. Using email as the main data collection method was briefly considered
but was discounted as it was judged not to offer the benefits that face-to-face
interviews gave in terms of:
reaching a deeper level of understanding about the implications of
communicating through VOCA devices
building rapport with participants
the opportunities to follow up issues in real time
the validity of self-report
3.2.5. Summary
These theoretical influences guided my thinking and planning. During the remainder
of this chapter issues raised within the literature review and these philosophical
foundations will be discussed where relevant. It is important to state this study did not
set out to produce information that can be generalised but rather to gather detailed
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