A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

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going out for a coffee with a partner
spending an afternoon volunteering in an office
spending a morning running a self-advocacy group
spending a morning working at home
going for a train at a major city railway station at rush hour
cooking an evening meal
going shopping
watching an episode of Deal Or No Deal
In some cases I observed different people carrying out the same activity in different settings.
For example, I went shopping with three participants. I watched the same episode of the
Channel 4 game show Deal Or No Deal with four participants (I had obtained a DVD of the
show from Channel 4).
I adopted a fairly flexible approach to identifying „everyday situations‟. Quite obviously
disabled people do not routinely celebrate 50 th birthdays on an everyday basis any more than
anybody else does. My primary concern was that participants should do things they felt
comfortable about and would ordinarily have been doing anyway.
Following Up
Following each interview I transcribed the recordings and emailed the transcriptions to
participants for confirmation. I told participants to feel free to add to or amend any parts of
the transcript they wished, but to let me know if there had been any changes when returning
these.