The Qualitative Open Mic

Autistic people have a whole constellation of communication needs and styles, but these are not always understood or accommodated by researchers. This month, Sohail interviews Alyssa Hillary Zisk about Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC): what it is, the range of communication profiles it can help accommodate, and how qualitative inquiry into autistic experiences helped name these to increase understanding.

Neurodiversity and neurodivergence have been revolutionary ideas in autism research, and later in ADHD. But how do they apply to other diagnoses or experiences? This month Sohail speaks to Dr Daria Khanolainen, a dyslexia researcher in Finland, about qualitative dyslexia research, self-esteem, and pathologising reading difficulties.

We are re-publishing Bee Damara's interview with the Qualitative Open Mic, which had been temporarily removed from our archive and was part of the Anti-racist Qualitative Health Research series.

Bee speaks about critical race theory in modern slavery and human trafficking research, discussing her experiences working on the modern slavery outcome set project at KCL. She talks about the importance of grounding research in anti-racist theories, and how acknowledging historical and global inequalities can improve the quality and relevance of findings.

Parents get a lot of advice, and a lot of it is conflicting or inappropriate. Parenting research aims to be better than that – but is it, when neurodivergence is in the mix? This month Sohail speaks to Dr Victoria Castle about her participatory research using innovative qualitative methods to co-develop ways to measure parenting that work for neurodivergent parents and parents of neurodivergent children.

Autoethnographers use their personal experiences to explore wider issues, relationships, or situations. So what happens if you experience the world differently? Sohail speaks to Dr Elizabeth Hauke about autoethnography, inclusive education and assessment, and denormativising the university.