Performing Qualitative Data Analysis as a Blind Researcher: Challenges, Workarounds and Design Recommendations
Abstract
Over the last 2 decades, the way in which disabled body minds are regarded in research has evolved considerably. From an understanding that disability research involves research or enquiry on or of disabled people, there is now a shift in thinking that regards disability research as research done by and with disabled people as well, thus challenging traditional researcher-participant relationships. This has lead to a larger number of people with disabilities aspiring to enter academia. However, several barriers to full inclusion of people with disabilities still remain. This paper talks about one such barrier, that is, the lack of accessibility in software packages used for qualitative data analysis. Through the author’s experiences in hunting for accessible ways to perform qualitative data analysis, the paper reviews existing software packages, discusses possible workarounds, and considers the feature requirements for an accessible qualitative data analysis tool.
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Cites
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“autoethnographies, etc [1, 3, 8, 9, 11, 19] Advocates of participatory research emphasise the right of all people to be actively involved as researchers in matters relevant to their own lives and communities [17].”
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Tang, X., & Zhang, W. (2026) · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3772318.3790464 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Khan, O., & Seo, J. (2026) · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3772318.3791242 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Aishwarya, O.
- Affiliations
- International Institute of Information Technology, Bangaluru, India
- Corresponding author
- Aishwarya, O.
- ORCID
- Aishwarya, O.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2022-10-22
- Pages
- 1-4
- OpenAlex
- W4307136628
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3
- FWCI
- 2.55
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS) (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Digital Accessibility for Disabilities
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Rights and Representation
- Social Sciences › Education › Qualitative Research Methods and Applications
- Keywords
- disability, accessibility, qualitative data analysis software, assistive technology, researcher-participant relationship, disability research, accessibility requirements
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