A Critical Dialogical Methodology for Conducting Research With Disabled Youth Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Abstract

In this article, we present a theoretical examination of communication difference in the context of a critical qualitative study that explored “inclusion” with disabled youth who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogism, we articulate a novel critical dialogical methodology developed to rethink dominant understandings of voice, authenticity, and the autonomous participant. Case examples illustrate how the methodology surfaced normative value judgments that tacitly deem some kinds of interview talk more valid than others. The approach helped recognize the agency of disabled youth as they worked to make sense of inclusion and its effects.