Sounds of silence: narrative research with inarticulate subjects

Tim Booth and Wendy Booth

Disability and Society, 11(1), 1996, pp. 55-69.

This article addresses the challenge of using narrative methods with people who have learning difficulties. Such informants present four particular interview problems: inarticulateness, unresponsiveness, a concrete frame of reference and difficulties with the concept of time. The authors focus on the first two of these problems and argue that neither of them constitutes an insuperable barrier to people telling their story.

Drawing on detailed interview material from an informant with learning difficulties, the authors set out to show in practical terms how these problems might be tackled, emphasising in particular the importance of being attentive to what goes unsaid. They conclude that researchers should put more emphasis on overcoming the barriers that impede the involvement of inarticulate subjects in narrative research instead of dwelling on their limitations as informants.