Using Facebook to Recruit People with Dwarfism: Pros and Pitfalls for Disabled Participants and Researchers

Pritchard, Erin (2021) Using Facebook to Recruit People with Dwarfism: Pros and Pitfalls for Disabled Participants and Researchers. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 23 (1). pp. 85-93. ISSN 1501-7419

Text 747-4180-1-PB.pdf - Published Version Download (1MB)

Abstract

Social networking sites have gained widespread popularity and remain a popular way of keeping in contact with others. Drawing on networked individualism, this paper argues that Facebook is beneficial for recruiting disabled participants spread over a wide geographical area. The aim of the article is to provide a comparison between using Facebook as a recruitment tool and the more traditional form of face-to-face recruitment via attending events for people with dwarfism. These were the two main forms of recruitment used to understand how people with dwarfism navigate through public spaces. This paper argues that Facebook is not just good for recruiting disabled participants, but also for disabled researchers to use as an accessible form of recruitment. However, building on recruitment experiences, including those influenced by a digital divide, this paper demonstrates that caution must be taken when trying to recruit participants using Facebook alone. This paper offers recommendations for researchers considering using Facebook as a recruitment tool.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	© 2021 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Keywords:	Facebook, recruitment, people with dwarfism, digital divide, networked individualism, disability research
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Erin Pritchard
Date Deposited:	17 Mar 2021 10:08
Last Modified:	15 Dec 2022 16:36
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/3251

Actions (login required)

View Item