Giving a socially distanced voice to disabled young people : insights from the educational pathways and work outcomes qualitative longitudinal study

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for social research. However, little is known about the impact of social distancing measures on research with hard-to-reach populations. This paper provides methodological reflections on the efficacy of socially distanced recruitment and interviewing methods for research with disabled young people, drawing on our experience from the Educational Pathways and Work Outcomes longitudinal study, which started in March 2021 during the third national lockdown in England. We discuss difficulties in gaining access to disabled young people and argue that the pandemic has exacerbated longstanding barriers implicated in the recruitment of hard-to-reach populations who are typically seen as vulnerable by gatekeepers. In contrast, our experience suggests that flexible online/virtual interviews can overcome pitfalls inherent in the face-to-face interviewing of disabled young people and could therefore be utilised to make their voices heard in a variety of contexts and scenarios after the end of the ongoing pandemic.