Seeking UK volunteers for research on Sensory Overload

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This is a cut and paste of the advert for my research which I mentioned in another thread.


Do you have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder or Asperger Syndrome?

Do you experience meltdowns or shutdowns?

Are you independent with most or all daily living skills?

Would you be willing to be interviewed about meltdowns or shutdowns?

If the answer to all these questions is ‘yes’ then I would like to hear from you. I am a postgraduate student researching sensory overload in autism at the University of Stirling. I am also a registered occupational therapist. I would like to find out about the loss of control that sensory overload can cause, from your point of view.

I would like to speak to you about one or two specific incidents where sensory overload has contributed towards a meltdown, a shutdown or some other loss of control. I am interested in things like the location, what you were doing, specific triggers and how long it was before you regained some control.

If you would prefer not to be interviewed face to face it may be possible to use an alternative method such as an audio link or instant messaging.

All information you provide will be treated as strictly confidential and held securely. You will be free to withdraw from the study at any time. You must be aged 18 or over to take part in this study.

For an application form, or if you would like further information, please send me a private message. I will then send a private message giving you my University of Stirling email address.

Do you have Alex’s permission to solicit participation in your ‘research’?

The first rule of WP is to read the rules. Had you done so, I think you would have noticed the prohibition on cross posting. Please don't do this again.

It is a convention here that you don't join to post to solicit for subjects you want to use for a project without seeking the permission of the site owner first.

All new members to WP are asked to make significant contribution here before promoting/posting about their own site and outside activities. I sometimes wish AS researchers would do the same, rather than turn up here for the personal purpose only of using WP members as "lab rats" for personal projects.

I'm sorry about the double thread (this isn't one of the double threads by the way). I checked the rules and they didn't mention anything about research volunteer requests, so I put up my first posts to ask whether it would be ok. No one said it wouldn't be - I'm sorry, I didn't know about the convention of seeking permission from Alex. I realise I should have waited until after the weekend.

This isn't lab research, it's qualitative research where I'm looking for people to talk about their lived experience.

I realise it would be nicer for me to have contributed a bit to the forum before I made my request, but I do have to be aware of ethical and data protection constraints - I need to know as little as possible about participants other than what they are willing to tell me in the actual research.

It's not "journalistic" at all. It is purely academic research that is governed by very strict ethics.