Συγγραφείς: Filippou Eleni, Papanis Efstratios, Giavrimis Panagiotis & Papani Eirini-Myrsini

Περίληψη

Nowadays, the proportion of people who make daily use of the internet is growing rapidly. The benefits from this use are numerous; communication, exchanges, studies, businesses, marketing, access to information and knowledge, research are all considerably benefited. The present paper discusses how research on disability can be facilitated through the application of online research methods. It is concluded that it is important to adapt conventional research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, for online use, since it is an extremely time and cost-effective way to reach the sample that is representative of the general population and to collect and analyze the data. The most important contribution of online research is that it provides the opportunity to recruit participants -people with disabilities- from anywhere in the world and gain an international perspective for the study. The appropriateness of using a range of different types of online communication, such as Collaborative Virtual Environments, for the purpose of qualitative research is also discussed and their potential of conveying non-verbal information is assessed.