Beyond Textual Perfection: Transcribers as Vulnerable Persons

Abstract

Primarily women, transcribers are essentially invisible persons, paid to serve as nameless, faceless technicians even though they participate in a transformative auditory experience. Transcribers are drawn into the lives of research participants through hearing the details of their everyday lives and extraordinary circumstances. Exploring the work worlds of transcribers, the authors point to the need to consider transcribers as persons. Transcribers may require the protection of ethical and institutional review committees to prevent emotional injury during the course of sensitive research. Protecting transcribers can include ethical review to examine the possibility of transcriber vulnerability and appropriate researcher interventions fully informing transcribers about the nature of the research and the data that will be collected before hiring takes place, establishing regular debriefing sessions, alerting the transcriber in advance of receiving particularly difficult interviews, and preparing transcribers for the termination of a study.