Audiovisual conference technology in qualitative research: Lessons learned from conducting a descriptive study during the COVID-19 pandemic

Tecnologías de videoconferencia en la investigación cualitativa: Lecciones aprendidas de un estudio descriptivo en tiempos de la pandemia por COVID-19

Semi-structured interviews are a research method that allows the researcher to solicit narrative accounts of in- dividual experiences. Researchers use online semi-structured interviews for data collection in qualitative stud- ies, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. This article reflects on and contribute to the ongoing debate about the implementation of online semi-structured interviews. Drawing on the researcher’s own experiences from conducting the study “Voting Matters: An Analysis of the Use of Electoral-Assistive Devices through the Lens of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”,2 she discusses four main aspects of online semi-structured interviews implementation: (a) using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as an adaptation and methodological alternative to conducting interviews during the COVID-19 pandemic; (b) brief content-based literature recommendations for using VoIP in qualitative research; (c) use of the Zoom platform; and (d) key lessons learned from using Zoom for individual and focus group coordination and im- plementation. This article concludes that VoIP is a promising technology to host individual and focus group interviews for a qualitative study. Lessons learned might be helpful to researchers considering VoIP to collect individual and focus group data in qualitative research, mainly during the coordination phase.