BEYOND TEXTUAL PERFECTION - TRANSCRIBERS AS VULNERABLE PERSONS

Primarily women, transcribers are essentially invisible persons, paid to serve as nameless, faceless technicians even though they participat e in a transformative auditory experience. Transcribers are drawn into the lives of research participants through heaving the details of the ir everyday lives and extraordinary circumstances. Exploring the work worlds of transcribers, the authors point to the need to consider tran scribers as persons. Transcribers may require the protection of ethica l and institutional review committees to prevent emotional injury duri ng the course of sensitive research. Protecting transcribers can inclu de ethical review to examine the possibility of transcriber vulnerabil ity and appropriate researcher interventions, fully informing transcri bers about the Mature of the research and the data that will be collec ted before hiring takes place, establishing regular debriefing session s, alerting the transcriber in advance of receiving particularly diffi cult interviews, and preparing transcribers for the termination of a s tudy.