Troubling researcher-led recruitment: the self-selection of brain-injured adults who lack capacity to consent

Introduction Respecting and safeguarding individuals, especially those deemed ‘vulnerable’, is essential to research ethics and integrity (Daley, 2015), yet there have long been concerns about the lack of involvement of people with disabilities, and the subsequent silencing of their voices, in social science work (Barnes, 1996; Nind & Searle, 2009; Nind, 2011). Such concerns centre in particular on those who have cognitive or speech impairments and those with profound impairments and multiple needs (Nind, 2011). Methodology has been seen as one major barrier to involvement, for example people with cognitive and speech impairments may be excluded because they have been seen as ‘difficult’ or even ‘impossible’ to interview (Hutchinson et al., 1994).