Is it true?

I did some research yesterday. It was real research. I talked to several people who have first hand experience of the problem I was looking at. I asked questions of them. I looked at some research papers where other people have asked similar questions. I looked at their sources of information.

When I had finished doing all of that I sent off two emails to the two people who wanted to know what I thought we might be able to do about something which is related to the first problem. I told them what I had done. Both of them expressed surprise at the way I had answered their question. I responded that I felt it might actually save time.

Now I have to confess that I don't normally go to these lengths. There simply isn't time. Like everyone else I have to rely on the honesty of other people when I am trying to inform myself. It is not easy.

I have been "trained" to do "research". In other words I went to university. I was "taught" to "think" about a problem and how answers to it might be found. I found out about things like "sampling", "questionnaires", and "statistics" in the social sciences. All this was supposed to help me to answer questions and search for information.  And yes, it does - up to a point.  

I still have prejudices. In this case it is the belief that many people with disabilities need more help with communication skills. Yes, I do have concerns about the review which is about to take place and my research yesterday confirmed my concerns. There will be people who say that my own research was designed to confirm that belief in the need for more help and perhaps it was. What I hope is that I made a convincing case for it. I hope that people will say, "Cat thinks X because she looked at "A" and "B" and "C". She talked to people."

It's the best I can do for now. I could do an entirely new piece of research  if I had the money and at least two years to set it up. I would need to do things like read more of the research from the last thirty years, set up a new questionnaire which takes account of the changes in communication technology and the influences of social media. I'd need to try that questionnaire out on a small sample and then on the population in question. The results would need to be analysed and more - all before I could write anything that might be of value to other people. 

No, I am not going to do that. I am going to leave it up to other people. What I will do is ask questions when they make vague generalisations or they tell me something which does not accord with my beliefs and my prejudices. When people tell me something I am going to ask them, "How do you know that? Is it true?"