Through My Eyes: Conducting Research as a Vision-Impaired Researcher

When the notion of writing this chapter was first presented to me, initially I (Theresa) thought, "Hey, no problem. I can write about my experiences as a research student." In practice, however, having to write with such honesty and frankness has been more than a little daunting. It has meant that I have had to take time to reflect on and revisit many of the experiences in which I believed I was unqualified to do academic research, and which intimidated me. My research study explored the career development of men and women in the accounting profession in Australia. The research led to the development of a metaphor to describe the career development of men and women in the accounting profession in Australia. The research led to the development of a metaphor to describe the career development of my research participants. The metaphor was based on a road map that conceptualized the career journey of the people interviewed. I have used this journey metaphor in this chapter to describe my own experiences of completing my research.