Diversity Sampling, also known as maximum variable sampling, is a method of sampling participants that selects participants based on getting the greatest possible variation in the participant group out of the individuals sampled.

Diversity Sampling/Maximum Variable Sampling

A call for participants was sent out once the survey closed. Over 100 people responded to the call for interviews, and 38 interviews were completed. Since the response to the call for interviews exceeded the capacity of the researchers, diversity sampling/maximum variable sampling was used to select interviewees.

The initial survey for the Disabled Academics Study (DAS) only included participants with what Price classifies as "mental disabilities," whereas the interviews included participants with a wide range of disabilities.

Including Multiple Types of Disabilities in DAS

Initially the Disabled Academics Study (DAS) only focused on disabled faculty but, the study expanded to later include graduate students. While the study initially did not have the resources to tailor the study to some of the unique considerations of graduate students' interactions with academia Price later decided to include graduate students since many graduate student simulanteously hold faculty, staff, or administrator roles - since 70 percent of postsecondary instruction is carried out by non-tenure-track instructors.

Including Graduate Students in DAS

Wood, Tara. 2017. "Rhetorical Disclosures: The States of Disability Identity in Higher Education." In Negotiating Disability: Disclosure and Higher Education, edited by Stephanie L. Kershbaum, Laura T. Eisenman, and James M. Jones, 75-91. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Rhetorical Disclosures: The States of Disability Identity in Higher Education

In this study - in particular the initial survey portion- being a person with mental disability was defined as someone who has received mental health care and/or a mental health diagnosis. Participants did not have to identify as disabled to participate in the survey and participants were informed that they could otherwise identify with terms like mental-health services consumer, a psychiatric survivor, a person with mental illness, a psychocrip, or as someone with their particular diagnosis. 

Learn Before

Related

Learn After