Making the impossible possible, or how to research in specific settings in public service interpreting

In the last decade public service interpreting (PSI) has gain greater visibility and has become a thriving field of research evolving towards a specialization according to settings. Different studies and research projects focus more and more on specific contexts like medical interpreting in emergency departments, interpreting for victims of gender-based violence or interpreting for women in penitentiaries.  The aim of this article is to describe the positive impact and promote the awareness of combining several empirical methodologies during the data collection process especially in contexts where confidentiality and special protocols turn the access to data into a tedious process. The article describes different research projects developed by the members of Group FITISPos-UAH which have combined several types of questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, recordings, direct observation and field notes. A more detailed description of these typologies of research is presented and it is argued that the empirical framework must be shaped or modeled in such a way that it serves to overcome institutional obstacles.