Embodied spaces in the making: visually impaired people, bodies and surroundings

Abstract

This article looks closer into the various ways visually impaired people make their own space through practice. Space-making is not necessarily dependent on sight. Use of other senses, such as hearing, smell or touch, is equally important, but these senses are often missed when the point of departure is to view our surroundings as something we see, not something we construct and live in, or, embody. The focus of this article will be on people with visual impairment and the complex and diverse ways in which they relate to and experience the spatial world. The article is based on my PhD project, entitled ‘Living with visual impairments – visual impairment as experience’. The project seeks to gain insight into how living with visual impairment is experienced. Such knowledge has been attained through a study involving fieldwork in everyday life situations with people with visual impairments.

Keywords:

• visual impairment
• embodiment
• experiencing bodies
• spaces