Conducting Remote Research with Individuals Living with Deafblindness

The inclusion of individuals with deafblindness in research has made considerable progress with accessible remote methods that gained traction during the Covid-19 pandemic. Communication can be facilitated through automated or manual captioning and transcription as well as through multi- user screen displays for sign-language interpreters. Cloud-based videoconferencing (e.g., Zoom or Teams) eliminates the need for travel, which can be its own barrier to research participation for individuals with sensory difficulties. However, such methodological approaches for qualitative data collection (e.g., interviews or focus groups) remain relatively new, and little research has explored their logistics, challenges and benefits. The purpose of this study was to describe the formats, barriers and facilitators of expressive and receptive communication during videoconferencing with deafblind participants.

Keywords: deafblindness, qualitative research, remote data collection, communication, accommodation

John Lee Clark ∆ (Interdisciplinary Humanities, Concordia University, Canada)

Do Not Touch: Distantism in the Museum

In 2017, I introduced the concept of distantism to help us put a finger on what affects everyone but especially DeafBlind people: social expectations and attitudes that keep people physically apart. Derived from the Latin “distantia,” “a standing apart,” the term opened many areas of discourse but already had its opposing dynamic, thanks to the Protactile movement. DeafBlind people have been overthrowing sighted norms we had been trying to oblige, frequently without success, and been fumbling our way into new habits of touching everything, maintaining contact, and rearranging our environments to suit our practices. One of the clearest sites of conflict between the protactile and distantism is the museum, where patrons are traditionally and systematically asked not to and trained not to touch objects selected to represent various sets of values, especially colonialism and capitalism. This presentation uses a recent museum visit, the history of the museum, the history of DeafBlind ways of touch, and a recent Protactile living history do project to feel some contours of distantism and pay attention to suggestive alternatives to the ethos of “Do Not Touch,” both in the museum and in society at large.

Keywords:Touch; distantism; museums; DeafBlind community; living history

Brian Due (Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

Building a Shared Reference in Sensory Asymmetric Situations. A Video-Analysis of Visually Impaired Students in Classrooms

Understanding scientific concepts in school can be challenging, especially for visually impaired students (VIS) who do not rely on visual illustrations. In our video ethnographic project, we observed how VIS engage in Danish science classes, focusing on the innovative use of everyday objects and haptic guidance by their assistants. This support often translates complex ideas like the periodic table or the Pythagorean theorem into tactile experiences. By applying ethnomethodology and conversation analysis within a multimodal framework (following Mondada, 2019, Contemporary issues in conversation analysis: Embodiment and materiality, multimodality and multisensoriality in social interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 145, 47–62), I analyse a single case where a student tries to learn the periodic table through metaphors and the problems this practice leads to. I show that - what Gurwitsch in The Field of Consciousness (1964) refers to as - ‘gestalt contextures’ can more effectively be achieved through direct haptic interactions rather than through imaginative or metaphorical representations. The findings enrich ethnomethodological studies of science education by illustrating how VIS co-construct understanding of abstract concepts through object-centered, haptic guidance. This approach not only fosters a deeper grasp of science but also empowers VIS in their learning journey.
Keywords: Visual impairment, distributed perception, ethnography, video analysis, ethnomethodology