Bouaouina2025
| Bouaouina2025 | |
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| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Bouaouina2025 |
| Author(s) | Sofian A. Bouaouina, Guillaume Gauthier, Lorenza Mondada, Hanna Svensson |
| Title | Visiting a museum with all the senses: Multisensorial practices of visually impaired persons and their sighted assistants |
| Editor(s) | |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, Blind and visually impaired people, Museums, Sensoriality, Multisensoriality |
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| Year | 2025 |
| Language | English |
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| Journal | Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders |
| Volume | 15 |
| Number | 3 |
| Pages | |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.3138/jircd-2024-0015 |
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Abstract
Background The article addresses the role of sight and blindness in a multisensory museum experience for visually impaired persons and their sighted assistants. Although this museum is not specifically tailored to visually impaired visitors, the haptic access to all the exhibited objects represents new opportunities for them, which makes the museum visit a perspicuous activity to study sensoriality in interaction. Within a material ecology designed to appeal to all the senses, what are the consequences of not seeing and engaging primarily with senses other than sight? Methods Based on video recordings of museum visits and using ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (EM/CA) to approach multimodality and sensoriality, this study examines the multisensorial practices of visually impaired visitors and how they engage with sighted companions to maximize the opportunities provided by haptic access. Results Focusing on the particular practice of a sighted person guiding the hand of the visually impaired person, this study shows how participants reinterrogate the observable effects of the primacy of sight, the opportunities for haptic and auditory sensorial experiences, and their praxeological and intersubjective consequences. Discussion/conclusions The article highlights conceptual issues of multisensoriality, co-sensoriality, and sensory impairment in EM/CA, with a special focus on materiality, embodiment, and intersubjectivity.
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