Visual Imperatives of Culture and Bodily-Technological Media of Visually Impaired People

Abstract

In the article, the problem of “accessibility”, often raised in the context of disability studies, is considered as a matter of “(mis)matching” of bodily-technological media of a person, his/her physical environment and widespread social practices. First, I use the concept of “ocular-centricity” to characterize Western cultures, meaning that a competent cultural “user” should daily get engaged in a large number of visual practices. Secondly, using interviews with blind and partially sighted people, I show the conventionality of categories “vision” and “blindness” and emphasize that visual perception has many different shades. These perceptional nuances, in their turn, affect which combinations of visual, tactile and auditory practices and technologies people use in their navigation.