Abstract:

According to the Nordic definition, deafblindness is a combined vision and hearing impairment of such severity that it is hard for the impaired senses to compensate for each other. To varying degrees, deafblindness limits activities and restricts full participation in society, affecting social life, access to information, communication, orientation and mobility (World Federation of the Deafblind). Deafblind people use a wide variety of communication methods, mostly based on touch.

Social-haptic communication (SHC) is a communication method consisting of brief tactile messages performed on the body of the deafblind person to convey environmental information and the emotional feedback of the interlocutor. Social-haptic messages (haptices or haptic signals) are articulated on different body areas (mostly: back, upper arm, hand, leg/knee, and foot). SHC can help deafblind people to understand better what happens around them and, hence, master the situation more autonomously. SHC can be used by any deafblind person, disregarding the preferred communication method, representing a great resource for deafblind students in educational context (e.g. to communicate feedback with the interpreter/teacher or receive the shape of a chart on the back).

As the result of negotiations between deafblind individuals and their communication partners (e.g. interpreters, family members, etc.) SHC could develop and spread in Northern Europe from the 90s. In Italy, instead, it is still mostly unknown. Some home-made haptices exist, but they have not been collected nor standardised.

The Erasmus+ project Social Haptic Signs for Deaf and Blind in Education collected the haptices used in Estonia, Italy, Portugal, and Sweden to make them available through video-recordings, pictures, and descriptions. The project also represented an opportunity to develop new haptices. Ca’ Foscari University of Venice coordinated the Italian team and cooperated with the Foundation Lega del Filo d’Oro Onlus in the project (September 2019 - November 2022). As a result, an innovative open-source online dictionary for SHC was created (soon to be released on the website www.spreadthesign.com). The dictionary is a tool for teachers, interpreters and anyone working for the deafblind in education/rehabilitation.

The process of negotiation in Italy involved 9 deafblind individuals from the North of Italy, with various degrees of residual hearing/sight and communicating differently. Despite COVID-19, training sessions about SHC were provided, followed by online negotiation meetings, resulting in a first test of the haptices in Summer 2022. A selection of haptices was presented to a group of deafblind individuals and their communication partners, all new to SHC. It was observed that, during one week of group activities, haptices were consistently used by most of the participants, especially when related to guiding and mobility (e.g. directions), meals (e.g. the waiter is coming), and feedback (e.g. yes/no). Participants showed a positive reaction towards SHC, as an opportunity to increase autonomy and participation.

Project dissemination events were carried out in educational/rehabilitation centres, spreading knowledge about SHC amongst teachers, interpreters, and communication professionals. More training will be structured and provided in the future. Based on preliminary results, the application of SHC in educational contexts could be a beneficial innovation for deafblind students.

Keywords:

Social-haptic communication, deafblind, combined sensory loss, communication method, accessibility, sense of touch.