“Just go straight ahead”

Abstract

ABSTRACTSpace is not a given. Rather, space is constructed through subjective experience and social interaction. This paper draws on the phenomenology of Schütz and Merleau-Ponty, the ethnomethodology of Garfinkel, autoethnography and the emergent field of the sociology of the senses to arrive at an account of how space is constructed and lived differently by blind and sighted individuals. Once having mapped the sensory and social infrastructures of the blind and sighted “styles of perception”, the paper considers how a blind pedestrian might try to elicit route descriptions from sighted strangers. Over 300 encounters were recorded. The transcripts of these encounters, most of which involved failures of communication, are analyzed for what they reveal about the lack of congruency between the two aforementioned styles of perception. The paper concludes by suggesting some adjustments to the social model of disability that comes out of Disability Studies, and offering some guidelines for the education of the senses that would substantially enhance the prospects for the meaningful communication of directions between blind and sighted persons.