Experiencing space without vision

Abstract

In this study, the human body without vision, and its relation with the surrounding space, is examined. Towards this end, firstly space and the human body are briefly discussed. the sense modalities apart from vision, and the development of spatial cognition for the blind and visually impaired are examined. The environmental factors that contribute to the understanding of the surrounding built environment, and the assistive devices for this population are briefly covered. These issues stress the importance of stimulating, thus training the human body without vision to establish body and spatial awareness, and to learn to gather information from the surrounding architectural environment to be able to perform a task. To illustrate this fact, an experiment was conducted among blind and visually impaired children from the Goreneller Primary School in Ankara. The study consists of testing a game played with an educative toy and its effects on the tactual learning performance of the children.