SPACE, HAPTICS AND THE BLIND

Haptics (the sense of touch in relation to the positions and actions of thc body) takes in information for spatial arrangements of surfaces, on a wide scale involving observer motion and change of vantage point, as well as on a small scale, involving use of the hands and reaching out with a cane. The principles of space used by the blind in action, mental imagery and representation with maps and pictures involve large- and small-scale spaces and perspective convergence. Congenitally blind people are at times more variable or slower than sighted people in solving spatial tasks, but their abstract framework for space may use the same principles.