A research project on the potential of haptic-audiovisual technologies of perception for deafblind people in the UK
The Touch Post-COVID-19 project brings together Arts and Quantum Technologies researchers at the University of Glasgow to investigate sense perception as experienced by individuals with audiovisual impairment. It documents the social experience of deafblind communities during the coronavirus pandemic and develops strategies and new technologies to help facilitate safe and reliable communication and perceptual interaction with their surroundings.
The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) within the UK Research and Innovation rapid response to COVID-19. It is part of the new ARC (Advanced Research Centre) at the University of Glasgow.
Public Events
Touch Post-COVID-19 aims to raise awareness about the impact of the pandemic on deafblind communities. It does this by organising public events and exhibitions. The events are developed in collaboration with participants from the deafblind community, and offer unique audiovisual interpretations of deafblind experiences during and post-COVID-19.
Research Outcomes
The research results of our project take a variety of different shapes. They include technical tools, a detailed report based on our qualitative study of deafblind experiences as well as policy recommendations, public events and exhibitions that present audiovisual creative interpretations of deafblind experiences of the coronavirus pandemic.
Research Data
Over the course of 18 months, our team gathered rich audiovisual data that documents the experience of members of the deafblind community during the pandemic. The website offers access to examples from our participant’s audio diaries and video interviews. The full dataset is also available for researchers via Open Data.