UofG project willinvestigate impact of touch deprivation on deafblind community

A University of Glasgow collaborative research project will investigate the impact of touch deprivation on the deafblind community during the Covid pandemic. The Touch Post-Covid 19 project - involving Arts and Quantum Technologies researchers - is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of the UK Research and Innovation rapid response to Covid-19. The project is part of the University's new ARC (Advanced Research Centre ). The researchers will also investigate sense perception as experienced by individuals with audio visual impairment. They hope to document the social experience of deafblind communities during Covid and develop strategies and new technologies to help facilitate safe and reliable communication and perceptual interaction with their surroundings. Ultimately, the 18-month long project feeds into ongoing research on how different experiences of touch might reshape audio-visual art practices and further inform the development of communication tools and strategies to aid accessibility for deafblind people. Dr Azadeh Emadi of the College of Arts' School of Culture & Creative Arts, who is the project's principal investigator, said: "Covid-19 has acutely heightened our awareness of and restrained us from using the sense of touch.