Deafness and Spatial Experience

Emergencies written by Charlotte Vetter Gulick. (Book 2 of The Gulick Hygiene Series)
Original copyright 1909 by Luther H. Gulick, published by Ginn & Company.

For a while now I have been interested in the impact of blindness on one’s experience of space. Stemming from that, I have lately been thinking about the way in which someone who is deaf experiences the world and navigates their environment. I would be interested to know more about how the removal of aural information affects the perception of space, and whether there is a significant impact at all considering the visual sense is still intact. As is expected, each sense has its own limitations, however I would imagine that a consequence of deafness is that it brings awareness specifically to the limitations of vision and is therefore invaluable to investigate.

Of course the visual field is limited in scope as a result of our eyes residing on one side of our heads. Because we can’t see behind us, the perceptible environment is only that which is facing us. This is one area in which our auditory sense has an advantage. As John Hull points out,

“The view looking that way is quite different from the view looking this way. It is not like that with sound. New noises do not come to my attention as I turn my head around....Perhaps there is some slight shading of quality, but the acoustic world is mainly independent of my movement.” (pg 83, Touching the Rock)

Considering one of the main limitations of the visual sense is that it does not provide information regarding the urgency and proximity of motion as directly as the auditory sense could, it seems there would be a certain stillness to space when experienced without the sounds of activity and action that take place within a given environment. Again, speaking from the perspective of being blind, John Hull observes,

“The intermittent nature of the acoustic world is one of its most striking features. In contrast, the perceived world is stable and continuous” (pg 83, Touching the Rock)