New article on haptic communication and guide dogs

Senior advisor at Eikholt Cathrine Timm Sundin and project participant Nina Frisnes Øyan have recently had a book article published about their experiences from the haptic communication and guide dog project. The project, which was carried out in collaboration with Hapti-Co, aimed to promote interaction between interpreter, person with deafblindness and guide dog and to contribute to safety and independence when travelling outdoors.  

Lessons learnt from the project

In the article, Sundin and Øyan summarise the lessons learned from the project. Among other things, the people with deafblindness who participated were very satisfied. Receiving haptic signals provided important information about obstacles in their surroundings, contributed to greater safety and improved the interaction between them and the guide dog.

International audience

The article is published in a book that collects and presents international academic work on the use of haptic signals in interpreting and education. You can read about the development of haptic communication in countries such as Italy, Portugal and Brazil. Employees of Hapti-Co have contributed an article on the development of the field in Norway. The book is based on presentations from the first international conference on haptic signals, which took place at the Ca' Foscari University in Venice.

Important knowledge

The experiences gathered and presented in the book constitute important knowledge for professionals, people with deafblindness and their families, both nationally and internationally. The articles in the book are peer-reviewed and openly available.

Want to read more?

To read the book, see here: The Integration of Social-Haptic Communication in Deafblind Interpreting and Educational Settings

For more about the haptic communication and guide dog project, see here: Haptic communication and guide dog - Eikholt