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Researchers from a wide variety of disciplines, such as philosophy, art, education or psychology, have over the years sustained the idea that blind persons are incapable or nearly incapable of formulating complex mental diagrammatic representations, which are schema based on the similarities found within internal logical relations between sign and object. Contrary to this widely accepted opinion, we will present an alternative approach in this paper !ur main idea is that blind and visually impaired people relying upon tact as a main "nowledge source are capable of diagrammatic reasoning very well, but use a different method for this purpose, namely the method of inductive reasoning. Such method can effectively provide the mind with the data necessary to the elaboration of mental maps. #herefore, wayfinding as a semiotic process in which a route is planned and executed from mar"s or navigation indexes, is also enabled by tact.
1. Introductory note
%n this paper, a few advances will be made on the research and development of cognitive& semiotic features of visual and haptic systems, furthering the ideas presented elsewhere. #he main objective is to develop primary conceptual standpoints for the semiotic under& standing of blind wayfinding, especially of blind individuals, when compared to clear&sighted individuals.
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Since all references on $eirce in this text have been investigated in the eight&volumed Collecte( )apers of Charles an(ers )eirce ('2)'&'2)61'26+,, the following common 9uotation style will be used subse9uently. 7.g. C$ '.)*+ refers on page )*+ in volume '.
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#his logical division proposed between /ision (e(uction - and tact in(uction wor"s, we believe, for all "inds of signs, including diagrams. Eet us ta"e as an example the elaboration of the mental map of a living room by a blind person and clear&sighted person. Chile the visual system is capable of capturing furniture and object disposition, 9uic"ly allowing for the construction of a diagram of the room, tact will need to investigate local elements separately, gathering elements that will only be unified a posteriori into a single scheme allowing for deliberate wal"ing. %n this manner, both tact (inductively, and vision (deductively, can conduce blind and clear sighted persons to similar interpretations, even for diagrams that allow the elaboration of complex schemes, such as, for example, a common or similar mental map of the spatial distribution of a particular place, coming from the data of visual and haptic systems.
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Eocomotion for a blind person entails a series of specific conditions, different from those of a clear&sighted person. .ccording to Jarper ('22+, p. '6, '. Disually impaired people have preview trouble of coming objects or obstacles* and therefore the use of some type of preview device is important1 *. conse9uently the stride length and therefore wal"ing speed of a visually impaired person is less than that of a sighted person, as is the continuity of progress1 ). travel for visually impaired people can be taxing and experiments often show a rise in heart rate with any travel tas" (although this is less for a familiar route,1 8. this may also explain why visually impaired people orient themselves to a waypoint about every 85 metres as opposed to '55 metres for sighted people. Such conditions do confirm our thesis that states that the haptic system - the union of the cutaneous system and deeper regions of the body K"inesthetic system of joints, tendons and musclesL, plus mobility (@ennedy, '22), pp. ''&'*1 '6, - operates inductively blind persons follow a series of experiments, little by little when compared to clear sighted persons, and over time will ascertain that a specific route is being followed. Ce must also stress that blind persons
3... also use more temporal and egocentric terminology and less spatial and environmental terminology in defining points and ma"e explicit statements on distance more often. Iody rotation is also used to describe parts of a journey and route descriptions are more complex when given by a blind person. #he route is bro"en into a greater and more complex number of stages than when sighted people describe it, confirming the importance of a large number of fixed points Kindexical signsL to a visually impaired traveler. !bstacle information is also more specific and present in greater detail when a route is described by a visually impaired person (Jarper, '22+ p. 'B,.4
#hat is why tactile maps produced for blind persons must entail a greater 9uantity of indexes - higher levels of induction - than those developed for clear sighted persons, in order to enable wayfinding, 3the process of determining and following a path or route between a origin and a destination4 (Aolledge, '222, p. B,,, and navigation, defined as 3updating one=s position and orientation during travel with respect to the intended route or desired destination and, in the event of becoming lost, reorienting and reestablishing travel toward the destination4 (Eoomis et al., '22+, p. '2),. Considering this fact is fundamental, assuming that maps, be they mental or material, are the initial tool for planning a route, and can, therefore, help minimi?e 3limitation in orientation and mobility (M, considered the most serious effect of blindness upon the individual4 (Celser apud Nelippe O Nelippe, '22/ p. '5/,. <sually blind children are late in their spatial and movement development when compared to clear sighted children (.miralian, '22/, p. B'1 Iruno, '22), p. '21 Nelippe O Nelippe, '22/1 Jeimers, '2/5, p. '),. %n fact,
3 ... lots of blind children are capable of wal"ing, but do not wal" for fear and insecurity of moving without being able to get orientation and control from the environment, so they will usually wal" after a year and a half or more. #hey need someone to wal" them, to give them a sense of security through physical touch and who will anticipate patterns using sound so they can pursue motor organi?ation and achieve motor wal"ing patterns by the experience with another.4 (Iruno, '22), p. '2,
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%n the original, Jarper ('22+, p. '6, states that 3visually impaired people have no preview of coming objects or obstacles4. Ce disagree with this assumption, considering that touch wor"s on the perception of nearby and distal objects, albeit with some limitations for the latter when compared to vision. .s demonstrated by @ennedy ('22) p. '8,, 3just as we can see through a transparent surface&loo"ing (M, we can feel through a nearby surface to detect a more distant object4 (ibid. '*,. %t is the case, for example, of the 3pressures generated by the wind of passage of a KdistalL train4 (ibid.,.
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Nurthermore, what a blind child or even a blind adult needs is to be embraced by the environment, to find positive cognitive conditions that are conducive to their mobility, such as the conditions offered to other individuals 3%f directional cues are available for guidance during blind travel, a blind individual may be able to continuously adjust the traveling path until reaching the final destination with minimal worry of getting lost4 (#ang O Ieebe, *55B, p. ''B,. .mong these direction cues, we believe that indexes prone to inductive cognition should be contemplated through a tactile logic of spatial investigation, so that the following of a desired route by blind persons is ensured.
.nother "ind of fundamental fixed index is called .ay%e(ge. .s previously mentioned, tact is as capable as vision to detect spatial frontiers which differentiate objects and sets of objects from one another. #herefore, a .ay%e(ge is an important resource for the blind, who
3... may also use a continuous or largescale object as a "ind of waypoint. #his could be called a Hway&edge=, as it is possible that this object is followed until it ends or some other factor or object is met. Nor instance, an individual may wal" along the edge of a wall using the entire structure as a reference point to where they are (a se9uence of closely spaced waypoints if you will, (Jarper, '22+, pp. '2&*5,.4
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#he problem is that, on our daily lives, .aypoints3 orientation points3 information points and .ay%e(ges are, more often than not, signs which are built to be read by vision only, and not through hearing or tact, given that 3touch has become not only restricted in its communicative potential but also repressed by the norms of societies4 (FGth, '22+, p. 85/,, what ma"es blind orientation particularly difficult. .t this point we must say that - although tact is the sense that, besides vision, enables spatial recognition, and object recognition - hearing has also proven to serve as an efficient aid to blind spatial navigation (Iennett, *55*1 Jolland et al., *55*,. #his happens because sound can function inductively as a non&visual cartographical index, according to a tactile logic of ac"nowledgment - experience:action&reaction - , when indicating previously established points in a map, activating .aypoints3 orientation points3 information points and even .ay% e(ges.) Moreover, hearing signs might be used as information points in case someone gets lost. !ne must bear in mind, however, that blind wayfinding might happen without hearing, but not without tact. Regarding available tools for wayfinding, there is a need for the development of gadgets that, in addition to representing in space points that are given by a map, do also represent the occurrence of unforeseen obstacles, be they fixed or mobile. .mong the common aids given to the blind, .lmeida (*55+, pp. ''*&''), highlights the following '. tic5s wor" as extensions of tact (Aibson, '2BB, p. '55,, perceiving vibrations from surfaces1 *. ighte( gui(e clear sighted person who informs the blind about space, also guiding him:her1 ). 6og trained dog. Stimulates speed, independence and provides company1 8. Technology a variety of local and global positioning systems (e.g., A$S, E!R.F, D!R&>M7, in which the navigator determines current position using signals from transmitters at "nown locations (Eoomis et al., '22+, pp. '28&'26,, informing about routes, obstacles and other data relevant for mobility. .ll of these are semiotic mechanisms encompassed by cognitive processes which are predominantly inductive, through the creation of possible se9uential access to a large amount of indexes. 7ven a clear sighted guide must be an intersemiotic translator of deductive visual "nowledge into inductive verbal "nowledge when describing a place for the blind1 otherwise he or she will not accomplish their tas".
Cayedge the continuing and:or interruption of a given sound while a frontier is followed.
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Ce must also emphasi?e that the indexes used by clear&sighted persons in navigation also follow an inductive "nowledge process, since they operate according to visual experiences. %n fact, what we are suggesting is that when tact is the main source of "nowledge, the amount of indexes must be greater than the amount re9uired by vision, which is prone to deduction. %n future wor"s, we intend to address two main 9uestions ', Jow does hearing, by appropriation of inductive tactile logic, help on blind wayfinding through technologies that use sound as a primary languageP Chat "inds of data are better transmitted via sound or tact, even when both follow the same tactile inductive logic of recognition:spatial locali?ationP *, >eepen research about tactile technologies for blind wayfinding, from wooden canes to laser and to the oral tactile interface for blind navigation, designed by #ang O Ieebe (*55B,.
(. Acknowledgments
% shall than" $rofessor Cinfried FGth for providing some of the texts used in this research and the Noundation for Research Support of SQo $aulo (N.$7S$,, for funding. Moreover, % would li"e to than" the editors of meta%carto%semiotics for their fruitful comments given during the review process, which helped to ma"e some points clearer and more explicit.
). Author information
Currently, doctoral student in Communication and Semiotics at $ontifRcia <niversidade CatSlica de SQo $aulo, $<C:S$, IR.T%E, advised by $rof. Eucia Santaella and financed by N.$7S$. Main interests $eircean semiotics1 blind communication process1 pictorial language1 interfaces between semiotics and psychoanalysis1 applied semiotics1 systems theory.
*. +eferences
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