A Study of Some Alternatives to Eye contact in Communications of Blind People

[摘要] Thisstudy evaluated some alternatives to eye contact in the communications ofspeaking blind people in terms of four major functions: showing attention,determining direct addressee, signaling readiness, and turn-taking. Twentyvisually impaired females with an average age of 28 years old were randomlyselected from a blind database at an Isfahan blind rehabilitation center. Theparticipants were assigned to four groups: congenital totally blind,adventitious totally blind, congenital partially sighted, and adventitiouspartially sighted. Each group sat around a rectangular table in a room talkingabout blind marriage for approximately 30 minutes. Four videos were taped andanalyzed in two sessions. The collected data were analyzed through threestatistical procedures and SPSS 18.0. According to the data analyses, thefrequency distributions of the alternatives used by totally blind and partiallysighted groups were almost identical, meaning that all outcomes were notstatistically significant. However, congenital and adventitious totally blindgroups used different alternatives to eye contact. Owing to this, the outcomeshave statistically been significant. Findings demonstrate that showingattention was the most common alternative to eye contact used by all groups.Congenital totally blind participants also used determining direct addresseewith the highest frequency distribution, while adventitious totally blind participantsused signaling readiness and turn-taking more than other alternatives to eyecontact. Consequently, it is necessary for individuals who are blind fromchildhood to learn how to use some substitutes for making eye contact throughtheir communications. It is also necessary for their parents to get informationand assistance to treat and communicate with their blind children.

[学科分类] 眼科学

[关键词] Anisopteromalus calandrae;venom transcriptome;venom gland;ectoparasitoid;insect pests