Visibility Vol 14 Issue 1, 2020

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of tacit knowledge acquired through immersion in a social group in learning. Specifically, our aim was to measure congenitally blind and normally-sighted individuals’ level of interactional expertise—“the ability to master the language of a specialist domain in the absence of practical competence” (Collins & Evans, 2007, p. 14)—to examine their sensitivity to environmental constraints and opportunities. We hypothesized that an individual who belongs to the minority social group of congenitally blind individuals can acquire the collective tacit knowledge of being a normally-sighted individual without much deliberate effort and intention, whereas the reverse is more difficult in the absence of explicitly acquired domain-specific knowledge. The scope of the study was limited to the problem context of navigation and wayfinding with and without vision.

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