On Monday 19th February friends of BRIGHT gathered together in London Waterloo to learn about ‘Haptic Communication’. We were joined by the wonderful Penny Gunn who gave a lecture on the history of Social Haptics for Deafblind; who created the concept, why it was created and how it can be implemented in everyday life.

Social haptics is a form of non-verbal communication whereby messages are conveyed through the sense of touch. This system originated in Finland and was created by Dr Ritta Lahtinen and Russ Palmer. It is an easy and efficient way to provide information about emotion, environment, desribe art, or music.

Penny gave some demonstrations on how to use haptics and the rest of us were able to split off into pairs and have a go together. We took turns to draw emotions by using simple drawings or hand movements on the back. Some people preferred drawing a circle to represent the face first, whilst others were happy with a quick line or movement. We then had a go at drawing environments e.g. park, scenery, pub.

One brilliant thing about haptics is that users can create their own set of agreed haptic signs along with their guide/friends/family that they feel are useful and that they are comfortable with; It is not a set formal language with a specific structure or grammar.

Everyone was able to take something useful away from the session which of course ended with a great chat, coffee and cake! Special mention for our interpreters Vicki and Dee who did an incredible job for the incluision of everyone deaf, deafblind and hearing alike! Fabulous time had by all!