Considering the concepts of the lived body and the lifeworld as tools for better understanding the meaning of assistive technology in everyday life

Understanding Youth’s Lived Experience of Anxiety through Metaphors: A Qualitative, Arts-Based Study

“…The goal of hermeneutic phenomenology is to describe the meaning of an experience, including what was experienced, and how it was experienced [ 66 ]. As guiding concepts, hermeneutic phenomenology is concerned with lived meaning—the way that a person experiences and understands their world as real and meaningful; and lifeworld—how that life is experienced in the context of being intertwined with the world [ 64 , 67 ]. Van Manen’s lifeworld includes four existentials—lived time (i.e., the ways individuals temporally experience their lifeworld), lived space (i.e., the ways people experience the spatial dimensions of their daily experiences, including feelings of being in place), lived body (i.e., the bodily experience of everyday life including how we feel, reveal, conceal, and share), and lived human relations (i.e., the relations we make and maintain) [ 68 ].…”

Empirical Phenomenological Inquiry: Guidance in Choosing Between Different Methodologies

“…d See also further exploration of empirical lifeworld phenomenology following the tradition of Bengtsson (Berndtsson et al, 2007;Berndtsson et al, 2019). An empirical example is Berndtsson's (2018) study about the use of assistive technology for blind persons based on the concepts of lifeworld and lived body. -Empirical phenomenological psychological method (The EPP Method) according to the psychologist Karlsson (1993Karlsson ( , 2019 combines phenomenology (see, for example, Husserl, 1998Husserl, /1913) and hermeneutics (Heidegger, 2019(Heidegger, /1927 and other proponents such as Merleau-Ponty, 2014/1945Schütz, 1997Schütz, /1932).…”

The White Cane: An Ethnographic Account on the Widespread Ambivalence Amongst Visually Impaired Towards an Iconic Aid

“…However, amongst Swedish low visions teachers and therapists, it is a well-known fact that persons with acquired or progressive visual impairment often prefer not to include the white stick in their everyday life, even if this involves limited mobility and considerable strain in encounters with other people (Bäckman 2022;Bäckman 2023;Berndtsson 2018). As witnessed by several other studies, this reluctance amongst visually impaired people to engage with the aid is not limited to Sweden (Dos Santos et al 2020;Hammer 2012;Hersh 2015;Hogan 2012;Kudlick 2011).…”

“…Apparently, the aid is also a physical object that draws attention to visually impaired persons' difficulties with their eyesight. By signalling to the surroundings that this is a person with visual impairment, the white cane thereby cancels the individual's possibility to establish oneself as a fully sighted person, which is what many people with acquired or progressive visual impairment strive for as far as possible (Bäckman 2022;Bäckman 2023;Berndtsson 2018;Dos Santos et al 2020;Hammer 2012;Hersh 2015;Hogan 2012;Kudlick 2011).…”

“…Drawing from insights within the vast field of critical disability studies, I will in the forthcoming argue that the users' attitude towards the white cane must be understood in close connection to the tool's association with widespread norms of ableness (Garland-Thomson 2009;Michalko 2002;Michalko 2017). Due to this relation, the aid transfers the user from one societal status to another through what might be called the negative visibility of the cane (Alcoff 2006;Al-Saji 2014;Berndtsson 2018). For those who have some form of norm-breaking impairment, the power structure of ableness is no figment of the imagination.…”