Sensory Disabilities

by

Katie Healey

• LAST MODIFIED: 17 April 2025
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780197768723-0024

Introduction

The study of sensory disabilities is multifaceted and encompasses multiple models of disability that offer distinct perspectives. Histories of medicine, unsurprisingly, have traditionally employed the medical model, which interprets disability as an impairment or health condition often necessitating clinical or technological intervention. In contrast, the social model emphasizes societal and environmental barriers—and not the physical impairment—as the main source of a disabled individual’s limitations. Beyond disability models, studies of sensory disabilities can be further categorized by sense and extend beyond the traditional five senses to include such phenomena as proprioception (awareness of the position and movement of one’s body); kinesthesia (the ability to sense motion of a joint or limb); and synesthesia (unusual sense perception, such as “hearing” colors). A more complete historical understanding of sensory disabilities requires examining the diverse ways in which individuals have experienced and navigated the world through their senses. Deaf history, for example, offers a rich tapestry of cultural and linguistic heritage beyond medical considerations that a clinical standpoint fails to capture. Moreover, newly emerging diagnoses for phenomena such as misophonia, or heightened sensitivity to certain sounds (first recognized only in 2001), and aphantasia, or the inability to create mental imagery (first named in 2015) present additional layers to discussions of sensory disabilities and call for further research. This diverse collection of sources spans various sensory phenomena across time, space, and perspective.

History of the Senses

In the opening passage of Metaphysica (c. 350 BCE), Aristotle argued the existence of five senses: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. The philosopher claimed that, of these five, it was the sense of sight that “makes us know.” Bynum and Porter 1993 reveals that Western physicians across time have employed all five senses in medical diagnosis and practice, yet reliance on sight solidified by the nineteenth century. Even today, many Western doctors, scientists, and academics prioritize sight over other senses in the pursuit and interpretation of knowledge. Scholars have long recognized the need for expanding sensory considerations of the past. Roeder 1994 bemoans that history is a nearly “sense-less profession,” and Thompson 2002 observes that historians have focused almost exclusively on the visual and written record of the past at the exclusion of other sensory analyses. Histories of science and medicine—like the broader historical discipline—also remain ocularcentric, preferencing the visual in both subject matter and methodology. As Smith 2007 explains, the subfield of sensory history explores the role of sensory experiences in understanding historical contexts, revealing how senses shape perceptions and interactions throughout history. For instance, several scholars explore the sensorium of the nineteenth century: Corbin 1998 focuses on sound by analyzing bell-ringing in rural France for marking time, signaling community events, and symbolizing authority, while Hatch 2024 examines tactile practices in Chinese art during the same period. Kiechle 2017 explores the smells of American cities in the 1800s and their connection to health, pollution, and urban reform. In a call for expanding sensory history, Smith 2021 encourages scholars to untether the senses by reconsidering traditional periodization, geographic boundaries, and disciplinary constraints. Ramšak 2024 examines sensory experience of the twenty-first century by including analysis of COVID-19’s impact on millions of people’s sense of smell.

• Bynum, W. F., and Roy Porter, eds. Medicine and the Five Senses. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

  These fourteen essays collectively explore the employment of the senses in Western medical diagnosis and practice from antiquity through the twentieth century. From visual inspection, taking pulses, and listening through stethoscopes to tasting patients’ sweat and smelling their breath and excrement, physicians have used all five traditional senses to better understand the human body.

• Corbin, Alain. Village Bells: Sound and Meaning in the Nineteenth-Century French Countryside. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.

  Delves into the cultural, social, and symbolic dimensions of bell ringing, showing how the practice shaped daily life, religious rituals, and community identity in rural France. Reveals how the sound of bells marked time, conveyed important messages, and reflected broader societal changes.

• Hatch, Michael J. Networks of Touch: A Tactile History of Chinese Art, 1790–1840. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2024.

  DOI: 10.1515/9780271096223

  Examines a shift in 19th-century Chinese art toward an “epigraphic aesthetic” in which artists employed touch, through rubbings and other haptic practices, to connect with the past.

• Kiechle, Melanie A. Smell Detectives: An Olfactory History of Nineteenth-Century Urban America. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017.

  DOI: 10.1515/9780295741949

  Explores how smells shaped urban environments and public health in 19th-century America, providing insights into how the sense of smell was perceived and managed.

• Ramšak, Mojca. The Anthropology of Smell. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, 2024.

  DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-61759-1

  Explores the cultural, social, and biological dimensions of smell, examining how scents shape human experiences across different societies and historical periods. Ramšak also examines the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on human experience and understanding of smell and the diagnosis of anosmia.

• Roeder, Jr., George H. “Coming to Our Senses.” The Journal of American History 81.3 (1994): 1112–1122.

  DOI: 10.2307/2081453

  Argues that sensory history provides a more holistic approach to studying the past through offering valuable insights into cultural norms, power dynamics, and individual identities.

• Smith, Mark M. “Producing Sense, Consuming Sense, Making Sense: Perils and Prospects for Sensory History.” Journal of Social History 40.4 (2007): 841–858.

  DOI: 10.1353/jsh.2007.0116

  Discusses how historians can analyze sensory experiences in the past, considering both the production and consumption of sensory stimuli. Highlights the complexities of studying sensory history, including issues of interpretation, representation, and the limitations of written sources. However, Smith also emphasizes the potential for sensory history to provide new insights into historical experiences and to engage with broader questions of identity, culture, and power.

• Smith, Mark M. A Sensory History Manifesto. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021.

  DOI: 10.5325/jj.22136025

  A reflection on the state of the field of sensory history and recommendations for sensory scholars present and future.

• Thompson, Emily. The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900–1933. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002.

  Explores the transformation of sound environments in early-20th-century America due to changes in architecture and urban design. Delves into how new technologies and designs influenced the way people experienced sound, focusing on the interplay between acoustical engineering and cultural practices in shaping modern auditory landscapes.