Beyond disability: reflexions on the relativity of sensory organization

Abstract

This article offers a historical and anthropological review of different ways of conceiving sensory  perception, which are intimately linked to cultural characteristics–. Culture influences individual perception and, consequently, the definition of what is or is not a disability, as it happens with visual impairment in what we call Western culture, given the current primacy of the visual over other senses. Furthermore, we will try to rethink the concept of disability in favor of terms such as functional diversity, which involves a broader conception of the various ways of perceiving reality, because of the enormous plasticity of the human being, who is able to turn what at a first glance may seem just a physical limitation into an original development of new skills.