Browsing by Subject "näkövammainen"

Aims and background: The purpose of this study is to find out what kind of challenges a visually impaired meets in a kitchen when preparing food. First I consider shortly visual impairments, secondly what kind of special equipment there are for visually impaired in a kitchen and thirdly what demands there are for the kitchen environment to be functional for visually impaired. The Research questions are 1) What kind of challenges a visually impaired person meets in a kitchen when preparing food and 2) How does she/he copes with the challenges she/he meets when preparing food and what kind of strategies she/he uses to cope with the challenges. Material and methods: This study is a case study which was based on observation. The Data was collected by videotaping food preparation and baking in a rehabilitation Centre for Visually Impaired. A test subject was a visually impaired person. Results: The most important result was that the visually impaired person used very much sensory skills, first of all sense when she/he was preparing food. Secondly an equally important thing was the systematic performance when she/he was working throughout the whole cooking session. The third but not so significant observation was the use of other senses vision, hearing, smell and taste. Any special equipment for visually impaired were hardly used. Conclusions: Tactual skills are the most important means to cope with the challenges. Another important mean is the systematic way of working. Using these means cooking goes safety and fluently. These results can be used for decreasing those challenges which can be faced when visually impaired are preparing food, baking and working in the kitchen and for making improvements in a kitchen environment.