Haptic modality and tactile epistemologies:

Deafblindness as a rupture of sensory regimes of normalization

Abstract

This article examines haptic modality as a legitimate form of knowledge production, proposing the notion of tactile epistemologies in the context of deafblindness. Drawing on a theoretical-analytical approach grounded in philosophy of difference, Deaf Studies, and critical perspectives on language, the study argues that the historical centrality of vision and hearing has shaped sensory regimes of normalization that exclude other modes of experience and meaning-making. From this perspective, deafblindness is not understood as a deficit, but as a condition that destabilizes such hierarchies. Haptic modality emerges as a third linguistic form that reconfigures the relationship between body, language, and knowledge. The article concludes that recognizing tactile epistemologies requires not only expanding the concept of language, but also challenging the epistemological foundations that sustain sensory normality.