A blind cosmology on celestial phenomena

Abstract

It is estimated that 20% of the Brazilian population falls under the clinical definition of visual impairment. For this reason, visually impaired individuals constitute an important target audience for public policies aimed at social and educational inclusion. This article suspends the concept of disability, seen as a historical construct, and instead introduces the word-concept “blindness”; it also contextualizes inclusive policies within the framework of subjectivities shaped by the neoliberal economic model, aiming to present a blind person’s perception of the Universe based on the question: What are the constitutive aspects of the cosmology of a particular native blind person regarding astronomical phenomena? To achieve its goal, the study presents an interview conducted with an educated blind individual. To adequately reflect on the information provided by the research participant, it was necessary to address inclusive education as a public policy in Brazil, along with its respective laws, prejudice and stigma against blind individuals, and the teaching of astronomy. The set of cosmic elements outlined in the interview includes the sky, the Sun, comets, asteroids, planets and Earth, shooting stars, the Moon and its phases, and the Universe. The elements were analyzed through the investigative lens of the archeogenealogical method proposed by Michel Foucault, which results from an enhanced combination of the archaeological and genealogical phases (which investigates the origins of what is considered normal) that the author traversed throughout his epistemological journey. The conclusion is that there is a need for the inseparability of Cosmology and Cosmogony in astronomy education, as it is within this epistemic inseparability that the keys to teaching practices lie. There is a need for a new approach to teaching astronomy, with teaching practices that are able to integrate various cosmologies and cosmogonies as an enriching factor in this type of education.