Simon Hayhoe

Simon Hayhoe wrote the monographs, Grounded Theory and Disability Studies^[1] on the application of grounded theory in his study of blindness, Arts, Culture and Blindness^[2] on social and cultural factors affecting the arts education of blind adults and school children, and Philosophy as Disability & Exclusion^[3] and God, Money and Politics,^[4] the first books on the history of English education for the blind in England since Illingworth's History of the Education of the Blind in 1910.^[5] These and previous works on this topic have been cited in papers on subjects such as perceptual psychology^[6] and human geography.^[7]

Hayhoe's work on the history and epistemology of blindness is the subject of Course PSYC54 Cognition and Representation at the University of Toronto, Canada.^[8] In addition, his writing has been the topic of discussion on BBC Radio 4 in the UK and syndicated radio in the USA^[9] and a theatrical installation project in London by Extant and the Open University.

Early career

During his early work on blindness and arts education, Hayhoe was a student of Professor Maurice Galton, Leicester University (now Senior Research Fellow at Homerton College, Cambridge University); and then of John M Hull, Professor of Religious Education at Birmingham University (later Emeritus Professor, and Honorary Professor of Practical Theology at The Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education), author of the autobiographical book Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness. He also worked as a research officer on two major research projects in the field of social exclusion in England for Birkbeck, University of London and the Institute of Education, University of London. He then worked in Canada at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, during which time he developed a project on art education in schools for the blind and museums, studying cultural and social exclusion of blind students in visual arts education, and wrote on the epistemology and ontology of disability and blindness - a topic that has now expanded to include religious attitudes to disability.

Whilst teaching in London in 2003, Hayhoe developed the first of his research based courses, the Four Senses project, in conjunction with the Royal London School for the Blind (part of the Royal London Society for the Blind) and the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A). Two years later, he designed the first research of its type to investigate the cultural and social factors affecting blind adults and school children using visual programming languages. The results of this project were first presented to BETT 2009 and 2011, at Kensington Olympia, London, in a lecture to the British Computer Society, and appeared in books on multimedia/mulsemedia and IT in education. Its reports were also published in conjunction with the British Computer Association of the Blind^[10] (part of the RNIB).

Current and recent work

Simon Hayhoe is currently a lecturer of special needs and inclusion at the University of Bath, and a centre research associate in the Centre for the Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics, where he is researching the epistemology of disability and ability, with special reference to education, inclusion, technology and the arts. Hayhoe's other research interests include inclusive and assistive technology, mobile technology and disability, religion and disability - with a focus on Christianity and Islam - and museums and disability. He is also currently involved in an international project investigating the use of mobile technologies as a tool of inclusion for disabled people in museum environments. This project is sponsored by a Horizon 2020 grant from the European Union. The research is partnered with TreeLogic (based in Madrid), the Open University, and national museums in London (including the V&A and Wallace Collection), Madrid and Vienna.

Since conducting his early research studies, Hayhoe has conducted five further funded projects in this field in the US, Canada, United Arab Emirates and the UK. He has also presented his research and writing on inclusive technical capital, the epistemology of disability, and passive & active exclusion to further educational conferences and expositions in Europe, North America and the Middle East.

Other posts and awards

Hayhoe's articles on disability and blindness appear in works such as the American Foundation for the Blind's Art Beyond Sight^[11] and, more recently, the Encyclopedia of American Disability History,^[12] Global Sustainable Communities Handbook,^[13] and Learning in a Digitalized Age,.^[14] In addition, his articles also appear in special issues of the Harvard Educational Review, the British Journal of Visual Impairment, the Society for Disability Studies' Disability Studies Quarterly, and the National Federation of the Blind's Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research. In addition, he is a consultant and chair of the Educational Psychology Research Group for Art Beyond Sight (New York, USA), the Beyond Sight Foundation (Mumbai, India) and the editor of the on-line knowledge base ECO: On Blindness and the Arts,^[15] which is contributed to by authors such as the neurologist Oliver Sacks and the blind artist Eşref Armağan.

He has won a number of awards in his field, including a Fulbright All Disciplines Scholar's Award to conduct a fellowship at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA) and he was a finalist in the London 2012's Great Briton's Prize. He has also delivered guest lectures at the Instute of Child Health Great Ormond Street Hospital/University College London, Harvard University, the London School of Economics, MIT, UC, Berkeley, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Government of the Province of Milan, Italy.

References