Sensory Perception of Visually Impaired People Focused on Descriptive Sensory Analysis of Cosmetic Products

ABSTRACT Some researchers suggest visually impaired people's advantage in performing touch tests reflects not increased sensitivity, but the fact of being attentive to cues normally ignored by sighted people with regular vision or the more efficient use of sensory strategies. The results of comparative research involving visually impaired people and sighted people are as diverse as possible. In other words, some results present inferior performance of visually impaired people compared to sighted people, similar performance between these two groups and also superior performance of visually impaired people compared to sighted people. There are some studies that compare differences in performance between a group of congenitally visually impaired people and a group of sighted people blindfolded during the tests. In addition to these comparisons, it is possible to compare the performance of late‐onset visually impaired people and the performance of those with early visual impairment. There are still some studies showing that visually impaired people who acquired the disability later in life perform better on tests involving touch. They also suggest that visually impaired people develop superior auditory abilities because they rely more on hearing sensation than sighted people. If this comparison were possible for hearing, it would also be possible for touching. In this way, visual experience would not be necessary to shape the representation of different materials perceived through touch and this highlights the relevance of tactile experience over visual perception. The present study compares the sensory perception of visually impaired people with that of sighted trained panelists' sensory perception about cosmetic raw materials and cosmetic formulations.