Use of auditory cues to enable sport and physical activity in blind and visually impaired people

This project is part of the Leverhulme Trust Aural Diversity Doctoral Research Hub (LAURA).

Closing date for October 2024 start: 21 April 2024 

It is well known that blind and visually impaired people use specific auditory cues to navigate their surrounding environment. Nonetheless, there is a barrier to sport and physical activity given the difficulty to interact with a more demanding activity and environmental setting. This project will investigate whether specific auditory cues may be used in everyday sport and physical exercise for an aurally diverse population. Augmented reality strategies or sonification of the environment and the activity will be investigated. Skills and knowledge desirable for this project are experience in research for the visually impaired, knowledge of human auditory localisation, spatial audio and programming.  

About the Leverhulme Trust Aural Diversity Doctoral Research Hub (LAURA) 

Aural diversity is a new and highly interdisciplinary field and LAURA, based at the University of Salford and Goldsmiths University of London, is the first PhD programme in the world to focus on it. Aural diversity is based on the simple observation that individual and group differences in hearing, listening and responding to sound are common, yet, outside medicine, when sound is produced, controlled, consumed or discussed a “normal” listener is usually assumed.  

Aural diversity reflects the fact that hearing is a lived and embodied experience for most people, with complexity and fluctuation over time. Aural diversity rejects the normal hearing assumption; instead, it asks how musicians, theatre directors and sound engineers might make performances for an aurally diverse audience, how architects and planners might design buildings and cities for a range of hearing types, and what all our devices – from kettles to cars – might sound like if we allow that everyone hears differently.  

LAURA students will be supervised by a highly diverse range of supervisors drawn from several departments across Salford and Goldsmiths. Most disciplines involved with sound are represented, including acoustics, anthropology, art, architecture, computer science, education, engineering, English literature, music/music technology, occupational science, psychology, sociology and speech. You can find out more about our facilities and the range of topics covered here. 

Who should apply  

You should have a minimum of a First-class undergraduate degree or a 2:1 + Masters in a relevant area. If you do not meet these requirements, but feel you have relevant experience akin to Masters, please contact the team explaining these factors prior to application ([email protected]).  Further application guidance can be found here. Note that due to the limited deadline, we are unable to accept international applicants this year. However, we will be recruiting again for entry in October 2025 and 2026 and we will offer some international places then.  

If you are from an under-represented group, then we can offer you additional support during the application process such as a mentor who could offer advice on your draft application.  Enquire about being matched with an independent mentor by emailing [email protected]