It was very difficult to find test subjects living with deaf blindness. At first I asked the National Confederation of the Visually Impaired for help. The person I spoke to said that they could help me, but in the end it was difficult even for them to find some interested test subjects. Then I asked Iris Aids, an organization that tests and helps the visually impaired find the right equipment to help them in everyday life. Iris Aids was friendly and said I could contact some of their employees.

But I did need test subjects that was deafblind. So I also wrote to FSDB – Federation of Sweden’s Deafblind and asked for help. They informed me that because of the vulnerability that many deafblind people can feel, it is sensitive for them to be approached by an unknown person. Ideally, contact should be made via someone the deafblind person knows, something I could really understand and sympathize with. The person I spoke to promised to get back to me. But six months later when we had a prototype ready for testing, the person had not returned and I no longer got in touch with the organization. At this stage I was feeling a bit lost and dejected. Should I ever be able to test the prototype? I was lucky, that Parivash came to my rescue.

Parivash put me in touch with some of her test subjects. First we met for coffee and a chat at Parivash’s home where we could get to know each other. After this, we started scheduling tests with some of the people who attended this coffee event at Parivash.

Parivash told me that there are so few people with deaf blindness that are interested in being test subjects that those that are are employed for many projects and they do expect to get something in return. So I took some of the project fundings and bought cinema tickets (!). Yes, people who are deaf blind go to cinema too. I also bought some gift cards from Åhléns department store, so that the test subjects would have something to choose from.