A situated analysis of instructions in paraclimbing training with visually impaired athletes

Indoor sport climbing performed by athletes with visual impairment is realized by trainer and climber working as a couple and is routinely based on instructions. It can be considered a perspicuous setting (Garfinkel, 2002) for investigating how sighted and visually impaired participants coordinate their perception and actions in the material environment while accomplishing mobile tasks. Drawing on previous ethnomethodological and CA studies on instructions in mobile activities, the analysis of an excerpt of a guided climbing session provides the ground for a detailed description of some features of instructions that are specific to this context. The analysis aims at showing that the trainer’s instructions are not only timely adjusted to the course of action, but, importantly, that they also display the trainer’s orientation to the climber’s sensory impairment.