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What is a sensory expert?

Let Dr Hoby Wedler explain.

“I help people relax into the world by perceiving other senses around them and understanding the world around them through all of their senses and not devoting too much attention on merely one of them.”

Blind since birth, Dr Wedler advocates for people tapping into other senses to perceive something at a deeper level.

He has helped brands work on the texture, taste and smells of their products to evoke their desired result.

Speaking to Vision Australia Radio’s Studio 1, Dr Wedler has worked with the likes of Mini and Barilla to inform their brands presence.

“What I love doing this is providing brands with that sense of being on visual aspect of what makes their product shine and what makes it great in portraying that in the best way possible to the customer…  while they worry about the visual stuff,” he told Studio 1 host Matthew Layton.

For pasta company Barilla, he worked on introducing a new pasta sauce by getting taste testers blindfolded, and getting them to discover the hero ingredients through smell, taste and touch.

He also hosts Tasting in the Dark sessions in the US, where he builds participants’ aromatic vocabularies before wine tasting. Of course, this is done blindfolded.

Dr Wedler believes sight can be a distraction.

Find out more and listen to the full interview in the player below:

Studio 1 is Vision Australia Radio’s weekly look at life from a low vision and blind point of view.

To get in touch with the show. Call or text: 0450 078 834 or email [email protected].