Siegfried Saerberg currently works as an independent scholar in the fields of Sensory Studies, the ethnography of blindness, Disability Studies, and Disability Arts. In recent years, questions concerning digitality and disability have increasingly moved to the centre of his research.

He was a Senior Fellow at the Research College Access to Cultural Goods in the Digital Transformation at the University of Münster.

He held the Professorship of Disability Studies at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences for Social Work and Diaconia, Rauhes Haus, in Hamburg. There, he directed the project Schattenbericht Hamburg (“Hamburg Shadow Report”), an evaluation of the City of Hamburg’s State Action Plan for the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD).

He studied sociology, philosophy, and political science in Cologne. His masterthesis was published by Böhlau Verlag in 1991 under the title “Blinde auf Reisen” (“Blind People Travelling”). He taught at the University of Konstanz with Thomas Luckmann, at Dortmund University with Ronald Hitzler, and at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Bochum with Theresia Degener. He received his PHD from Dortmund University for a lifeworld-oriented ethnography of spatial orientation among blind people. The study was published by Universitätsverlag Konstanz in 2006 under the title “Geradeaus ist einfach immer geradeaus” (“Straight Ahead Is Simply Always Straight Ahead”).

Since 2017, he has served on the board of the association of Disability Studies in Germany.

As an artist, he has collaborated with Terry Fox at sonambiente Berlin 2006. He was also a long-standing member of the jury for the Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden (War Blinded Audio Drama Prize).

As part of the Sommerblut Cultural Festival, he curated the exhibitions “Blinde Flecken” (Blind Spots) and Art Blind for the association “Blinde und Kunst” (“Blind People and Art”).

At the Ruhr Museum in Essen, Saerberg was responsible for the auditory design of the exhibition “Unten und Oben – Die NaturKultur des Ruhrgebietes“ (“Below and Above: The Nature-Culture of the Ruhr Region”). He also advised the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn on modular educational approaches to inclusive cultural mediation.