Exploring the Diversity of Music Experiences for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People
Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou, Weirui Peng, Yuhan Liu, Rachel F. Adler
TL;DR
This paper investigates how deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) people experience music and why existing assistive technologies fail to deliver optimal experiences. It adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining Reddit-based qualitative and quantitative analyses (TextBlob sentiment analysis and TF-IDF with K-Means topic modeling) to reveal lived practices, preferences, and barriers. Key findings show a preference for familiar, non-lyrical, instrument-heavy, and loud music, with sign language, visual cues, and vibrotactile cues shaping experiences; however, hearing aids and CI devices remain under-optimized for music and many assistive technologies have limited real-world adoption. The study concludes with design implications emphasizing design justice, accessible infrastructures, tailored recommendations, and leveraging DHH community knowledge to democratize assistive music technologies and improve inclusion in music contexts.
Abstract
Sensory substitution or enhancement techniques have been proposed to enable deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) people to listen to and even compose music. However, little is known about how such techniques enhance DHH people's music experience. Since deafness is a spectrum -- as are DHH people's preferences and perceptions of music -- a more situated understanding of their interaction with music is needed. To understand the music experience of this population, we conducted social media analyses, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in the deaf and hard of hearing Reddit communities. Our content analysis revealed that DHH people leveraged sign language and visual/haptic cues to feel the music and preferred familiar, non-lyrical, instrument-heavy, and loud music. In addition, hearing aids were not customized for music, and the visual/haptic techniques developed were not widely adopted by DHH people, leading to their suboptimal music experiences. The DHH community embodied mutual support among music lovers, evidenced by active information sharing and Q&A around music and hearing loss. We reflect on design justice for DHH people's music experience and propose practical design implications to create a more accessible music experience for them.