Beyond the "Industry Standard": Focusing Gender-Affirming Voice Training Technologies on Individualized Goal Exploration

TL;DR

This paper investigates how gender-affirming voice training goals are defined and used by transgender and gender-diverse (TGGD) individuals and their experts. Through interviews with six voice experts and ten trainees, the authors reveal a gap between lay descriptive goals and technical, parameter-based targets, and show how subjective satisfaction, exemplars, and role-play bridge that gap. They highlight that goals are dynamic, evolving with skill, identity, and context, and warn against rigid end-goals that hinder progress. The study then proposes design guidelines and technologies—such as adjustable target vs. goal interfaces, example-driven exploration, voice-changer–grounded learning, large diverse voice databases, and VR-based generalization—to support individualized, authentic voice exploration throughout the nonlinear training journey.

Abstract

Gender-affirming voice training is critical for the transition process for many transgender individuals, enabling their voice to align with their gender identity. Individualized voice goals guide and motivate the voice training journey, but existing voice training technologies fail to define clear goals. We interviewed six voice experts and ten transgender individuals with voice training experience (voice trainees), focusing on how they defined, triangulated, and used voice goals. We found that goal voice exploration involves navigation between descriptive and technical goals, and continuous reevaluation throughout the voice training journey. Our study reveals how goal descriptions, subjective satisfaction, voice examples, and voice modification and training technologies inform goal exploration, and identifies risks of overemphasizing goals. We identified technological implications informed by existing expert and trainee strategies, and provide guidelines for supporting individualized goals throughout the voice training journey based on brainstorming with trainees and experts.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: When beginning voice training, trainees start with layperson descriptions of their goals, but defining a clear end-goal trajectory requires technical goals. To define and update the voice-training trajectory, experts and trainees use both subjective-satisfaction with voice production through exercise and measurement and approximation templates (e.g. singers, voice actors, and role-play), and example-driven goal exploration. While subjective satisfaction methods inform the goal as a byproduct of typical voice training methods, example-driven exploration allows experts and trainees to form a vivid understanding of voice goals through the high voice information bandwidth provided through examples chosen based on the trainee's goals.
• Figure 2: Voice goals represent the desired trajectory of the voice-training journey, informing how experts and trainees set incremental targets. Although goals evolve beyond the initial goal voice exploration as a result of external factors and skill and knowledge-building with voice training progress, they always envision the end-goal.