Learning Music Blind: Understanding the Application of Technology to Support BLV Music Learning
Leon Lu · 2022 · Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22) · doi:10.1145/3517428.3550413
Summary
This doctoral consortium paper outlines a three-study PhD research program investigating how wearable technologies with vibrotactile feedback can support blind and low vision (BLV) music learners. The research is motivated by the significant barriers BLV people face in learning music: rigid teaching traditions, ill-equipped music teachers who lack knowledge of accessibility technologies, expensive and cumbersome braille music scores, limited commercially available assistive technologies for music (restricted to reading and composition software only), and single-line braille readers that are poorly suited for music navigation. The author highlights that touch plays an essential role in BLV music learning — used to understand instruments, interpret physical guidance from teachers, and read musical information — and that vibration patterns can convey musical information such as pitch, tempo, timbre, articulation, dynamics, and rhythm. Study One (completed) consisted of 40 one-hour interviews with professional and amateur BLV musicians and music teachers from organizations in Canada, the UK, and the US. Through thematic analysis using MAXQDA, 59 codes were organized into three broad themes: the importance of teacher adaptations, flexibility, and personal support; challenges of music memorization alongside advantages and shortcomings of braille music and auditory learning; and limited use of existing technology. Study Two (in progress) involves six virtual co-design sessions with BLV musicians and teachers to prototype wearable technology ideas, using mailed kits containing deformable materials, texture swatches, and modular vibration motors that can be remotely activated. Study Three (future) will be a three-month longitudinal autoethnographic evaluation of a wearable prototype with three BLV music learners.
Key findings
The completed interview study (Study One) with 40 BLV musicians and music teachers identified three key design challenges that future assistive technologies must address for BLV music learning. First, technology needs to support BLV student-teacher interaction and communication — BLV learners are heavily reliant on their teachers for accommodations, yet many music teachers feel underprepared and ill-equipped to teach BLV students, lacking knowledge of sight conditions, learning processes, and accessibility technologies. Second, technology must assist with music memorization and make braille music more user-friendly — BLV musicians described braille music as cumbersome to learn and expensive to acquire, and they have limited access to scores. Third, future technologies should use vibrotactile feedback to convey nonverbal communication and musical instruction — BLV musicians reported that nonverbal cues and gestures such as pointing, nodding, and facial expressions are challenging to decipher, especially during performance. The study also found that BLV musicians develop self-made strategies like asking peers to tap their shoulder for musical cues, and that haptic receptors in the skin, muscles, and joints help musicians develop virtuosity by feeling the tactile response from their instrument. These findings directly inform the co-design phase, where participants will explore how wearable vibrotactile devices attached to different body parts might convey musical information hands-free.
Relevance
This research addresses an underserved intersection of accessibility and creative arts — while prior work has focused on making existing music scores accessible (through braille conversion or text-based notation), very little research has explored how technology can support the embodied, interactive process of learning to play a musical instrument as a BLV person. The co-design methodology is noteworthy for its remote adaptation: mailing physical prototyping materials (deformable materials, texture swatches, remotely activated vibration motors) to participants enables hands-on design participation without requiring travel. For music educators and accessibility practitioners, the finding that most music teachers have very little knowledge of assistive technologies — from a survey of 1,416 educators — highlights a critical gap in teacher training that technology alone cannot solve. The focus on wearable vibrotactile devices is promising because wearables can be integrated into clothing or hidden, allowing BLV musicians to receive musical cues discreetly during performance without visual distraction. The research could inform broader applications of haptic feedback for conveying nonverbal social information to BLV people beyond the music context.
Tags: music accessibility · blindness · low vision · haptic technology · wearable technology · music education · co-design · vibrotactile feedback · assistive technology