Dasom Choi

Music education for Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) learners remains challenging because access to auditory cues is constrained and instruction is often shaped by hearing-centered pedagogical and communication structures. Prior work has explored haptics for music, yet offers limited situated knowledge of how haptic cues should be designed and negotiated within authentic instruction. We address this gap through a co-design method centered on reconfigurable haptic prototyping. Using modular tactors that can be rapidly repositioned and retuned, we conducted four co-design workshops with educator–learner dyads in South Korea. The workshops involved hands-on trials, bodystorming, and mock teaching enactment to explore music-to-haptic cues within realistic instructional interaction. We show that haptics can support pedagogical fit, make musical concepts tangible as formative in-the-moment support, and function as a shared reference in instruction. We contribute a co-design method, empirical insights into haptics in music instruction, and design implications for DHH music education.