Designing a Generative AI-Assisted Music Psychotherapy Tool for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals
🤖 AI Summary
This study addresses the limited accessibility of traditional music therapy for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, who are often excluded from its emotional expression and self-awareness benefits due to its reliance on auditory perception. To bridge this gap, the authors collaborated with therapists to develop an inclusive music-based psychotherapeutic tool that integrates a conversational agent with generative music AI. Designed specifically for deaf users, the system facilitates emotional release and meaning-making through non-auditory modalities—namely visual metaphors, empathetic response mechanisms, and collaborative song creation. In a user study involving 23 deaf participants, the tool significantly enhanced deep self-understanding, demonstrating the potential of inclusive AI to innovate within the domain of art therapy.
Application Category
📝 Abstract
Songwriting has long served as a powerful medium for expressing unconscious emotions and fostering self-awareness in psychotherapy. Due to the auditory-centric nature of traditional approaches, Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) individuals have often been excluded from music's therapeutic benefits. In response, this study presents a music psychotherapy tool co-designed with therapists, integrating conversational agents (CAs) and music generative AI as symbolic and therapeutic media. Through a usage study with 23 DHH individuals, we found that collaborative song writing with the CA enabled them to experience emotional release, reinterpretation, and deeper self-understanding. In particular, the CA's strategies -- supportive empathy, example response options, and visual-based metaphors -- were found to facilitate musical dialogue effectively for DHH individuals. These findings contribute to inclusive AI design by showing the potential of human-AI collaboration to bridge therapeutic artistic practices.
Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
music psychotherapy
Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing
generative AI
inclusive design
emotional expression
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
Generative AI
Music Psychotherapy
Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing
Conversational Agents
Inclusive AI Design
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