Designing for What Cannot Be Seen: Supporting Embodied String Learning for Musicians with Blindness and Low-Vision

Shi Shi, Lingyun Chen, Zitao Zhang, Amanda R. Draper, Eli Blevis

Bowed string instruments demand fine-grained bodily coordination that is typically taught through visual demonstration, creating persistent barriers for musicians with blindness and low-vision (BLV). To understand these challenges and explore new design opportunities, we conducted a design study with four advanced string musicians with BLV and three of their instructors. Our team, spanning violin performance and music education, disability studies in music, HCI design, and engineering employed a qualitative, multi-method approach including practice video analysis, lesson observation, expert interviews. Our analysis identifies recurring difficulties in right-hand bow control, left-hand coordination, score access, and memory-intensive practice. Building on these findings, we conducted an exploratory design ideation phase informed by empirical findings and feedback from one musician with BLV. We developed speculative design directions that could potentially address identified breakdowns, while acknowledging that these concepts require further evaluation with instructors and in deployed contexts.