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Authors: Raja Kushalnagar, Shuxu Huffman, Robin Angelini, Katta Spiel
Venue: Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2025) (2025). doi:10.1145/3663547.3749828
This experience report presents a real-world case in which a Deaf open water swimmer and their hearing kayak partner designed and developed a vibration-based system for attention signaling during long-distance swims. When mainstream accessibility tools failed to meet their needs, they built a lightweight, context-specific solution grounded in Deaf cultural practices and embodied knowledge. Through in-situ use and reflective practice, we examine how this do-it-yourself (DIY) tool emerged from relational design and Deaf-centered philosophy. Rather than offering a generalized solution, this work highlights the value of culturally grounded, small-scale technologies shaped by the lived experience of a Deaf swimmer and their collaboration with a hearing ally. We conclude with a call for research approaches and design platforms that empower Deaf communities to create technologies rooted in their own values, environments, and ways of being.
We presented a real-world case in which a Deaf swimmer and their hearing kayak partner developed a vibration based system to support communication during open water swims. The tool was not built for general use, but it addressed a critical gap in a specific context where conventional solutions did not work. Grounded in trust, cultural understanding, and physical awareness, this Deaf-led system shows how deeply embodied and situated knowledge can lead to meaningful technology design. Rather than measuring performance or productivity, it centers lived experience and shared joy. We argue that accessibility research should not stop at designing for DHH users, but must also support tools created with and by the DHH community. These tools may be small in scale and personal in scope, but they embody epistemological knowledge often invisible to design practices that reduce access technology to mere functionality. As we imagine more inclusive futures, we ask the ASSETS community: What would a Deaf-centered maker movement look like? What tools and platforms are needed so Deaf people can create their own technological solutions, not only to access the world, but to shape it?
