  Sensory substitution or enhancement techniques have been proposed to enable
deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) people to listen to and even compose music.
However, little is known about how such techniques enhance DHH people's music
experience. Since deafness is a spectrum -- as are DHH people's preferences and
perceptions of music -- a more situated understanding of their interaction with
music is needed. To understand the music experience of this population, we
conducted social media analyses, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in the
deaf and hard of hearing Reddit communities. Our content analysis revealed that
DHH people leveraged sign language and visual/haptic cues to feel the music and
preferred familiar, non-lyrical, instrument-heavy, and loud music. In addition,
hearing aids were not customized for music, and the visual/haptic techniques
developed were not widely adopted by DHH people, leading to their suboptimal
music experiences. The DHH community embodied mutual support among music
lovers, evidenced by active information sharing and Q&A around music and
hearing loss. We reflect on design justice for DHH people's music experience
and propose practical design implications to create a more accessible music
experience for them.
