Going Beyond the I With CI: an Interview-based Design Space

Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals using cochlear implants (CIs) often have regular jobs or enroll in mainstream education where they face complex social challenges. While first HCI interventions targeted this group's communication skills, or compensated for limited sound perception, we instead focused on experiential aspects like fatigue and feeling different from others. We moved beyond individual-focused design by engaging interaction-partners to share responsibility for overcoming social barriers. This work identifies generative, intermediate-level design knowledge, addressing common interaction-level challenges. A design-oriented, thematic analysis of interviews with 14 CI users revealed four subsequent themes: invisible, shifting hearing demands; misunderstandings and social impact; strategies for managing interaction barriers; and emotional, relational costs. Mapping these themes to HCI concepts like seamfulness, social translucence, and proxemics highlights open-ended, concrete design opportunities that support socializing beyond functional access. Framing interaction success as shared responsibility broadens inclusive design discourse for DHH populations and wider disability design spaces.