Improving the Accessibility of Gender-affirming Voice Training With Visual-acoustic Biofeedback

In an initial virtual assessment session (conducted via a password-protected Zoom room), a researcher will explain the protocol, obtain informed consent, collect participant demographics and other self-report data, and obtain baseline recordings of the participant's voice while speaking different utterances.

After the initial assessment session, each participant will take part in four virtual training sessions (on day 1, after approximately 1 week, after approximately 2 weeks, after approximately 3 weeks) provided on an individual basis by a certified speech-language pathologist (SLP).

In the first session (1 hour), the SLP will assess each participant's baseline ability to modify their pitch and resonance and will introduce the voice training software. They will provide strategies that participants may use to manipulate their pitch or resonance (e.g., for resonance, changing the positioning of the tongue in their mouth or changing the shape of the lips). For the remainder of the session, the SLP will guide the participant through exercises deemed appropriate to the participant's ability, both with and without the software. At the end of the session, the SLP will prescribe pitch and/or resonance exercises to be performed at home with the voice training software, with a suggested duration of 2x 15 minutes each day. Additional one-hour virtual training sessions with the SLP will be held at the end of weeks 1, 2, and 3.

Between sessions, participants will be asked to exercise on their own and report the duration and type of practice using a self-report log, though there will be no mechanism to enforce the unsupervised exercise.

After the last training session, participants will take part in a final assessment session where the same recordings as in the initial assessment session will be obtained again and additional self-report data will be collected.