Haptic Consent

A consent model in which the request for, agreement to, and revocation of consent are communicated through touch or vibration rather than speech. Haptic consent is motivated by accessibility: many neurodivergent people, Deaf and hard-of-hearing people, and people in high-emotion or overstimulating situations find verbal consent unreliable or inaccessible, and touch is already a recognised consent channel in some Deaf and Blind communities. The Consent Rings prototype is an instantiation, using symmetric vibrating ring wearables with decay-and-reconfirm dynamics.