Who has access to music-making? Not everyone. Traditional performance-based music education has historically presented barriers to access (Lubet, 2011). These barriers are rooted in ableism, manifesting systemic discrimination based on assumed abilities in music learning (Laes & Westerlund, 2018). Standardized instruments, typically manufactured without consideration for diverse bodies, rarely offer the flexibility to accommodate all learners (Bell et al., 2020). Playing instruments also presupposes an idealized body and above-average dexterity, particularly in the pursuit of virtuosity (Howe, 2016). From design to pedagogy, these exclusions restrict meaningful participation for learners with diverse access needs.As a Chinese music teacher, I have been motivated to explore how digital technologies might reduce these barriers. My classroom experience shows that students are already adept with digital devices, which provides a foundation for reimagining them in the service of accessibility. This led me to design a research project that invites adolescents to create accessible instruments themselves, rather than leaving such work to experts.China provides a timely and significant setting for this research. Approximately 85 million people in the country live with disabilities (China Disabled Persons’ Federation, 2021), yet accessibility has rarely been prioritized in education. A major policy shift occurred in 2023 when the government passed its first national law promoting an accessible society (Xinhua News, 2023). This creates opportunities for schools to address accessibility directly. At the same time, accessibility needs in music and education vary widely and may require collaborative, customized solutions among learners, educators, and technologists (Cappelen & Andersson, 2018; Cheng & Leong, 2017).Today’s youth grow up immersed in smartphones, tablets, and interactive platforms. Their everyday engagement with technology positions them to explore its affordances for accessibility in ways that are both practical and creative. By studying how students build instruments while developing awareness of access needs, this project highlights approaches to music-making that extend beyond prior experience or ability.This proposal reports on an action research study in a Chinese secondary school. In July 2025, eighteen students in Grades 7 to 9 participated in a twelve-day summer workshop. Resources included laptops, tablets, smartphones, DIY electronics, and music software such as Max MSP and FamiStudio. Data sources included surveys, interviews, 67 hours of video documentation, and student-produced artifacts. Guided by affordance theory (Gibson, 1979; Norman, 1990), the research question is: In what ways do Chinese secondary students perceive, discover, and engage in the affordances of digital technologies for making accessible instruments?This presentation will be co-presented by me as the teacher-researcher and a technology teacher from the participating school. Together we will share our respective perspectives on our teaching-facilitation, the students’ engagement with technologies, and the possibilities for accessibility in music-making that emerged.