![]() The Push combines an eight by eight grid of LED-lit touch pads with banks of knobs, buttons and touch strips. It makes it possible to create, perform and record a piece of music from scratch without looking at the computer screen. ![]() In recent years, Ableton has introduced a hardware controller, the Push, which is designed to make the software experience more tactile and instrument-like. However, Live is inaccessible via screen readers. Low-vision users can zoom in to the interface and modify the color scheme. Ableton PushĪbleton Live has become the DAW of choice for electronic music producers. In this section, I discuss one product frequently hailed for its “accessibility” in the colloquial rather than blindess-specific sense, along with some more experimental and academic designs. There are no mass-market electronic interfaces specifically geared toward blind or low-vision users. However, some DAWs pose insurmountable problems even to very determined blind users because they do not use standard operating system elements, making them inaccessible via screen readers. While it must have taken a heroic effort on her part to learn the program, Leona demonstrates that it is possible. Examples include Apple GarageBand and Steinberg Cubasis. Notated music is commonly composed using score editing software like Sibelius and Finale, whose functionality increasingly overlaps with DAWs, especially in regard to MIDI sequencing.ĭAWs and notation editors pose steep accessibility challenges due to their graphical and spatial interfaces, not to mention their sheer complexity. In class, we were given a presentation by Leona Godin, a blind musician who records and edits audio using Pro Tools by means of VoiceOver. Mobile DAWs are more limited than their desktop counterparts, but are nevertheless becoming robust music creation tools in their own right. The most commonly-used DAWs include Avid Pro Tools, Apple Logic, Ableton Live, and Steinberg Cubase. ![]() Keyboards and other controllers are mostly used to access features of the software, rather than as standalone instruments. Most electronic music creation is currently done not with instruments, but rather using specialized software applications called digital audio workstations (DAWs). For example, Stevie Wonder has incorporated synthesizers and drum machines in most of his best-known recordings. Nevertheless, blind users can master these devices with sufficient practice, memorization and assistance. Feedback may be given entirely with LED lights and small text labels. They may use graphical interfaces with nested menus, complex banks of knobs and patch cables, and other visual control surfaces. For electronic music, notation is rarely if ever a factor.Įlectronic instruments pose some new accessibility challenges. Incorporating Assistive Technology for Students with Visual Impairments into the Music Classroom. Most of the academic literature around accessibility issues in music education focuses on wider adoption of and support for Braille notation. Also, a great many musicians both blind and sighted play entirely by ear anyway. Music notation is not accessible, but Braille notation has existed since the language’s inception. Even sighted instrumentalists rarely look at their instruments once they have attained a sufficient level of proficiency. We need look no further for proof than the long history of iconic blind musicians like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder. I look at the history of accessible instruments and software interfaces, give an overview of current electronic music hardware and software, and discuss the design considerations underlying my project.Īcoustic instruments give rich auditory and haptic feedback, and pose little obstacle to blind musicians. Electronic music production tools are not. I propose a new web-based accessible rhythm instrument called QWERTYBeats.Traditional instruments are highly accessible to blind and low-vision musicians. Writing assignment for Design For The Real World with Claire Kearney-Volpe and Diana Castro – research about a new rhythm interface for blind and low-vision novice musicians Definition
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