Re: Music accessibility questions

Hello Suzanne,

I am a Canadian citizen living in Vancouver, BC and I have good expertise
with MusicXML and Web technologies. I'd be willing to lend a hand to this
project. Feel free to contact me via email.

Best,
Karim


On Thu, Mar 23, 2023 at 10:46 AM <SUZANNE.DOYLE@forces.gc.ca> wrote:

> Good afternoon everyone,
>
>
>
> Thank you for your replies. I really appreciate it.
>
>
>
> From the email responses I read, my understanding is this is not a
> straightforward process as I had hoped for as music accessibility is still
> in its early stages.
>
>
>
> My goal is to follow the WCAG 2 AA rules and there doesn’t seem to be set
> rules yet for sheet music other than a descriptive alt tag. (So do I leave
> it at that?)
>
>
>
> The manual is for the Canadian Armed Forces musicians however the
> Government of Canada follows the accessibility AA rules and the manual will
> be posted on the public Canada.ca website. All military personnel including
> musicians must pass a high level of medical exams including eyesight. They
> are soldiers after all with musical talent.
>
>
>
> Is it a balance between making it available to the music branch personnel
> especially when they travel and for the visually impaired to be able to
> understand what we posted? (It seems to be a real struggle with the lack of
> accessibility tools available right now.)
>
>
>
> Being a web developer, I can code in JSON but my concern is it’s time
> consuming and in a very specialized field. JSON is not for the general
> public or even web publishers so once I’m off this project, who would code
> any changes or edits etc moving forward? But if this can be done solely
> with software, it may be a viable solution.
>
>
>
> I know the pride our Canadian military has for inclusiveness and diversity
> so they would love to have the Marches, Calls and Protocols fully
> accessible for the blind and so would I. My question is, is it even
> possible today? The project has time and financial restraints of course.
>
>
>
> Question:
>
> 1.      Are there any crowd sourcing groups or anyone you know that would
> volunteer to help make the sheet music accessible for the blind? For
> example, the UK crowd sources its military history archives (they are way
> more organised and advanced than most countries are).
>
> 2.      If yes, do I provide a separate document specifically for the
> blind? I’m open to all suggestions if it’s doable.
>
>
>
> I’ll review all the links and responses again and ask questions as I move
> forward. Ideally, I would like to find a solution that works well for our
> Canadian Government, our military Music Branch and the blind or partially
> sighted persons.
>
>
>
> I’m new to music accessibility, so being aware is very important for
> change especially in my capacity as a web developer.
>
>
>
> Any other suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email me. I truly
> appreciate it.
>
>
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
>
>
> Suzanne Doyle
>
>
>
> Web Developer, Directorate History and Heritage (DHH)
>
> National Defence | Government of Canada
>
> Suzanne.Doyle@forces.gc.ca / Tel: 613-290-2102
>
>
>
> Développeur web, Histoire et patrimoine (DHP)
>
> Défense nationale │ Gouvernement du Canada
>
> Suzanne.Doyle@forces.gc.ca / Tél : 613-290-2102
>
>
>
> *From:* Mosterd, Eric James <Eric.J.Mosterd@usd.edu>
> *Sent:* March 23, 2023 10:22 AM
> *To:* Marc Sabatella <marc@outsideshore.com>
> *Cc:* Noble, Stephen <steve.noble@louisville.edu>; Doyle S@CMP
> DHH@Ottawa-Hull <SUZANNE.DOYLE@forces.gc.ca>; public-music-notation@w3.org
> *Subject:* Re: Music accessibility questions
>
>
>
> I’ll just add that converting sheet music from its native format (e.g.,
> Finale, Sibelius, etc.) to MusicXML does not result in a 100% accurate
> reproduction.  It’s somewhat akin to translating something using Google
> Translate, and then translating that result back into the original
> language.  Also, we’ve still not figured out a good way to make score
> annotations (e.g., notes from an instructor highlighting a section,
> technique, piece of theory, etc.) accessible.
>
>
>
> A final note:  the next “version” of MusicXML, MNX, is moving away from
> XML to JSON:
>
>
>
> Changing MNX to use JSON | Music Notation Community Group
>
> w3.org
>
> [image: favicon.ico]
>
>
>
> It’s still a bit early in the process, so it is unclear what impact this
> may have on accessibility but at the very least, existing XML-based
> conversion tools will need to be updated to support both the new standard
> and format.
>
>
>
> (sent from my phone, so forgive any typos)
> ------------------------------
>
> Eric Mosterd
>
> Assistant Director, Center for Teaching & Learning
>
> Manager, TechFellows Program
> Adj. Professor, Music History, Dept. of Music
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Regents Fellow for e-Education Initiatives
>
> South Dakota Board of Regents
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> (605) 677-5411 | Eric.J.Mosterd@usd.edu
> (605) 677-6518 (fax) | http://www.mosterd.org/
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
> On Mar 23, 2023, at 08:53, Marc Sabatella <marc@outsideshore.com> wrote:
>
> You don't often get email from marc@outsideshore.com. Learn why this is
> important
>
> I can't speak to anything having to do with military standards, but I can
> address the subject of accessibility of music notation in general.
>
>
>
> Braille music would be one common form of expressing music for blind
> musicians.  There is an ASCII format for Braille that could be used in alt
> text, and I've actually been curious to try this.  In principle it would
> work and a blind user using a Braille display could then read the music
> that way,  But I could also imagine it not working very well compared to
> traditionally embossed Braille, since music needs to be read in a somewhat
> less linear fashion than text and the navigation possibilities for alt text
> probably aren't that great.  And in case, you'd still need to get the music
> into Braille in the first place, which is the harder part - usually a very
> manual process that requires expertise in this.
>
>
>
> MusicXML as mentioned is a great format for accessibility because it can
> then either be converted to Braille via a variety of automatic and
> semi-automatic tools, or it can be opened in a music notation program like
> MuseScore or whatever the user in question is comfortable with, and read by
> screen reader with full navigation and even playback.  But, for that to
> work, you won't want the MusicXML to actually be the alt text for the image
> - you'll want it to be a separate file (probably a ZIP of all the MusicXML
> files for all the examples).
>
>
>
> Assuming these examples were created in music notation software, then
> exporting to MusicXML would be simple enough.  So if it passes muster to
> include a ZIP of MusicXML files for your examples, that's almost certainly
> the most *useful* option.  If on the other hand the music was simply
> scanned from a print rather than generated via music notation software,
> it's going to be process getting all that music entered.
>
>
>
> Marc
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 23, 2023 at 7:03 AM Noble, Stephen <steve.noble@louisville.edu>
> wrote:
>
> Some years back, I was involved with the Benetech DIAGRAM Project, and we
> created the Accessible Image Sample Book:
> http://diagramcenter.org/standards-and-practices/accessible-image-sample-book.html
>
>
>
> We looked at how to include a variety of content in digital format in an
> accessible manner. We included a section on music, in which we generally
> recommended MusicXML to support music accessibility. MusicXML  is supported
> in music-aware braille translation software and can be coupled with braille
> displays and speech-access systems. MusicXML is also widely supported by
> music notation software that can create enlarged notation to be viewed on
> the screen or printed. This allows further manipulation of the music
> notation, audible playback in real time using synthetic music, or export to
> standard audio formats.
>
>
>
> To go direct to the Music section, the web excerpt is at
> http://diagramcenter.wpengine.com/samplebook/08-Music.xhtml
>
>
>
> However, I would suggest you take the time to check out the resources
> mentioned on the sample book landing page (the first link I shared), where
> you will find a link to a webinar we did as well as a link to the GitHub
> repository where all the source files can be found.
>
>
>
> --Steve Noble
> steve.noble@louisville.edu
> 502-969-3088
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* SUZANNE.DOYLE@forces.gc.ca <SUZANNE.DOYLE@forces.gc.ca>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, March 21, 2023 6:44 PM
> *To:* public-music-notation@w3.org <public-music-notation@w3.org>
> *Subject:* Music accessibility questions
>
>
>
> Good afternoon,
>
>
>
> I am a web developer working with the Music Branch at the Canadian Armed
> Forces to produce their Music Branch manual online. (I’m not a musician.)
>
>
>
> Volume 1 of the manual is almost complete and will be WCAG AA compliant
> for the web as HTML and I will provide an accessible PDF downloadable
> document. (I have no issues with regular content.)
>
>
>
> The issue is Volume 2 of the manual, it contains mostly images of sheet
> music with musical notes for Marches, Calls and Protocols content.
>
>
>
> Normally, I code an image with a descriptive alt tag or provide a long
> alternative text version under the image. I don’t think this would work in
> this case as three quarters of Volume 2 are images which means over a
> hundred pages of sheet music. The descriptive text for the musical notes
> would add at least 100 pages more. This wouldn’t make sense online or in a
> PDF document plus the time and money it would take to write and incorporate
> all that descriptive text. The problem would be that the military musicians
> would do without the online manual, and they travel so this is not a
> solution.
>
>
>
> Can you please guide me on how to create sheet music and musical notes
> that are WCAG 2 compliant for HTML and for a PDF document? What tools and
> or software are available plus how do I test it? I’ve searched online and
> really can’t find anything that’s helpful or concrete.
>
>
>
> Thank you in advance.
>
>
>
> Yours truly,
>
>
>
> Suzanne Doyle
>
>
>
> Web Developer, Directorate History and Heritage (DHH)
>
> National Defence | Government of Canada
>
> Suzanne.Doyle@forces.gc.ca / Tel: 613-290-2102
>
>
>
> Développeur web, Histoire et patrimoine (DHP)
>
> Défense nationale │ Gouvernement du Canada
>
> Suzanne.Doyle@forces.gc.ca / Tél : 613-290-2102
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Marc Sabatella
> marc@outsideshore.com
>