Re: Music accessibility questions

Suzanne,

To summarise what has been said with my personal opinion/experience in brackets.

- You’d be better off starting with sheet music engraved in a known editor (aka, equivalent of Microsoft Word for writing music!) with the capability of exporting MusicXML or have access to raw MusicXML [we invest on Finale mainly because the MusicXML output is more coherent today with the standard. We have no connection to both companies and this opinion is subjective.]

- You’d use those content files along with one of the available Sheet Music rendering engines available out there (either commercially or open-source) but one that supports both MusicXML input and Music Braille output. You need a software developer for this part and a bit of research. [we use the open-source library GUIDOLIB and I know that someone has put a lot of effort in implementing Musc Braille there. Don’t know if other guys such as VEROVIO have put efforts in Music Braille… Worth asking both and others.]

- You’d use the output of those rendering engines to your crowd and on your platform of interest. Most engines support the Web and have Interactive capabilities. For Accessibility, some platforms have done  a great job such as iOS/MacOS (aka iPhones, iPads and Macs).


We get messages from visually impaired users on our App and over the years we have improved accessibility for such users to play along. The issue of Music Braille rendering is also of interest to our company and we’d like to invest in the field if there are other like-minded colleagues to provide something (open-source) to the entire community.

Arshia Cont
metronautapp.com



> On 23 Mar 2023, at 17:14, SUZANNE.DOYLE@forces.gc.ca wrote:
> 
> Good afternoon Arshia, <>
>  
> Thank you for your reply.
>  
> From your own experiences can you please provide me with a few examples of the software and the process you use? What are the names of the software and what works best in your opinion? It would be helpful if you could estimate the amount of time this normally takes you to produce.
>  
> For example, I layout the manual document from a word file the music branch provides me with into HTML and then an accessible PDF document so my software process would be:
>  
> Microsoft Word > size images in Photoshop > Adobe Dreamweaver for coding HTML > AEM ( our web content management system) > to live HTML accessible webpages.
>  
> Microsoft Word > I style the Word doc in Word for accessibility > PDF > PDF accessibility checker > I manually fix all the tags until it passes accessibility > I add the link of the PDF document on a webpage.
>  
> Thank you in advance,
>  
> Suzanne Doyle
>  
> Web Developer, Directorate History and Heritage (DHH)
> National Defence | Government of Canada 
> Suzanne.Doyle@forces.gc.ca <mailto: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 <mailto:Suzanne.Doyle@forces.gc.ca> / Tél : 613-290-2102
>  
> From: Arshia Cont <arshiacont@antescofo.com> 
> Sent: March 23, 2023 10:44 AM
> To: Doyle S@CMP DHH@Ottawa-Hull <SUZANNE.DOYLE@forces.gc.ca>
> Cc: public-music-notation@w3.org
> Subject: Re: Music accessibility questions
>  
> Just in case: I saw active development on Brails rendering on the Open Source Guido Project: https://github.com/grame-cncm/guidolib <x-msg://19/%3cBLOCKED%3e*https:/github.com/grame-cncm/guidolib%3cBLOCKED%3e>
>  
> We’ve been using this library for years for rendering and along with LibMusicXML it is possible to use it on existing MusicXML files and render on the fly on almost any platform.
>  
> You might want to contact the maintainers for the status of Brail.
>  
> Arshia Cont
> metronautapp.com
>  
>  
> 
> 
> On 23 Mar 2023, at 14:52, Marc Sabatella <marc@outsideshore.com <mailto:marc@outsideshore.com>> wrote:
>  
> 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 <mailto: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 <x-msg://19/%3cBLOCKED%3e*http:/diagramcenter.org/standards-and-practices/accessible-image-sample-book.html%3cBLOCKED%3e>
>  
> 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 <x-msg://19/%3cBLOCKED%3e*http:/diagramcenter.wpengine.com/samplebook/08-Music.xhtml%3cBLOCKED%3e>
>  
> 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 <mailto:steve.noble@louisville.edu>
> 502-969-3088
>  
> From: SUZANNE.DOYLE@forces.gc.ca <mailto:SUZANNE.DOYLE@forces.gc.ca> <SUZANNE.DOYLE@forces.gc.ca <mailto:SUZANNE.DOYLE@forces.gc.ca>>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2023 6:44 PM
> To: public-music-notation@w3.org <mailto:public-music-notation@w3.org> <public-music-notation@w3.org <mailto: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 <mailto: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 <mailto:Suzanne.Doyle@forces.gc.ca> / Tél : 613-290-2102
>  
> 
>  
> -- 
> Marc Sabatella
> marc@outsideshore.com <mailto:marc@outsideshore.com>