…not aware of any music hw that keeps that in mind…
…but android, ios, windows, linux and macos defenitly do…so in music in particular, that’s all down to individual solutions, but all common comunication and work options offer so far so good alternative options to get things done for most ways users might have to deal with handicaps…
I think it comes down to most things are retrofitted for accessibility and not designed this way from the start which makes it much harder to do for non software products, obviously big and simpler designs are going to be easier to use for everyone but then just as many people have serious space constraints which drives up the need for small multifunction complexity. I think color blind is probably the one most should try to design around although there are multiple types of color blind so it is not always so easy depending on complexity of the device.
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Yes, stuff like this is quite puzzling, and also gear with tiny screens/fonts, tiny buttons, dark text on dark backgrounds etc etc.- there is a long list of relatively simple design changes/language which would make gear much better for those with physical restrictions without having any compromise to anyone, in fact it would be better for all, with zero or minimal cost. Easy wins.
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I agree completely.
The funny/sad thing is that the companies that could actually really make some progress, or some specialized instruments that could open things up for people with disabilities (due to having the resources, development staff, etc.) are the very companies that have ceased innovating over the years because they find it comfortable to keep doing the same thing over and over and just taking money. (I’m talking about the huge corporations here, not the sub 20 person companies.)
The creative people are mostly in tiny companies (or even one person), and most likely do not have the resources for experimental products.
IMO though I think the research and development would be better put into interfaces and as you say bespoke instruments and solutions that are tailored to a specific artist’s needs, rather than putting check-box derived surface solutions into instruments that are already unfriendly to some groups of people.
Barring hand/arm disabilities, I believe that the keyboard is probably the most disability friendly interface out there, and has existed for centuries. The scale is clearly differentiated by touch, and once a musician is familiar, vision and many other impairments are of little consequence. See Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles as recognizeable icons who have no problem playing keys.
Knob per function synthesizers that are well laid out would fit into a similar category, and can be further augmented by custom interface solutions.
I don’t think a synthesizer that includes multi-page menus, a few buttons, and a couple of knobs or sliders is ever gonig to be friendly. Nor do I think every instrument needs to be. I think there are a lot of existing options that just about anyone could eventually find their way around, and the potential for further refining their processes through custom interfaces. It would be exciting to see more of this sort of thing surface though. Things like Imogen’s gloves, but maybe that could work with other parts of the body for example.
The problem is getting resources to the smart and willing people, or getting the big companies to budge a bit on their status quo operation. I don’t think it should ever be forced on anyone to design for specific audiences, but I do believe that there are many people out there that would love to participate in the development of this type of tech, if they were given the resources to do it.
It’s a multi-faceted problem that requires multi-faceted solutions. The potential is already there.
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Good post J3RK.
Universities are also a great source for this sort of research and specialization.
I posted this a while back about a prosthetic that allowed individual finger motion done at Georgia Tech. There is quite a lot of this sort of thing done at universities.
Here’s the video.
Don’t get hung up on the current state of the technology, key in more particularly on the reaction of the participant here, and picture what these sorts of things can mean longer term for this person and others.
Also there are schools that focus very particularly on the individual, and find ways to get there, regardless. For instance The Academy of Music for the Blind (AMB) in the Los Angeles, CA area. They aren’t the only school, there are others around the world, and there also are many individuals that are doing the same sort of individual instruction, and getting into the heart of music creation.
ADDED : Another video from the same group at Georgia Tech, with a bionic drummer prosthesis. Another source of funding for this sort of creation, money from the Defense Department for help to veterans.
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So i take note of two companies, three products, designed specifically for one hand operation, that were shown or mentioned this past weekend at SynthFest 2022 in Sheffield.
Yiannis of Dreadbox mentions a undescribed new product that can be played with one hand, and Transistor Sound Labs, has two sequencers Stepper Acid and Stepper Drums, specifically made for one hand playing.
See this post, and the post just before it that i did, for videos that describe this.
I don’t think either was done primarily for the purpose of access, but no doubt that is still part of the reason. After all this sort of good design can benefit everyone.
Also note in that same post that Os of Expert Sleepers is also showing a DIY project he’s done to attach a larger screen on to his Disting EX to improve visibility of that small screen. ( Apparently that screen could also show alternative data too, if i understand correctly. )
That’s the sort of response i like to see from companies. Even a DIY attachment like a screen expander is welcome.
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New post April 20th :
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Older post from March 31st :
Yeah – mechanical advantage.
Also knob shape can make a difference These are too large but a smaller version can help for some dexterity issues and might allow for one finger movements, or maybe use with a prosthetic.
Someone could 3D print items like this.
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Just a “my 2 cents” Jason Becker was a phenomenal guitarist who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) before his 21st birthday and given no more than five years to live. That was in 1989. Since he became unable to physically interface with instruments or a qwerty keyboard, he continued composing music using a special software interface for a music-composing computer program that reads movements of his head and eyes, enabling Becker to continue to compose after he lost control of the rest of his body. In 1999 and 2003 respectively, he released 2 albums titled raspberry jams and blackberry jams.
In 2018 he followed up with an additional album of new material called Triumphant hearts.
I feel like if companies like Roland or Yamaha who would be most capable of providing a run of braille synth buttons or UI’s for those with physical impairments are not doing just that, how far can we really say we’ve come as a society when a man who can only move his eyes and gesture with his neck was able to produce music 20 years ago and more recently, but no one has taken larger steps in that direction.
Sure some tiny eurorack company might be able to make excuses and most people will understand, but on the whole the industry has not progressed in the last 20 years or more towards those like Becker who are at a catastrophic disadvantage and still trying.
I’m not going to link his music because that’s clearly not the point of this thread but you can find it on youtube if you want. I do hope we as a society can put more focus on putting the healing power of music into the hands of more than just those who are able to grip the instruments, and give others a chance because they may still regardless be able to grasp those instruments.
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Mutable Instruments (RIP) did change their LED’s to make them work for people with color blindness after realizing the problem with red/green. First by creating a mode where they would flash at different rates and then by replacing bicolor LED’s with 2 LED’s in friendlier colors. So mindful designers do care but may not be aware of everything when starting out.
25 years ago I came across a DX7 in a thrift shop in Glendale that had Braille labels for all the buttons. Supposedly it had belonged to Stevie Wonder. The street finds it’s own uses for things.
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I took out the AR Mk2 after not using it for a long time.
Always hits me again how pad the pads are. Not as bad as the models but still not usable for people with hand problems. Still don‘t get it how they missed this opportunity on a maschine at this pricepoint. Shure its techno focused and finger drumming is not really the AR main forte. But again then why give halve of the real estate to those pads?
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What gets me is that they did it twice… The mk2 is better from what I hear, but not significantly enough
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No, it really is total crap. If you have big strong hands you might not realise it but you are not able to really play a beat with sensitivity.
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The creator of this product, had been using Elektron products until his failing eyesight forced him to change his method of performance, and so created this product. This product can also be used by those with no sight as well.
Hopefully the company Electro Jam will follow this with other products.
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It may be helpful to completely analyze all the equipment in the rack in this video, as i would suppose it all may be more accessible.
ADDED : According to Robin Vincent in SonicTalk #756, Electro Jam is planning more Eurorack modules for blind users !
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This is great - and also the crux of inclusive design (as apposed to designing specifically for disability), the principle is that by making devices more universally accessible it benefits everyone - it’s a rising tide lifts all boats approach to interfaces 
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This thread is considering accessibility in another dimension.
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This sound like a good idea in general and could be applied to many different synths.
More useful would be having ways to output custom patches easily.
You cab do that with 3-D Writing Pens, and similar, and also there are tactile stickers. Then you also could work with the original thick paper overlays, instead of 3-D printing.
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Super cool! I’m also wondering if something like textured cables could help with keeping track of a patch. Having a variety, like horizontal stripes, vertical stripes, bumps, wavy lines, etc. I don’t know if that already exists, or if it would even be feasible to manufacture. Or if it’s even helpful - I’m sighted, and don’t have the experience of needing such aids.
having used raised line pen type devices i am pretty sure they could be applied and stick to the ends of cables, so you could work out systems to give feel to cables and surfaces both.
I think this is a really interesting topic, and as an aspiring synth designer, something I have thought about a fair amount.
Basically my feeling is that when you are designing a device you always have a target audience. Everyone’s bodies have a different set of things they can do, without even talking about disability. When you design a device, you have to target your device to the capabilities you expect your audience to have, and there are always tradeoffs there. So if you were designing a device to be used without ever looking at the device (like targeted for blind people) you wouldn’t put a screen on it, and you would probably have to implement all sorts of features where you can understand the state of the device by feel alone. Now if the majority of people who buy your product are going to be looking at it, you might have wasted your effort trying to optimize for a different experience than your user actually has.
Unfortunately the realities of our modern economic system means that most synth companies end up designing for the widest audience of synth nerds they can find, and when you find the venn diagram of capabilities of those users, the most overlap is with the standard sensory capabilities, so companies will default to those standards. It’s the same reason why right handed scissors are everywhere and left hand ones are hard to find, even though %10 of the population are left handed.
Basically it ends up with any accessibility measures being the low hanging fruit, like changing red/green LEDs to red/blue for color blindness, but nothing designed specifically with nonstandard humans in mind.
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