Accessible Music Publishing Round Table

RNIB, DAISY Consortium

Together, we will discuss steps that the music publishing sector can take to ensure equitable access to published scores.

<h1>‘Getting your scores to blind, partially sighted, and print-disabled musicians’</h1><p></p><h2>Introduction</h2><p>The international DAISY Consortium and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) invite music publishers, composers, and music-setters/engravers to take part in our upcoming online Round Table on Accessible Music Publishing. </p><p>The event aims to explore and understand various sector requirements, through presentations and discussions between:</p><p>•	mainstream music publishers (including exam boards)</p><p>•	braille and other accessible format producers</p><p>•	blind, partially sighted, and print-disabled musicians</p><p>•	music setters/engravers</p><p>•	music notation software producers.</p><p>We will discuss steps that the global sector can take to ensure equitable access to published scores, in response to legislation and to take advantage of technological advances, with the aim of establishing a sector Working Group and trialling some solutions.</p><p></p><h2>Background</h2><p>Many literary publishers worldwide are already engaged in the highly efficient ‘born accessible’ workflow, using standards such as ePub to enable rapid access to printed books for people with print disabilities (blind, partially sighted, or otherwise print-disabled).</p><p>However, the music sector is yet to adopt a streamlined inclusive approach, meaning that accessible scores are difficult for print-disabled musicians to obtain. Often, manual transcription from a standard-print copy into braille or modified stave notation (large print) is the only option. This is a significant barrier to equitable access for blind and partially sighted people, in music education, professionally, and those exploring music for leisure. From a publisher’s perspective, it can be difficult to know how best to fulfil customer requests for accessible formats of music scores when there is no recognised process.</p><p>The DAISY Consortium and RNIB have been working on improving access to music scores for print-disabled musicians, particularly braille readers, with improvements to file format standards, notation, editing and conversion tools and new guidance on accessible publishing.</p><p></p><h2>Round table objectives</h2><p>Through this Round Table we hope to find a model for accessible music publishing which proves efficient for publishers, music setters and braille production houses alike, and:</p><p>•	open a dialog between those involved in music publishing and accessible format production.</p><p>•	discuss sector needs for well-structured master and MusicXML files for effective and efficient conversion into accessible formats, particularly music braille and modified stave notation.</p><p>•	discuss publisher working practices to explore whether their needs and practices would accommodate the creation of well-structured master and MusicXML files as part of their music-setting processes.</p><p>•	establish a working group and trials to create accessibility-friendly master and MusicXML scores for print-disabled musicians, ready for conversion into accessible formats.</p><p></p><h2>About the DAISY Consortium</h2><p>DAISY is an international non-profit membership organization working with over 150 partners all around the world to improve access to reading for people with print disabilities. We work closely with technology companies, standards agencies and publishers to ensure that the reading and publishing technology of tomorrow provide an accessible future for all. We have a dedicated workstream around access to music braille.</p><p>•	Home page: https://daisy.org/</p><p>•	DAISY Music Braille Project: https://daisy.org/activities/projects/music-braille/</p><p></p><h2>About RNIB</h2><p>RNIB, the Royal National Institute of Blind People, is the UK's leading sight loss charity. We offer practical and emotional support to blind and partially sighted people, their families and carers. We raise awareness of the experiences of blind and partially sighted people and campaign for change to make our society more accessible for all. We want to change our world so there are no barriers to people with sight loss.</p><p>•	Home page: https://www.rnib.org.uk/</p><p>•	Music Advisory Service: https://www.rnib.org.uk/music/</p><p></p><h2>About the UK Publishing Accessibility Action Group</h2><p>One of our speakers will present experience from the literary publishing sector. The UK Publishing Accessibility Action Group is a supportive community that fosters collaboration and encourages companies and publishing professionals in their accessibility journey. Our aim is to ensure that publications can be read by people with print disabilities. Its members include representatives from the publishing industry, publishing bodies, publishing technology organisations, disability associations, and people with lived experience of print disability.</p><p>•	Home page: https://www.paag.uk/</p><p>•	Business case for accessible publishing: https://www.paag.uk/business-case/</p>

Agenda

Dr Sarah Morley Wilkins (Project Manager, DAISY Consortium) will give an overview of the need for a ‘born accessible’ approach to music publishing to benefit blind, partially sighted and print-disabled musicians, and how new guidance, technologies and practice can bring us in line with trade book publishing.

1. Introduction and overview

Presenters will share a selection of inter-dependent components for a global solution from across the sector.

2. Viewpoints on the current situation

Victoria Ward (Strategic Lead, VI Education) will describe how children and teachers are negatively affected by the lack of resources available in music braille, and what steps are taken in a school setting to provide access to music education for blind and low-vision pupils.

Music education in a special school (New College Worcester)

James Risdon (Accessibility Lead) will explain one publisher’s perspective in handling accessible format requests and workflow requirements, and the barriers in getting scores in accessible formats to end-users. As a professional blind musician himself, he will also share his personal experience.

Exam publisher (ABRSM)

Solveig Marie-Oma will share her experience as a blind musician studying to degree-level in Norway and working as a blind organist. Finding braille music scores became an extra research activity alongside her studies, but being able to obtain digital accessible scores now makes studying and playing in church more comparable with the experience of a sighted musician.

Music graduate and professional church organist 

Daisy Higman (Choir leader; and Music Officer) will share her experience of obtaining and preparing scores for print-disabled musicians, and the types of enquiries RNIB gets from educators and musicians about access to music. 

Choir leader, and Music Officer (RNIB)

James Yanchak (Production Technologies Manager) will describe Taylor & Francis’ successful approach to accessible book publishing, and how their experiences informed their consideration of accessible music publishing.

Book publisher (Taylor & Francis)

Melanie Wren, Gill Cowsill and Judi Vilkauskas (Transcribers) will share RNIB’s experience as a production house serving blind and low-vision musicians, how scores are obtained and converted into braille and Modified Stave Notation, and how well-structured MusicXML source files would help get more scores to more musicians.

Producers of music braille and Modified Stave Notation (RNIB)

Will Todd (composer and pianist) explains why he supports accessible publishing, since as a composer and pianist, he believes that scores should be available to all musicians. He will outline the process of how his compositions are created and published. John Rutter CBE, Roxanna Panufnik, and Paul Spicer are also supporting our ‘born accessible agenda’.

Composers

Bridget Whyte (CEO, Music Mark) and Jay Pocknell (Music Support Officer, RNIB) will share the UK’s ambition for inclusive music, and how Music Mark and RNIB are working to improve access to music education for all children, including those who are blind, partially sighted or otherwise print-disabled.

Mainstream music education (Music Mark and RNIB)

3. Proposals for solutions

Dr Sarah Morley Wilkins (Project Manager, DAISY Consortium) outlines how we could dramatically transform access to published music for print-disabled musicians by following a ‘born accessible’ workflow and taking advantage of new technologies for creating, converting and exploring music in accessible formats.

A ‘born accessible’ workflow (the DAISY Proposal)

Stacy Scott (Chair of the Publishing Accessibility Action Group; and Head of Accessibility, Taylor & Francis) will share lessons learned from the book publishing sector about ‘born accessible’ publishing, copyright, file creation and sharing.

Experience from the literary publishing sector (PAAG)

Peter Jonas (Community Ambassador, MuseScore) will describe the accessibility advances in the free, mainstream music notation and editing tool, MuseScore – its improved MusicXML output making easier conversions into braille, and the new accessibility features for print-disabled people for creating, editing and exploring music in braille and modified stave notation, with in-built support for braille using the Sao Mai Music Braille Converter. 

MuseScore – the world’s most popular notation app

Sam Butler (Director, Product Management, Avid) will outline the features in Sibelius which support accessibility when creating scores suitable for blind and print-disabled musicians.

Sibelius – the world’s bestselling notation tool

Haipeng Hu (Music Braille Technical Consultant, DAISY Consortium, transcriber, and founder of BrailleOrch) will explain the simple DAISY guidelines for music engravers/setters which enable them to create well-structured files which are ‘born accessible’. These files are suitable for effective conversion into accessible formats, and publishers can trial embedding the guidelines into their commissioning process. Our assessment process delivers an Accessibility Report for master scores and recommendations for edits to improve accessibility.

Engraving guidelines to create ‘born accessible’ scores (the DAISY Guidelines)

Derek Benton (Freelance MuseScore engraver) will share his experience of using DAISY guidelines to create well-structured scores in MuseScore which are suitable for conversion into braille and other accessible formats, and why he feels it’s so important for the sector to adopt the ‘born accessible’ agenda.

Using MuseScore to create ‘born accessible’ scores

Luc Maumet (Library Sciences Expert, WIPO/Accessible Books Consortium) will describe how accessible book files and music braille files can be safely shared between Authorized Entities under the terms of the Marrakesh Treaty, via the WIPO-run  ABC Global Book Service, giving greater access to books and music for print-disabled people, and giving publishers confidence that their files are being treated appropriately.

ABC Global Book Service for sharing accessible format books and music

Presenters and participants will give examples of existing tools which give blind, partially sighted and print-impaired musicians independent and efficient access to MusicXML scores.

Using tools and apps to read accessible scores

Attendees and presenters will have plenty of time to share questions and answers across the sector, covering for example:

•	Composer and publisher experiences and workflow
•	Questions/ideas based on what you’ve heard today
•	Would you like to form a cross-sector Accessible Music Working Group?
•	Would you take part in a trial of e.g:
        o	Score engraving
        o	Accessibility Assessment
        o	For scores, and later for music textbooks
        o	Front-list and back-list collections


4. Q&A Discussion

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