#nonvisual

[crushyouridols]

[hackblindness-blog]

Close your Eyes, Imagine

First off, HUGE thanks to Peter Kirn, Hypebot & Paul Lamere for spreading the word about Hack Blindness. I was crying actual tears of happiness yesterday from the downpour of support that is happening over at CDM. Responding to everyone is going to take some time, but a gigantic THANK YOU is a good start. 

Thoughts on Text-to-Speech [TTS]

Many people have already made software that uses text-to-speech to give the user a variety of information about what is happening on their screen. There are some very good things about this type of software, but I don’t think it has a strong place in music production and music performance software. I believe text-to-speech in this application gets in the way of what musicians and their audiences hear. Personally, I don’t need to know that my reverb level is at 62% because I can just hear it. Sure, I would like to know which parameter I am working in, but I could have complete control over that with my computer keyboard.

Remember: The non-visual musician has the ears of a fox.

There are other means of sensory replacement that could be used to allow the software to communicate with the user and vice versa. Haptic feedback and devices like the Syntact™ allow us to touch sound.

I’m not cracking on TTS in general. I think it is an extremely important product for the visually impaired. I use it myself when I work on the computer. Along with screen magnifiers, a good pair of sunglasses and extra brightness/contrast & color enhancements, my eyes get a chance to relax.

I challenge all of you, think of this with your eyes closed, now reach out...touch the sound, pick it up, move it around.