Producing accessible multimedia music

It is axiomatic that accessibility should be an integral component of any system, and this component is only now beginning to receive the attention it merits. Where such a component is considered integral to the design process, the resulting system benefits on many different levels. For music production and consumption systems, the ´workaround´ nature of traditional accessibility enhancements could be replaced by a naturally available transformation and representation feature. However, given the ever-changing requirements of music representation, the interfacing with accessibility tools is constantly set back. With every modification of the models that are used for music analysis, representation and synthesis, additional effort has to be invested to synchronise the consumption and production opportunities for print impaired users with those of the average end-user. If we were able to incorporate the ´changing´ nature of music representations in the model itself, we would have a means to integrate the volatile nature of music representation. By doing so, we could also incorporate the modification of these representations for specialised use, such as Braille music, Talking music and enhanced print music. Capturing these aspects in one music representation model that can be used simultaneously for music production and consumption has one particular advantage: it allows all interest groups to cater for their own needs.