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Friday, November 19 • 18:00 - 21:00
A Journey to Screen Reader Accessibility

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Accessibility is a topic of growing interest in the pro audio industry, but it can be daunting to get started. Join an Ableton software team to learn from our experiences and lessons after a year researching screen reader support in the context of desktop music production software. This workshop might be especially interesting for you if you research, define, design, or develop desktop music production software, and if you understand or are curious about accessibility, but don't know how to begin addressing it. If all goes well, then you'll leave this workshop with:

  • a greater understanding of accessibility and the current state of accessibility in the pro audio industry
  • ideas for how to begin addressing accessibility in your work and/or organisation
  • a framework for researching and improving the accessibility of your own product(s)
  • tools for testing the screen reader accessibility of your own product(s)
  • foundational knowledge of the UX and technical requirements of a screen reader-supporting desktop application, and 
  • a jump-start on platform APIs for native screen reader support

An outline of the workshop:

Topic 1 - How we started: High level, industry & organisational perspective

  • What is accessibility?
  • Organizational perspective

Topic 2 - What we did first: Make connections & learn

  • Overview of current situation of accessibility in DAW software
  • Research (the story of our own journey)
  • Learning about the vision-impaired user experience: Intro to using a screen reader (with demo)

Topic 3 - Where we are now: Start making changes

  • UX aspects of keyboard-only interaction
  • Technical aspects of screen reader support

You do not need to be a developer to participate; we only discuss coding concepts in the final session. Depending on attendance, we may run group breakout sessions to facilitate reflection and discussion.

ALL WORKSHOP SESSIONS CAN BE ACCESSED FROM THE MAIN LOBBY: https://conference.audio.dev

Speakers
avatar for Jason Dasent

Jason Dasent

Owner & CEO, Studio Jay Recording
Jason Dasent has over 25 years’ experience in all aspects of recording and music production. Jason launched Studio Jay Recording in Trinidad in 2000 catering to both the Advertising Sector and Artist Production for many top Caribbean recording artists. He has done Music Scores... Read More →
avatar for Tillmann Richter

Tillmann Richter

User Researcher, Ableton
Tillmann Richter has worked as a mixed methods User Researcher supporting the Live Product Team at Ableton for 6 years. His interest in the relation that people have with technologies led him from an M.S. in Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam to jobs in product management... Read More →
avatar for Mike Verdone

Mike Verdone

Product Owner, Ableton AG
Mike Verdone. Product owner at Ableton, working in the music technology industry for 11 years. Owner of two cats.
avatar for Spencer Rudnick

Spencer Rudnick

Software Engineer, Ableton AG
Spencer (they/them) is a software engineer at Ableton. They also produce music under the name Shoro. They studied computer science and music, with the goal of building tools that enhance and complement human creativity.They're passionate about user experience and human-computer interaction... Read More →
avatar for Lucie Brismontier-Thouny

Lucie Brismontier-Thouny

Lucie Brismonthier-Thouny. Lucie is a software engineer working on Live at Ableton.
avatar for Dr. Laurel Pardue

Dr. Laurel Pardue

Dr Laurel Pardue is an award winning expert in design (software and electronics), performance, and learning of novel hybrid digital accoustic instruments. She is a founding member of Bela.io.
avatar for Amy Dickens

Amy Dickens

Accessibility Consultant, Amy Dickens
Amy is an accessibility consultant for music software and hardware. They are a certified Accessibility Specialist awarded by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals. Since 2015 Amy has been researching accessible digital musical instruments. They currently work... Read More →
avatar for Andre Louis

Andre Louis

Andre Louis is a musician, lover of all-things technology, self-proclaimed geek and loves trying out new gear whenever he can get a hold of it. He was the first visually impaired person in the world to own the ground-breaking Komplete Kontrol software from Native Instruments, and... Read More →
avatar for Tim Burgess

Tim Burgess

Managing Director, Raised Bar
Tim Burgess is a blind self-employed developer, accessibility consultant and trainer with 30 years of experience of creating solutions to enable people with disabilities to gain and retain employment. Tim specialised in music-related accessibility for the last 15 years, trying to... Read More →


Friday November 19, 2021 18:00 - 21:00 GMT
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