Hey @Whythisreason and @VeggieSoup! Thanks for the kind and helpful responses! I feel officially welcomed, and I hope I can be helpful too.
@VeggieSoup, funny enough, I’ve actually been in contact with the Zynthian team before! Back in June I reached out and ended up having a really nice exchange with Brian Walton (riban), one of their core developers. He told me quite a bit about ZynVoice, the text-to-speech system he was developing for the V5, along with some of the other accessibility work going into the Vangelis release.
I was particularly excited about the spoken navigation, audio cues, and how the physical controls could potentially allow someone to operate the instrument without needing to see the screen. We also talked about VNC access for mirroring the interface to a larger display, which is especially useful for someone like me who still has some usable vision.
I was genuinely blown away by the project. Zynthian is pretty darn close to the kind of open-source music workstation I’ve wanted for years. I joined their Discourse forum and had every intention of getting more involved, but between building Low Vision Music, working with manufacturers, and life in general, I haven’t kept up with them as much as I wanted to.
I did send the team a little update more recently, but I haven’t spoken with Brian in a while. This is actually a good reminder that I really need to get back in touch! I’d love to find out how ZynVoice has progressed and hopefully contribute some accessibility testing, guides, or feedback. Getting my hands on a V5 is still very much on my wishlist.
@Whythisreason, glad you asked! And it’s really cool that you’re already experimenting with MOD’s web interface.
Ideally, I’d love to see a combination of those things. For low-vision users like myself, scalable controls, larger labels, proper browser zoom support, and high contrast options would be extremely helpful. I’m also red/green color deficient, so I tend to notice when interfaces rely too heavily on colors to communicate information.
For fully blind musicians, keyboard navigation and screen reader compatibility are especially important. One thing I’ve been thinking about is how a virtual pedalboard could be made accessible without having to visually drag plugins around or draw patch cables between them. Maybe some sort of alternative interface where users could add effects, arrange signal chains, and make connections through menus or keyboard commands?
Another big one is making plugin parameters readable by assistive software. Rather than a screen reader just saying “knob” or “slider,” it could announce something useful like “Filter Cutoff, 1.2 kHz.” I’ve been looking into some of the possibilities surrounding MIDI 2.0, parameter information, and the work being done through SynthAccess and the MIDI Association.
I’m also interested in AI-assisted navigation and voice control, though I think the fundamentals should come first. AI is great, but nobody should need it just to navigate a menu! Plus, it’s obviously polarizing in many communities. That said, voice prompting on devices like Ableton Move with the Schwung firmware is really promising.
The hardware side is another can of worms, haha. Tactile landmarks, predictable layouts, physical controls, and flexible MIDI assignments all make a difference. I rely heavily on touch, muscle memory, and magnification when using my own equipment.
I haven’t had a chance to use a MOD device firsthand yet, but I’d absolutely love to. I’ve recently expanded Low Vision Music to include more formal accessibility audits of hardware and software, and I’ve been working with a growing number of manufacturers and developers on testing and feedback. Maybe if we receive another round of funding at some point I can pick up a MOD device to evaluate and provide feedback on.
If you’re curious, I can forward you my Accessibility Audit form I use during product and software testing.
I’d be happy to help test anything your working on, even if it’s just an early experiment. I use NVDA, magnification, and other assistive tools, and I genuinely enjoy working through these kinds of problems with developers.
Theres a lot of potential here, especially since MOD’s web-based approach gives us opportunities to improve accessibility without necessarily redesigning the hardware.
@Whythisreason, are you hoping to eventually contribute your UI experiments to the main MOD project, or is this mostly something you’re tinkering with independently right now? Either way, I’d love to learn more!
And @VeggieSoup, thanks again for bringing up Zynthian. You’ve reminded me of a conversation I really should pick back up!
) and to complement my “usual” amps and effects pedals. I really dig the openess and the DIY/hands-on attitude of the MOD-stuff…
