Articles

Original articles on digital accessibility, research, and practice.

• The Right to Shape Sound: How Accessibility Research Is Rethinking Music Composition and Performance

  Bob Dodd — 2026-03-18

  Music is an inherently aural art form — so why is music technology so deeply inaccessible? This article examines 29 peer-reviewed papers on making music composition and performance accessible, from the bleak software landscape facing blind producers to vibrotactile alternatives that free the audio channel, text-based composition tools, brain-controlled robotic performance arms, Deaf sonic agency, and the consistent finding that community-designed music technology outperforms external design.

  • music accessibility
  • blind and low vision
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • assistive music technology
  • haptic feedback
  • vibrotactile
  • digital audio workstation
  • braille music
  • music notation
  • composition
  • performance
  • sonic agency
  • disability arts
  • creative accessibility
  • co-design
  • extended reality