[ddots-l] Re: Accessible keyboards?

  • From: "W. Nick Dotson" <nickdotson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 09:15:21 -0600

You definitely got why I came up with that design choice, sort of cadged from 
what I intuit about the "keysound" approach with the Kurzweil keyboards.

Nick

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 06:18:43 -0500, Mike C wrote:

 I agree with what you are saying Nick, if a keyboard were to be made 
 accessible, it should be done through a midi channel of some sort, where the 
 computer would output the speech from the  unit.  It would be silly to have 
 speech ouput from a unit itself as you wouldn't want to have some device 
 talking through a PA system while doing a gig.  furthermore if an accessible 
 medium were to be implimented I'm sure that folks on the list who own older 
 modules such as the Yamaha EMU90, or Korg Triton wouldn't want to give up 
 those units just to purchase an accessible unit worth thousands of dollars. 
 Again my opinion is that the accessible part would have to be implimented 
 through a midi channel, and have output spoken on the computer, or braille 
 display itself.

 I know myself that I love my Fantom XR, and I wouldn't trade it for anything 
 at this point in time.
 ----- Original Message ----- 
 From: "W. Nick Dotson" <nickdotson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005 11:37 AM
 Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Accessible keyboards?


 >I certainly think you're on the right page.  Seems to me that having 
 >manufacturer's get behind a subset of the MIDI standard, to allow their 
 >devices to send
 > data in a manner analagous to the way that some of the Kurzweil's do, Dave 
 > Scrimenti (spelling?) and his brother used, might be the direction.  The 
 > less
 > well-thought out less well articulated the request, the sillier will be 
 > the results.  This is the kind of thing that it would be good to have 
 > someone get behind
 > and present to manufacturer's meetings at N.A.M. or similar industry-wide 
 > conferences.  I would think, for instance, getting the CakeWalk folks, 
 > perhaps
 > because of Jerry knowing them, the ProTools folks, to present a combined 
 > proposal to hardware manufacturer's, with say Jerry, the JSonar, and 
 > Dancing
 > Dots putting together the "wish list" and suggested means by which this 
 > could be accomplished, which would then be endorsed by the software folks
 > previously mentioned.  I would say, for instance, allow the end-user of a 
 > device tp press a button, maybe with a standardized shape or symbol on it, 
 > which
 > would envoke the data transfer process on a specific channel, so that 
 > commencement of the control process could be done by a blind device owner
 > independently...
 >
 > Nick
 >
 > On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 22:27:22 -0700, Sean A. Cummins wrote:
 >
 > WHOA! GANG!  Please stop and think about what you are asking for!
 >
 >
 >
 > I am all for asking companies to help, but let's not corner ourselves into
 > only one answer.
 >
 >
 >
 > True accessibility is opening the doors to many options and not just one. 
 > I
 > don't know about the rest of you, but I own many different types of
 > Microphones and many different types of guitars and other instruments
 > RIGHT?!  So why would I want to have only one keyboard company making an
 > accessible keyboard.  OH, I know, we can write all of them, but we'll be
 > lucky if one even gives such a small market a second thought.  Rather, we
 > need to approach an individual or individuals that can get us access to 
 > all
 > of the MIDI devices that are all ready passing data free from one to the
 > other.
 >
 >
 >
 > I had been pioneering a MIDI music system for the blind way back in the
 > early eighties, and the best thing to have ever happen to the industry was
 > the development of the MIDI interface.  This happens to be one of the only
 > industries that sat down and worked out a standard by which all computer
 > based instrument could exchange data and control one another.  This data
 > flow is our key to accessibility!  We just need to find the person and or
 > persons that would continue to bring all of the concepts together.
 >
 >
 >
 > I would even venture to say that a foundation like the Microsoft 
 > Foundation
 > would underwrite the development of the technology if one were to organize
 > and manage just such a project.
 >
 >
 >
 > Data is the key to freedom and not necessarily hardware.
 >
 >
 >
 > Give a man a fish. and he eats for a day!
 >
 > Teach a man to fish. and he eats for a lifetime!
 >
 >
 >
 > In my opinion, this is just what Dancing Dots has done for us all ready! 
 > I
 > propose that someone take up the cause of finding Dancing Dots the
 > underwriters for their and our benefit!
 >
 >
 >
 > God bless you all this Thanksgiving!
 >
 >
 >
 > Sean A. Cummins
 >
 >
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