Join The MIDI Association’s Music Accessibility Special Interest Group for a May Is MIDI Month webinar focused on making music creation more accessible for disabled musicians, producers, students, educators, technologists, and developers.
This session brings together leaders from the music accessibility community to discuss practical progress in accessible music technology, inclusive instrument design, accessible music notation, MIDI 2.0, and emerging standards work.
Speakers and featured contributors include Haim Kairy of Arcana Instruments, Tim Yates of Drake Music, Jay Pocknell of RNIB / Sound Without Sight, Mike Kent of AmeNote / The MIDI Association, Manuele Maestri of Musica Senza Confini, and Andrei, a Ukrainian veteran whose story demonstrates the real-world impact of accessible music technology.
The webinar begins with an update from the Music Accessibility Special Interest Group, including its work to bring together musicians, producers, engineers, educators, accessibility experts, and technology companies. The goal is to encourage practical collaboration and develop standards, demos, and workflows that make music tools more usable by everyone.
Tim Yates from Drake Music presents work from the Sony Hackathon in the UK, where Paraorchestra musicians, Sony engineers, academics, and accessibility specialists collaborated on new accessible music-making tools. The discussion emphasizes the importance of co-design: disabled musicians must be central to the development process, not simply testers at the end.
Jay Pocknell from RNIB / Sound Without Sight discusses accessibility progress in mainstream music technology and notation, including developments in voice control, Braille, screen reader support, and accessible workflows for blind and partially sighted musicians. His presentation highlights why accessibility must be built into music products from the beginning, rather than treated as an afterthought.
The webinar also features Andrei, a Ukrainian veteran, whose section powerfully illustrates how accessible music technology can support people recovering from injury, trauma, or major life changes. His story connects music accessibility not only to disability inclusion, but also to rehabilitation, personal expression, dignity, and reconnection through music.
Manuele Maestri of Musica Senza Confini is featured in a section focused on inclusive music education and performance. His work demonstrates how adaptive methods, accessible instruments, and thoughtful teaching approaches can open music participation to people with physical and cognitive disabilities. Related coverage describes Manuele’s method and collaborations as part of a broader effort to make music a language accessible to everyone.
Haim Kairy presents Arcana Instruments’ work on accessible hardware and describes a collaboration with Bettermaker to explore voice control, spoken feedback, MIDI integration, and AI-assisted control of professional audio equipment. The session also features Arcana Strum, an accessible music instrument designed to support expressive music-making for people with a range of physical abilities.
Mike Kent discusses how MIDI 2.0 can support accessibility through bidirectional communication, richer device discovery, profiles, and more intelligent interaction between instruments, software, controllers, and assistive technologies.
The webinar closes with a Q&A about physicality in music creation, barriers to accessibility, the role of technology, and the importance of industry-wide cooperation. This webinar is part of May Is MIDI Month and supports the broader mission of The MIDI Association to connect music technology companies, developers, educators, artists, and accessibility advocates in building a more inclusive future for music creation.
KVR Audio Post about Music Accessibility
Also KVR Audio did a great post about everything that is going in with Music Accessibility.
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