[Menvi-discuss] Hello from a new list member

[Toby Rush]

Hello!

I've been "lurking" on the list for a few weeks and I wanted to introduce
myself to the community. I teach music theory, aural skills, and music
technology at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. Having been tasked
with providing assistive technology for two recently accepted students, I
have learned a great deal about it in the past few years and become excited
about the possibilities for improvements.

In particular, I perceive that the most significant disability that needs
to be overcome in music education for students with visual impairments
isn't biological... it's the lack of experience and knowledge with braille
music present in sighted music faculty! While I am excited about the
capability of current software to turn MusicXML files into braille music
code, I think we should provide tools for music educators to create
efficient and elegant braille music scores directly — the basic tenets of
the braille music code are easily grasped, in my opinion, especially when
they are not dependent on tactile fluency with braille.

To that end, I am currently working on a web-based utility for creating
(not translating) braille music scores. While I am making it fully
accessible to screenreaders and braille displays, the target audience is
music educators — sighted or not — who are unfamiliar with braille music.
The goal of the program is to be a utility for creating braille scores and,
simultaneously, a means of learning the braille music code. While I'm
making fantastic progress, it's still very much in development... but I
hope to have something to share with the list by the end of the summer.

Thanks so much for allowing me to join your community! I'm excited to learn
and serve.

-- 
**************************************************
Dr. Toby W. Rush - trush1 at udayton.edu <trush1 at notes.udayton.edu>
Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Technology
University of Dayton
"Omnia voluntaria est."
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