Braille Music Plugin
Hey everyone, I'm well aware that you guys have been working really hard to make Musescore accessible to blind users. While that is absolutely awesome, it would be really great if a braille music plugin was created that would allow you to read and write braille music and display Musescore files in braille music notation. I heard that Finale used to have a similar plugin. While the accessibility features are great, it is still not optimal for checking scores as everything is not nicely laid out and reading notes would take forever.
Comments
I am working on making Braille export an option and there is much work being done to make accessibility for blind users easier. I'm guessing my project will be ready for testing in a few months and I will ask people to help test it and comment on output when it gets sufficiently developed. I plan to post the progress here in the Development and Technologies Preview forum as well as on https://musescore.com/groups/openscore-braille which I maintain for the purpose of making scores that can be transferred to Braille using some current 3rd party utilities.
I really look forward to checkout out your work, @mike320!
Meanwhile, here's an interesting tool I just learned about today: the IBOS MusicXML reader, which can take a MusicXML file and render it interactively in Braille as well as read it aloud. So in theory, you could export a MuseScore file to MusicXML then read it using this program to both hear it read aloud but also displayed on a Braille display. Here is the link:
https://www.ibos.dk/english/the-ibos-musicxml-reader.html
There are also tools that can take a MusicXML file and convert it to Braille (see for instance BrailleM USE: http://www.braillemuse.net/BrailleMUSE/en2/Input-e-b2-lyricP.jsp) which you can then read with a Braille display or have embossed. But to me, the interesting thing about the IBOS utility is its interactiveness, the way it will let you browse measure by measures, instrument by instrument, etc, and hear playback too.
I downloaded and gave it a brief try, seems extremely promising. There is also the Braille Music Notation, which has great potential for writing as well as reading Braille: https://tobyrush.com/braillemusic/notator/