Ableton Move’s screen reader support is still getting rave reviews from blind and low-vision users, even though it’s not officially documented. Here’s more about how it works and more about what’s left to do – and an appeal to the entire industry to add more accessibility features.
Now is a perfect time to talk about this, as it’s #movuary! Blind users are posting stuff they’re doing with Move all month long (missed this in my initial writeup this morning):
https://mastodon.social/tags/Movuary
I already wrote about this in October in my Ableton Move guide, but it’s worth highlighting on its own – and we have another hands-on report from a user. I’ll repeat what I always say in these contexts – don’t think about accessibility as an edge case or an afterthought. Back in 2019, I wrote about efforts at Native Instruments designing for blind and low sight users. Unfortunately, some of the folks at NI who worked on that initiative are no longer there. (Tzipi Schindler I believe is still a product owner, at least, as I write this.) But the important takeaway that sticks with me is that one in 20 users took advantage of the functionality according to NI’s internal data. Here’s your business case. With the industry facing all kinds of business challenges, it’s even more important to consider this – that extra margin could be the thing that keeps you afloat.
Andre Louis has been one of the most prominent blind users in this community, and he’s been doing terrific work to document how he interacts with music tech. So it won’t surprise you that he also did a video on Ableton Move’s undocumented screen reader features:
It’s worth watching for anyone hoping to understand how he works – which you absolutely should try to understand.
Patrick Perdue, a blind audio user from New York, wrote on fwoof.space (Mastodon) about his experience. What’s interesting to me about reading this is how much I relate to the same design features. Now, I firmly believe accessibility features should be implemented for the sake of accessibility – you shouldn’t need benefits for other users to justify them, because then you’ve entirely missed the point. But it does illustrate that good design for accessibility is also good design, which is an important revelation. Here’s Patrick. (He also brings up hearing – that’s also a common consideration in music; some long-time readers of CDM are deaf, and if that seems surprising to you on a music site, that also shows that a lot of us misunderstand deafness.)
Emphasis mine. That so much of our industry is inaccessible should be a huge call to action. [lightly edited]
The following is an unsolicited plug.
I just want to say how much I enjoy the hell out of my Ableton Move. I got one on day one. Currently, I’m in a position wherein I don’t have access to 99.9% of my musical instruments and related gear. I have very little space to work with. This situation is unlikely to change in the near term.
Meanwhile, my hearing continues to deteriorate, and I feel like I am running out of time before I can’t do anything musically, so, despite stupid conditions, I need to take advantage of things while I still can.
What’s so amazing about the Move, though? Lots of folks see it and say “ah, it’s another groovebox with lots of limitations.” Or, for those in the know, they might say something like “Wait, isn’t that just a slightly more limited hardware version of Ableton Note for iOS?”
Well, yes, it is all of those things, but what truly sets the Move apart is its (currently undocumented) screen reader.
Yes, that’s right, it’s a nearly completely accessible groovebox that, when combined with a modern web browser, speaks almost every button press and turn of it’s knobs in real time. No more counting clicks, memorizing menus, all that stuff that we as blind musicians got so used to. It’s a real game changer for me as a totally blind musician.
Ableton really went big into accessibility with Ableton Live, Note for iOS, and now the Move. I’m sure this trend will continue with up-coming versions of both hardware and software. I have yet to play with any of their stuff beyond Note and Move, but I fully intend on giving Ableton Live a try at some point, and I’d love to see an accessible Push one day.
The accessibility they have now in Move isn’t perfect, but they are aware of the current issues, and it’s an absolutely fantastic first release. There are only a few things that don’t read. Currently, the biggest hurtle is getting the device connected to your WiFi network so you can point a browser at it without tethering via USB C. The first time I set mine up, I did this with sighted help, but I was able to manage it, very slowly and kind of painfully, by using Envision’s short text feature, not even the AI stuff. Hopefully, this will be addressed in future releases. This device runs Linux on a Raspberry PI CM4, and I fully intend on looking to see what they’re doing for their network management stuff, and I’d love to help them make this more accessible if they’ll let me. I’m not a Linux expert by any means, but I have a few ideas of how this could be implemented, potentially.
Seriously though, inclusive design combined with an already intuitive UI makes for a great experience.
I can say, without any doubt, that I’ve had the most fun in years making music with this thing, it’s four tracks and all kinds of limitations included. It makes you think about things very much outside the box, and I’m absolutely here for it.
Let’s give a big shout-out to inclusive design. Make your products more accessible, and you’ll get a whole new user base, increased loyalty, and free advertisement.
Ableton didn’t bolt on their accessibility when it came to the Move. It was built with it in mind from the ground up.
Patrick also added this comment in the discussion, regarding USB tethering:
Don’t know what happens with Android. It does actually work with iOS, except for the bit where audio from the phone is routed to… basically nowhere. The Move is also an audio interface, but only in one direction. If you have a Braille display, or if you use Airpods, you can access the web UI from move.local on your phone, but actually using it that way is pretty annoying, since you don’t have a way to easily hear both the Move and the phone at the same time.
@Onj showed me how to get SSH access, also not documented, I think, so I’ll be playing with all that soon.
It’s worth reading the whole thread.
Andre Louis chimes in to say, “I took Move into a college today; they had a VI student there. He was able to get hands-on with it, hear it talk, and control it just as well as his sighted counterparts in the class. That is empowering stuff!”
That’s a good example, too – even if you’re not blind, you should have enough basic knowledge that your own collaborations and educational interactions are accessible. So, a huge thanks to Andre for sharing so much.
Ableton may consider this an unfinished part of Ableton Move and the companion Move Manager, but these testimonies reveal that that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t go ahead and let people use it in-progress. Looking at other models (like Komplete), it’s often been partial support that helps teams get essential feedback from users who rely on this functionality. Now, some of the oversights (like wifi connection) may already be known issues. But this still means getting the tools into the hands of people who can use them.
The music tech industry also has a chance to pool resources and understand how to make tools more accessible collectively. As with basics like MIDI, this functionality can create more opportunities for everyone – both users and makers alike. I also expect DIYers can benefit from this kind of knowledge, too, and – let’s be honest, it’s often single developers and small teams who can be responsive faster than big companies.
I’m curious to hear more feedback. And yeah, I love my Move, too (also unsolicited).
Previously: