ACCESSIBLE MULTIMEDIA BRAILLE MUSIC REFERENCE MATERIALS ON CD-ROM

THE SANDARD REFERENCE BOOKS FOR TEACHING HOW TO READ BRAILLE MUSIC AND TRANSCRIBE PRINTED MUSIC INTO BRAILLE MUSIC ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ONLY IN HARDCOPY PRINT AND BRAILLE EDITIONS. A TYPICAL PRINTED PAGE CONTAINS DESCRIPTIVE TEST, MUSICAL EXAMPLES IN STANDARD MUSIC NOTATION, AND THE CORRESPONDING BRAILLE MUSIC NOTATION. AS WITH MOST HARDCOPY REFERENC MATERIALS, THE BOOKS ARE BULKY (ABOUT 200 PRINTED PAGES EACH, EVEN MORE FOR BRAILLE), HARD TO KEEP UP-TO-DATE, AND DIFFICULT TO SEARCH THROUGH, ESPECIALLY FOR BLIND READERS. WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP THE FIRST COLLECTION OF MULTIMEDIA BRAILLE MUSIC REFERENCE MATERIALS ON CD-ROM FOR USE BY BOTH SIGHTED AND BLIND READERS. IN ADDITION TO PROVIDING FASTER AND MORE EFFECTIVE TEXT SEARCHING CAPABILITIES,, THE CD-ROM AND ACCOMPANYING SOFTWARE WILL ALLOW MIDI PLAYBACK OF THE MUSICAL EXAMPLES, SCROLLING AND ZOOMING IN/OUT WHEN VIEWING THE STANDARD MUSIC NOTATION EXAMPLES, AND ANNOTATED DESCRIPTIONS OF EACH BRAILLE MUSIC SIGN IN THE BRAILLE MUSIC EXAMPLES.