Understanding Audio Production Practices of People with Vision Impairments Abir Saha Anne Marie Piper Northwestern University University of California, Irvine Evanston, IL, USA Irvine, CA, USA [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT of audio content creation, including music, podcasts, audio drama, The advent of digital audio workstations and other digital audio radio shows, sound art and so on. In modern times, audio content tools has brought a critical shift in the audio industry by empower- creation has increasingly become computer-supported – digital in- ing amateur and professional audio content creators with the nec- struments are used to replicate sounds of physical instruments (e.g., essary means to produce high quality audio content. Yet, we know guitars, drums, etc.) with high-fdelity. Likewise, editing, mixing, little about the accessibility of widely used audio production tools and mastering tasks are also mediated through the use of digital for people with vision impairments. Through interviews with 18 audio workstations (DAWs) and efects plugins (e.g., compression, audio professionals and hobbyists with vision impairments, we fnd equalization, and reverb). This computer-aided work practice is that accessible audio production involves: piecing together accessi- supported by a number of commercially developed DAWs, such 1 2 3 ble and efcient workfows through a combination of mainstream as Pro Tools , Logic Pro and REAPER . In addition to these com- and custom tools; achieving professional competency through a mercial eforts, academic researchers have also invested signifcant steep learning curve in which domain knowledge and accessibility attention towards developing new digital tools to support audio are inseparable; and facilitating learning and creating access by production tasks (e.g., automated editing and mixing) [29, 57, 61]. engaging in online communities of visually impaired audio enthu- Despite a growing interest in computer-supported audio content siasts. We discuss the deep entanglement between accessibility and creation within industry and academia (e.g., dedicated communities professional competency and conclude with design considerations such as NIME, AES and ACM IMX), one area that has not received to inform future development of accessible audio production tools. much attention is how people with vision impairments perform au- dio production tasks using computer-based tools. While emerging CCS CONCEPTS literature within HCI and accessibility has studied other forms of computer-supported creative work (e.g., photography [3, 40], draw- • Human-centered computing ! Empirical studies in acces- ing [9, 56], making and fabrication [5, 19], 3D printing [24, 64] and sibility. writing [20, 51]), accessibility in audio production remains relatively KEYWORDS under-explored. The limited prior work that does exist has revealed that people with vision impairments face accessibility challenges in Accessibility, audio production, blind, vision impairment using digital audio production tools due to an often-exclusive use ACM Reference Format: of visualizations (e.g., waveform and graphic equalizer) to represent Abir Saha and Anne Marie Piper. 2020. Understanding Audio Production audio information [50, 68]. Consequently, researchers have focused Practices of People with Vision Impairments. In The 22nd International ACM on creating accessible representations of this information by de- SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’20), October veloping novel multimodal interfaces [26, 36, 50, 53, 68]. However, 26–28, 2020, Virtual Event, Greece. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 13 pages. less is known about how people with vision impairments use main- https://doi.org/10.1145/3373625.3416993 stream audio production tools in their personal and professional 1 INTRODUCTION practices. Understanding how people with vision impairments nav- igate existing tools and the associated challenges to achieve their From contemporary pop music to award-winning musical mas- audio production goals is essential in designing sustainable solu- terpieces to educational podcasts, professionally produced audio tions and establishing a holistic view of how computer-based tools begins as a few raw, untouched audio tracks that undergo hours of can better support both hobbyists’ and professionals’ work. intricate polishing stages, such as editing, mixing, and mastering. To help bridge this gap in the literature, we report fndings from This complex and detailed set of workfows, commonly known as semi-structured interviews with 18 visually impaired professionals audio production, is a skilled practice and a cornerstone of all types and hobbyists who produce audio content using various software Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or and hardware tools. Our analysis reveals three main aspects of classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed the audio production practices of people with vision impairments: for proft or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the frst page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the (1) piecing together accessible and efcient workfows through a author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or combination of mainstream and custom tools; (2) achieving profes- republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specifc permission sional competency through a steep learning curve in which domain and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]. ASSETS ’20, October 26–28, 2020, Virtual Event, Greece © 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. 1https://www.avid.com/pro-tools ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-7103-2/20/10...$15.00 2https://www.apple.com/logic-pro https://doi.org/10.1145/3373625.3416993 3https://www.reaper.fm ASSETS ’20, October 26–28, 2020, Virtual Event, Greece Saha and Piper knowledge and accessibility are deeply entangled; and (3) facilitat- 2.2 Accessibility in Audio Production ing learning and creating access by engaging in online communities In line with the growing interest in accessibility in content produc- of visually impaired audio enthusiasts. tion, researchers within HCI and assistive technology have recently The present paper makes three primary contributions. First, our started exploring accessibility in audio production for people with work presents an empirical understanding of the audio produc- vision impairments. As an example, researchers [49, 50, 68] orga- tion practices of people with vision impairments. While prior work nized participatory design workshops with visually impaired people focuses on introducing accessible visualizations for digital audio to design multimodal interfaces for three diferent DAW features: interfaces [36, 50, 53], it leaves open questions around how blind recognizing automation line anchor points (through sonifcation people uniquely experience and navigate mainstream audio pro- and pitch modifcation), peak meter (through sonifcation) and au- duction tools to support their work. Second, our analysis provides dio amplitude curve (through haptic feedback). Haenselmann et evidence of the intertwined nature of professional competency al. [26] designed a multitrack MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital and accessibility, in which developing domain specifc skills and Interface) sequencer that allows visually impaired users to execute capabilities is inseparable from the work of mastering a complex all MIDI sequencer functions using the keys on an electronic mu- set of largely inaccessible tools. Creating a more inclusive audio sical keyboard, thereby eliminating the needs of interacting with production industry, a profession our informants feel should be computer keyboard and display. Others have designed audio editing an ideal career path for people with vision impairments, requires and music production interfaces that visually impaired users can understanding that accessibility currently constrains but is critical control using voice [14], game controllers [34], and tangible [36] for professional success. Finally, we provide considerations for the and tabletop objects [53]. Much of this emerging research focused future design of accessible audio production tools and resources to on designing novel tools to improve accessibility of specifc audio better support this community of professionals and hobbyists. production tasks leaving open questions around current practices of screen reader users. Our work contributes to this literature by developing an understanding of how blind professionals and hob- 2 RELATED WORK byists make use of mainstream audio production tools and thus informing future accessible design in this space. In grounding the present paper, below we review prior research on accessibility in audio and other forms of creative content production as well as literature on audio production tools and practices. 2.3 Audio Production Tools and Practices While research on accessibility in audio production is still at an 2.1 Accessibility in Creative Content early stage, there is a large body of work in digital audio and mu- Production sical expression literature that investigates how sighted people Our work is situated within a growing body of literature that fo- interact with digital audio production tools and how the design of cuses on understanding and designing new systems for improving these tools shape