Accessible Music Publishing

Introduction

This page is for music publishers, engravers, composers and anyone creating music scores using music notation software.
Follow DAISY’s guidance and create your scores to be ‘born accessible’, ready for blind and other print-disabled musicians to quickly and effectively read your scores in their preferred reading format, whether braille, Modified Stave Notation, or digitally in notation tools and dedicated apps.
Guidance has been created through the DAISY Music Braille Project but creates master scores which can be used/converted into all accessible formats, suitable for all print-disabled musicians.

Join us

1. Guidance for music engraving / music setting

We have developed good practice guidelines for engravers/setters (using music notation software MuseScore, Sibelius and Finale). These have been trialled with engraving services and publishers and greatly improve the accessibility of the digital score content they create at source. This enables more effective conversion into accessible formats including music braille and Modified Stave Notation.

Download our Guidance for Engravers (using music notation tools to create accessible master scores).zip (Updated 23.10.2023)

2. The Marrakesh Treaty and accessible format production

The WIPO-administered Marrakesh Treaty makes the production and international transfer of specially-adapted books (for people with blindness, visual impairments or other print disabilities) easier. It does this by establishing a set of limitations and exceptions to traditional copyright law. The Marrakesh Treaty was adopted on June 27, 2013, and entered into force on September 30, 2016.

Read WIPO’s overview of the Marrakesh Treaty, and find out more about WIPO, Authorized Entities, and the ABC Global Book Consortium.

3. Accessible Music Publishing Action Group

Meeting 26.02.2024

At the ‘Accessible Music Publishing Round Table’ held on 21 November 2023 we agreed to form a Publishing Action Group on accessible music. The DAISY Consortium and RNIB therefore invite Publishers to the first working group meeting, where we will have dedicated discussions about the practical implications of:

incorporating MusicXML file production into your workflow and distribution processes;
finding potential routes for the creation and distribution of MusicXML versions of your publications.

We invite you to come to the next meeting ready to share your ideas and questions based on your own commissioning and production workflows. The group may wish to invite other specialists to specific themed meetings in future.

Read the full invitation, and RSVP to MusicPublishing@daisy.org.

4. Round Table on Accessible Music Publishing 21.11.2023

Accessible Music Publishing Round Table title slide The international DAISY Consortium and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) invited music publishers, composers, and music-setters/engravers to take part in an online Round Table on Accessible Music Publishing. The event explored various sector requirements, through presentations and discussions between: mainstream music publishers (including exam boards), braille and other accessible format producers, blind, partially sighted, and print-disabled musicians, music setters/engravers, music notation software producers.

We discussed steps that the global sector can take to ensure equitable access to published scores, in response to legislation and to take advantage of technological advances, with the aim of establishing a sector Working Group and trialling some solutions.

Materials available from the Round Table

Notes (for download):

Presentations (videos open in new window on YouTube):

5. Stay involved

Join our mailing list to stay connected and join working groups related to accessible music publishing, by emailing us at: MusicPublishing@daisy.org

Accessible Music Publishing

Technologies, Projects & Services