Dear Friends,
I have something really exciting to share with you β today is a big day for us visually impaired music producers, musicians, and audio engineers!
I've been in talks with Roland for a few years about making their amazing product line accessible, and I'm happy beyond words to say the time has finally come β they're moving forward, full speed ahead.
To kick things off, Roland has collaborated with me to produce fully accessible written documentation, along with audio and video tutorials, for their fantastic V-Stage keyboard. Although the V-Stage is not accessible in the traditional sense, meaning it does not have a talking interface, its tactile layout is superbly designed, and its near one-knob-per-function approach makes it a genuinely great interface for us as visually impaired users to navigate.
And the V-Stage is just the beginning. Roland is excited to bring accessibility to many more of their hardware and software products, including the amazing Roland Cloud, which offers an extremely affordable subscription giving you access to thousands of fantastic sounds spanning several decades β sounds that have and continue to shape the music we know and love. Even better, the head of Roland Future Design Labs and his amazing team are deeply passionate about accessibility and plan to make it a high priority in future product development.
Now here's where we come in.
Roland has created an accessibility section on their website, which houses the accessible materials for the V-Stage. There is also a short, screen reader friendly survey that they would like as many visually impaired people as possible to fill out.
Please take a few minutes to fill it out since it would provide Roland with the evidence they need to gauge how much interest there is within our community for their products, which in turn will secure final approval for the commitment of man hours and other resources needed to go full speed ahead with accessibility development. Please try to fill it out as soon as possible, since the decision on whether to move forward is set to be made soon.
Please see the link to the accessibility section of the Roland website below.
https://www.roland.com/global/accessibility/v-stage_guide/
Please also share this post on your social media platforms, as well as to any other accessibility-related forums.
Thank you for being part of this journey with me.
Your friend,
Jay
Comments
Very excited about Roland Cloud Accessibility
I'm very excited about the Roland cloud accessibility. Is there more information on when this will be usable? I'm looking forward to try this out on my Mac.
This is awesome
This is awesome. How were you able to make contact with Roland? I've been playing Roland VDrums for 21 years (with brief detours to Yamaha and ATV along the way. I did almost end up goind down teh 2BOX route, as I spoke to them regarding accessibility and had a productive meeting with their software developer. Sadly that never went any further. Wasn't able to get anywhere with Yamaha, Alesis, or EFNote either.
I started out on a TD-V6, then a TD-30KV, now a TD-27KV2. I've always lamented that I can't get the best from these kits due to the lack of accessibility, particularly the editing and routing functions in the modules.
I tried to make contact with Roland several times over the years but never managed to get past the customer support. I was keen to create guides exactly like these, and even contribute my development skills (for free) to perhaps make the interfaces or applications accessible. I'd very much like to get involved if there is any interest in having another person onboard.
Roland Piano App
I have a Roland HP 704 Digital piano and this product can be pared and used with Roland's Piano app. I chekched the app breefly and the accessibility of the app is not complete. If this app can be made accessible, that will give me a good reason to pare my piano with the app. Also, my piano is new, I have it for 8 munths, however Roland's LX series are really good but their touch screens are not accessible. I don't know if they implement any screen reader to a piano but I think the app is getting more and more important.
Awesome News
Thanks for the information in this thread. I would love for more of their products to be accessible. I have been using their TD4KP V-Drums for the past several years, and love this compact little drum set. I play it almost every day. Unfortunately I can only really switch built-in kits, but can't really do much else customization because there is no talking UI, and the screen is extremely hard to read, even as a low vision user. I'd Love a similar small kit like this with actual accessibility.
neat!
Any big brand in talks to make their stuff accessible is encouraging. Maybe Roland will earn my money on a new ekit. I do not currently own any Roland gear.