1. A technological proposal to support musical education shared between blind and sighted students
José Antonio Borges - Rio de Janeiro Fed. Univ. - Brazil
Dolores Tomé – Porto Univ. - Portugal
Ana Margarida Almeida – Aveiro Univ. - Portugal
Armando Malheiro da Silva - Porto Univ. – Portugal
ICCHP/ULD 2026 Linz
July 13-15, 2016

2. First of all... A bit about Brazil

3. Brazil - a country with great musical variety
Multiple influences: European, African, American

4. Brazil - a country with great musical variety
Multiple influences: European, African, American
Sensational composers, internationally renowned
Heitor Villa Lobos
Zequinha de Abreu
Tom Jobim
João Tomé
Blind, 800+ compositions

5. Brazil - a country with great musical variety
Multiple influences: European, African, American
Sensational composers, internationally renowned
Heitor Villa Lobos
Zequinha de Abreu
Tom Jobim
João Tomé
Played by
Dolores and me

6. Music education in schools
Since 1988 musical education is mandatory in all schools
inclusive classrooms as standard
Serious pedagogical problems in teaching musical writing and reading for blind children
Music teachers do not know Braille music

7. Music education in school:
half-inclusion of blind students
"Learning music by ear" is the most widely used method with blind students
Perceptive activities: ok
Reading and writing: almost nothing

8. A bit of Braille Music

9. Braille Music is conceptually simple
Symbols have one to
one equivalence in
Braille Music
Note
Duration

10. Braille Music is conceptually simple
Symbols have one to
one equivalence in
Braille Music (some extras)
(Octave indicator)

11. IN BRAZIL VERY FEW TEACHERS EVEN KNOW THAT THIS EXISTS!
Yes, it is simple but
IN BRAZIL VERY FEW TEACHERS
EVEN KNOW THAT THIS EXISTS!
All over the world?

12. Can computers help?

13. Computer music and blind musicians
a) access to conventional music building programs
Finale, Sonar (music editors)
access via Jaws + specialized scripts
command via keyboard and shortcuts
use requires huge ability with computers

14. Example: Finale

15. Computer music and blind musicians
b) Braille transcribers
Goodfeel
Tocatta
Braille Music Editor (BME)
 They allow you to create and interact with Braille representation
 Play what is written
Transcribe to /from Music-XML and Midi
Automatic transcription of conventional scores

16. Musibraille - brazilian braille music transcriber
(from ourselves)
Free software
Hundreds of people trained
Library with basic works
It has revitalized the use of Braille music in Brazil

17. What exists today… Good automatic transcription tools
The emphasis of these products is not music education, but the production of texts in Braille to be used by blind musicians.
And teachers don't know how to use them!
At least in Brazil...

18. It is about time to build a brand new Computer Tool!

19. Technology for inclusive teaching music should…
be focused on the essence of music writing
Regardless of how it is written
provide independent musical output for the input
Ink, braille, sound…
provide several distinct forms of input
Computer keyboard + Midi keyboard + music files
provide shared interactive learning
What a student (blind or not) writes should be read immediately by another student.
Include real-time and distance communication.

20. Features of the tool that is being proposed
- Should not be conceived as a musical editor for melodies.
- Should be primarily a basic teaching tool
- Sound, conventional writing and Braille have the same operational importance.
- What is stored and what flows is music, regardless of how it is entered and written.

21. We decided to create a prototype
A very complex problem with many development possibilities
It is not easy to materialize the premises
Experiment to find the best ways of operation
Enable the pedagogical experimentation
Limitations
Design and programming time shouldn't be very big.
We had to eliminate major programming difficulties to get an usable program.

22. Appearance of our first prototype
Normal
Slow
Names
Tatata
2 voices

23. Multimodality Multimodal outputs: Multimodal entry via:
Conventional score on the screen
Braille on the screen and on a Braille display
printing in ink and Braille
Sound (music, textual music…)
Multimodal entry via:
computer keyboard
musical keyboard and Midi
Music-XML

24. Real-time communication
between connected devices
in a local area networks (LAN)

25. Real-time communication
What is produced or selected in a computer may be immediately transmitted to other computer located at the same LAN.
what is typed in a midi keyboard of a certain computer, can be immediately read in the Braille display on the partner computer.
Connection via simple internet protocols (TCP/IP)
Possibility of transmission of voice and texts for non-local interaction (chat).

26. Main modules listing

27. Development Prototype is under construction.
Much more complicated than expected.
A lot of reprogramming to accommodate experiments
Big experimental changes in the interaction model
First experiments with blind and seers colleagues
Not yet with children
Technological challenges
Network performance constraints
Timing restrictions in interactive generation of Midi

28. Early criticism about the project
use of expensive items of technology
Braille display & Braille printer
We know it is too daring for Brazilian reality but…
Program is able to run in more simple environments
Prototype should be done in JavaScript for easy multi-platform, including mobile
Heritage from Musibraille code
Delphi IDE makes the program much easier to be modified
It should be multilingual
It will be… in the future.

29. Positive points noticed
Creates educational opportunities, so far unavailable
Allows experiment with the most common elements of music
It seems to help developing musical intuition
Interaction between blind and seers has been flowing well in the preliminary tests.
It looks good also when applied only to seers
As development continues, it is becoming more intuitive and easily understood

30. Future perspectives
Training courses in 2 inclusive schools in Rio de Janeiro (2nd. half of 2017)
Experiments in a specialized institute for the blind - Benjamin Constant Institute (2017)
Bachelor's and master's theses
Future project of introduction of Braille Music in other Portuguese-speaking countries (including Africa)

31. Final acknowledges
Dolores Tomé is a doctoral student Granted by MEC / CAPES-Brazil.
This research is being partially funded with resources from CNPq project /

32. José Antonio Borges antonio2@nce. ufrj
José Antonio Borges Dolores Tomé Ana Margarida Almeida Armando Malheiro da Silva