> ableton live 12’s accessibility revolution
Ableton’s Accessibility Specialist Adi Dickens and blind musician Andre Louis speak to us about Live 12 and Note’s improved accessibility for the visually impaired
As the imminent release of Ableton Live 12 makes the inevitable waves, we all begin to focus on our new favourite features, things that we just know will become part of our daily workflow. Then, there are the additions which have less widespread appeal, but are equally – if not vitally – important for some. One example in Live 12 is in the arrival of accessibility for visually impaired musicians.
Live 12 is the first iteration of the popular DAW to include screen reader support on macOS and Windows. On macOS and iOS, there’s the built-in VoiceOver application, while on Windows there’s Narrator, and third-party solutions including Jaws. Now, Live 12 and Note on iOS, both support these. This means that somebody who can’t see well, or at all, can independently produce music with these for the first time, doing everything from opening the app to performing a live set or making a recording. It really is impressive to experience this in action, as we did recently with Londonbased artist Andre Louis, who is blind, and yet manages to be fully functional as a recording and performing artist with Note, and now, Live 12 (and it has to be said, before those, Logic Pro X).
Andre has been consulting with Ableton on their development of Note and Live 12, so we checked in with him and Ableton’s Accessibility Specialist Adi Dickens to get some insight. “We’ve been collaborating in terms of Andre giving feedback about the choices we’ve been making,” says Adi, “and the development process that’s been happening since 2020.”
This sounds like it has been a very positive process, as Andre expands: “If I loaded Live 11 with VoiceOver on a Mac, all I would get when I navigated is the default VoiceOver noise. There’s nothing to see here, maybe the menu bar worked, maybe, I don’t remember, I’ll be honest. It’s zero to hero. This is a company that has gone from nothing to everything, and I have nothing but respect for the team that has done this.”
As well as the screen reader support, the drive towards accessibility has resulted in Live 12 getting overhauled keyboard shortcuts; there are many more to use, as well as a new Navigation menu, containing shortcuts and commands that immediately take you to areas of the Live screen, for example alt-1 for Session View, or alt-4 for Device View. Let’s face it, more shortcuts are good for everybody: they make it faster to get around, and they don’t add any visual clutter while doing
