Page MenuHomePhabricator

Enable uploads for Braille music (.brf) on Commons
Open, Needs TriagePublicFeature

Description

Per T208494.

There isn't a lot of Braille music on the internet. However, a few years ago MuseScore's Kickstarter project converted Bach's Goldberg Variations into Braille. The notation is standardized, and there are links in the archived RfC discussion to various Braille music notation software (MusicXML conversion is possible).

Rendering would probably be somewhat useless, since computer screens can't simulate Braille.

Event Timeline

Gently disagreeing with @Jc86035 on screen rendering. The Braille format also has a visual web display, the thing I called a "colour-coded sighted isomorphism" of Braille. It is really useful if one is sighted and used to reading text and colours (we might want to check if said colours are colourblind-safe). It would be very helpful to transcribers to have this visual interface.

More centrally, if you have the tactile display hardware, I presume that Braille music could be displayed without a download, but I have never done this and don't know. @Graham87, I believe you have an interest in music; have you ever used this interface? Do you have any suggestions?

Technically, this looks like it could be moderately easy (see also the details further down, search "Braille Music Compiler"). The software for all of this is GPL. Developer User:TobyRush said "please don't hesitate to let me know if there's anything I can do to make things work better with Wikimedia commons; I'm happy to do so". I have let him know about this thread.

That link also lists some online collections of Braille music. Because the software mentioned above also does automated conversion (from at least MusicXML, and to MusicXML and Lilypond) , this could be an accessibility interface as well as a file upload format.

I've never used this system because I don't have a Braille display; they're frightfully expensive (though there are projects underway to change that) and as far as I understand they're most readily available in Western Europe, though it's possible (but sometimes difficult) to get them in the US/UK/Australia/New Zealand through rehabilitation grants (which I'm planning to do in the medium/long-term, partially so I can use Braille music digitally). BRF files are just text files that use Braille ASCII and I can, rather laboriously, interpret them through speech, so there shouldn't be a problem supporting them on Commons.

As noted in T208494:

there is also a visual web display for the Braille format, and it is really useful if one is sighted

I was presuming that those who are sighted would prefer to use the other formats. I've never used Braille music, so I'm probably wrong here. I think if the dev is willing to implement it then that's great.

Jc86035 renamed this task from Enable uploads for Braille music (.brf) to Enable uploads for Braille music (.brf) on Commons.Jan 20 2019, 4:12 AM
TheDJ changed the subtype of this task from "Task" to "Feature Request".Nov 25 2021, 9:03 PM