Striving to remove barriers that prevent us from building Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities!
Michelle Guadalupe Felix Garcia, a Blind audio engineer from Mexico, writes in the Braille Monitor about the dream that gets her up in the morning: sound. She found it at a Coldplay concert, after fifty-two emails earned her a chance to play “Clocks” with the band, and the backstage view of mixing desks and in-ear monitors convinced her to build a life in audio.
In her first week studying music recording technology at San Diego State University, a live sound professor told her family and then her that her major was impossible for someone who is Blind, before she had turned in a single assignment. She chose not to listen. When a touch screen mixing console blocked her, she and her friends built a tactile grid of dots around the screen so she could find each menu, and when her instructor tried to give her an oral final instead of the hands on test, she refused to move until she got the same exam as everyone else, and passed.
Others showed her what she could do. An internship supervisor named Kevin told her to feel the ground when she doubted she could tape down cables, composer Jon Kull wrote detailed time notes so she could score film scenes, and audio engineer Cory Wilkins let her run sessions in his studio. During training at the Colorado Center for the Blind she shadowed engineers on nine productions, and in a two week course she became, she writes, the first Blind woman to earn the Pro Tools certification, even though the exams relied on screenshots.
Talent grows where others open the door instead of judging from the doorway. Michelle still meets barriers: console makers that say screen reader access is not in their plans, software updates that break the scripts she relies on, and sound engineers who ask how she can mix if she cannot see. Yet she points to progress, such as immersive audio tools that Blind engineers can now use, and to the people who stood beside her as proof that we can look out for one another. She urges readers not to give up, and work like the audio accessibility alliance shows the industry can change.
We should press makers of audio equipment and software to build in screen reader access from the start. We should give Blind students and workers the same tests, tools and chances as everyone else instead of deciding for them what they can do. Studios, stages and classrooms open to Blind audio engineers would move us toward Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities for People with Disabilities.
Feel the ground, and keep going.
Read the Full Article: To Equalize the World of Audio, Let’s Add Accessibility to the Mix.
By: Michelle Guadalupe Felix Garcia
Questions for Reflection
- Have we ever judged what a Blind person could do before giving them a chance?
- Are the tests and tools in our schools and workplaces accessible to Blind People?
- Who opened a door for us, and whose door could we open?
- Do the companies we buy from build screen reader access into their products?
- How could our community welcome Blind musicians and audio engineers?
