Design Considerations for Automatic Musical Soundscapes of Visual Art for People with Blindness or Low Vision

Abstract: Music has been identified as a promising medium to enhance the accessibility and experience of visual art for people who are blind or have low vision (BLV). However, composing music and designing soundscapes for visual art is a time-consuming, resource intensive process - limiting its scalability for large exhibitions. In this paper, we investigate the use of automated soundscapes to increase the accessibility of visual art. We built a prototype system and ran a qualitative study to evaluate the aesthetic experience provided by the automated soundscapes with 10 BLV participants. From the study, we identified a set of design considerations that reveal requirements from BLV people for the development of automated soundscape systems, setting new directions in which creative systems could enrich the aesthetic experience conveyed by these.