More technical details
(This part is written by Petteri, who programmed a text-based user interface for MultitrackStudio Pro.)
(Warning: if you are not interested in technical details of my program, I recommend that you skip this part. This part contains some technical mumbo-jumbo that can be quite boring.)
First, what does this text-based user interface look like? There is only one small additional "command line" window on the screen, while MultitrackStudio Pro is running on the background.
By writing commands on that "command line" window a visually impaired user can control all the basic functions of MultitrackStudio Pro. Basically, after each given command this program takes care of the needed mouse movements, mouse clicks and keyboard use on behalf of a user.
Here are the basic commands:
i = select instrument
e = select sound effect
r = record next track
p = play
er = erase previously recorded track
ex = record from external source
o = open file
s = save file
q = quit program
There are also tens of other commands, for example commands for adjusting volume, starting metronome and setting it's tempo, using different effects (like echo) and so on. And it's easy to add new commands according to what a user might wish; basically, anything that a sighted user could do with a mouse and a keyboard can be done with a single command.
How did I programmed this text-based user interface? There are two different components that were needed. First there is the program itself, "logic center" that communicates with a user. Then there is another program that takes care of simulating mouse and keyboard use.
The program itself is relatively simple; it just receives commands that a user writes to "command line" window, and according to given commands it launches separate "scripts" that do the rest.
What exactly are these "scripts"? They are made with an open source program called "AutoHotkey" (and "AutoScriptWriter" that comes with the package). This program is meant to automate repetitive tasks. With this program almost any task that can be done with a mouse and a keyboard (no matter how long and complicated the task might be) can be automated and done with a single keystroke. This program is useful to any computer user who's job involves repetitive tasks, but it can also help those who are visually impaired.
It takes some time before you can learn to use AutoHotkey effectively (although the principle is simple, there are hundreds of commands that can be used in writing scripts). But once you have learned to use it, this program can be quite powerful and time-saving!
There are also some other programs that are somewhat similar to AutoHotkey, for example "Macro Maker", "GhostMouse", "AutoIt", "Journal Macro", "Macro Scheduler" and others. ("GhostMouse" is extremely simple to use, but not really useful with complicated tasks.) With a speech recognition software and a microphone it would even be possible to launch scripts by using voice commands. For example, it would be possible to put a paper on a scanner and just say "read aloud". Or in a similar way to do any other task you can imagine of.
All this might sound simple, but in fact it was not very easy to make this program to work properly. We encountered several different problems and (based on input from Mikko) made improvements for the program during about a year. But now I think it works very well. In fact, even though I myself am not visually impaired, when I use MultitrackStudio Pro, I prefer to do it by using this text-based user interface. It's faster that doing things with a mouse and a keyboard!
Here is also a demo version on how this system works. (This is not a "full version" of my program; this one only demonstrates how AutoHotkey scripts can be launched from the "command line" window.)
And here is a lite edition of my program. With this you can already make some music. However, this version contains only the very basic functions of my program. For example this version supports only two instrument sample formats, SoundFont and SFZ (and sound effects in WAV or OGG format). On the plus side, this "lite edition" uses only freeware components. And it's possible to convert samples from other formats to supported formats by using a sample format converter, for example Chickensys Translator or Extreme Sample Converter.
But even though assistive technology has it's place, we are also confident that the time is near when it is no longer needed. The Bible promises that one day "the eyes of the blind ones will be opened" (Isaiah 35:5). You can read more of this wonderful hope here: