Abstract

Music archives are where our musical knowledge is preserved and made available for use. Archival music scores are often made available as image-based files, like PDFs, PNGs, or TIFFs. This does two things. First, it presumes that every user can use an image-based file when they are not compatible with many assistive technologies. Second, it privileges a visual understanding of music that is not always the predominant way neurodivergent users interact with music. Staff notation encodes a specific visual cognitive parsing system, it requires translation into sound, and it excludes people who process sound directly or differently.

Drawing on previous work on music archive accessibility, I applied the discoverability, usability, and readability (DUR) framework to a set of 5 music archives. Findings from that study suggest that contemporary music archives privilege neuronormative ways of navigating archival materials. Moreover, scores in editable file formats, modified stave notation (MSN), and audio formats would likely help alleviate these archival accessibility issues, but they are not widely available. Other findings from the DUR analysis included: high numbers of color contrast issues on pages, particularly important because many neurodivergent individuals have light or color contrast problems, and material generally searchable from major search engines, which is useful for reducing cognitive load.

As of April 2026, revisions to Title II of the ADA make digital accessibility a legal requirement for most archives. Artificial intelligence–infused music notation tools are also widely available. The AI notation tools can help create each of the aforementioned file types; making them available alongside the original inaccessible scores meets the Title II requirements. MSN scores and audio files will be particularly transformative here because many neurodivergent individuals have reading-related disabilities or challenges. Ultimately, making alternative score types available on music archive websites will help create more accessible music archives for all users.

Keywords: web accessibility, music archives, neurodivergent music archive users, music score accessibility