PapoNox — a non-commercial research project on accessible music production.
We methodically investigate whether a professional Digital Audio Workstation can be fully operated without visual output — through intention-based control, entirely on-device, without cloud connectivity.
Visual impairment is not a niche phenomenon — globally, it affects more people than any other disability. Professional creative software has, until now, largely overlooked this group. That is precisely where our research question begins.
2.2 B
people with visual impairment worldwide
WHO 202443 M
blind people worldwide
WHO 2024295 M
with moderate to severe visual impairment
WHO 2024+55 %
projected increase by 2050 (demographic ageing)
WHO ProjectionPapoNox does not modify any third-party source code, copy nothing, and reproduce nothing. We investigate to what extent publicly documented interfaces (the Objective-C runtime, Apple's accessibility APIs, NSNotificationCenter, AppleScript) can be opened up for blind users — methodologically comparable to a screen reader that operates at greater depth. Research goal: to determine empirically whether professional software can be made systematically accessible.
Supported by the EU Accessibility Act (Directive 2019/882) and the EU interoperability exception (Art. 6 Software Directive 2009/24/EC, in Austria § 40d UrhG).
Every research project begins with a question no one has previously posed in a systematic way.
On 24 July 2024, Petar Nikolic loses his eyesight to a severe inflammation. Twenty years of professional experience as an audio engineer and music producer — and an abrupt, total exclusion from the visual interface of his Digital Audio Workstation.
Can a professional, architecturally closed DAW be fully operated without visual output? From this question, PapoNox emerges — not as a product, but as a methodologically grounded research endeavour aimed at rigorously answering an as-yet-unanswered question.
An initial prototype is constructed to test the architectural hypothesis empirically. Preliminary result: the principle holds. From this point onwards begins the actual, multi-year research work — validation, generalisation, and preparation for academic publication.
Petar demonstrates the prototype in real-world operation. An early glimpse — not the endpoint, but the documented starting point of the further research.
Video coming soon
The core research question: can visual dependency be replaced by intention-based, AI-mediated control — and if so, to what extent?
Professional reintegration
Professional musicians and producers after sight loss — what assistive tool repertoire enables them to continue their craft?
Inclusive music teaching
How can music education be methodologically reorganised once the visual barriers of the software interface are systematically dismantled?
Low-threshold participation
What cognitive and ergonomic barriers remain when operation becomes entirely linguistic and textual?
The research question is precisely formulated; an initial prototype empirically demonstrates the basic viability of the architectural hypothesis on Apple Logic Pro. From here, the actual methodologically-guided research work begins.
To what extent can a DAW be reproducibly operated without a screen? Which functional categories are generalisably addressable, which are not — and by what means? Three research clusters (values/tracks, screen perception, update robustness) are empirically measured. Funding in preparation.
Can the intention-based approach be transferred to other closed applications — image and video editing, CAD, music notation? An open question on the research horizon, not a commitment.
“We do not claim. We investigate.
From DAW-specific feasibility evidence to the generalised question of universal accessibility for creative software.
The research question is formulated, the prototype establishes that the methodological principle holds. This documents the operational baseline for the further validation and generalisation research.
Which subdomains of a professional DAW can be addressed semantically through language? Where do the methodologically defensible limits of operationalisability lie? This is the core of the ongoing research.
Whether the approach generalises to the operating system as a whole or to other classes of creative software is an open research question on the horizon — not a commitment.
The future of accessibility — as a methodologically documented research field