Accessibility

Accessibility statement

Playable Books should be usable by anyone who wants to study music from these books, including people who read with a keyboard, a screen reader, magnification or high contrast. This page says what we aim for, where the site stands, and what still falls short.

Target and status

We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AA, the standard named by the ADA Title II rule for public entities and by most library and campus procurement checklists.

The site is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 AA: most of it meets the standard, and the parts that do not are listed below under known limitations.

What works

• Keyboard. Every control can be reached and used with the keyboard, with a visible focus ring: each example's Play/Stop button, its playback position, tempo, the view switch, the overflow menu, the reading version and settings, the contents and search. A "Skip to the text" link is the first stop on each book page.
• Screen readers. Each Play button names its example ("Play Fig. 12") and reports whether it is playing. The engraved notation is labelled with its figure number as a playable example, and each original scan has a text alternative naming the figure and printed page. Page language is set on every page, including translations and passages in the original Latin, French or German, so a screen reader switches voice.
• Text first. The book's text is real text, not images of pages: it can be searched, resized, read aloud (the reader's own Listen control or your screen reader) and translated by the browser. Each example's MusicXML can be downloaded for use in notation software or braille music tools.
• Themes and contrast. Light and dark themes, following your system setting or chosen in Settings; text meets the 4.5:1 contrast ratio in both.
• Zoom and reflow. Pages reflow to a 320-pixel-wide column without sideways scrolling and stay usable at 200% zoom; reader text size is adjustable.
• Reduced motion. With "reduce motion" set in your system, the homepage preview does not play and decorative animation stops. The playhead moves only while an example you started is playing, and Stop halts it.
• No account, no login. Every public book can be read and played without signing in, and nothing plays sound until you press Play.

Known limitations

• Music notation is visual. Engraved examples are labelled, playable and downloadable, but there is no spoken or braille rendering of the notes themselves inside the page. MusicXML is the route for non-visual reading.
• Scanned original pages are images. The scans of the printed edition are kept as a reference. Their text alternatives name the page and figure; the content of each page is available as the edition's text, not as a description of the scan.
• Some text is still in review. Some transcriptions, translations and adapted readings (such as Simplified English) are AI-assisted and still being checked against the original, so wording can be less precise; the original text and scans stay one tap away.
• Interactive tools. The counterpoint exercise page (writing notes on a staff) and some per-book diagrams were not part of this review and may be harder to use without a mouse or touch.
• Third-party pages. Links out to other sites, such as source archives or practice apps, are outside this statement.

Report a barrier

If something on the site is hard or impossible for you to use, please tell us: the page, what you were trying to do, and the browser or assistive technology you use. We aim to reply within five working days and will offer the content in another form where we can.

Report an accessibility barrier

Or email accessibility@playablebook.com. Inside a book, "Report an error" in any example's ⋯ menu reaches us too.

How we check

Last reviewed on 19 October 2026. The review ran axe-core against the WCAG 2.1 A and AA rules on the homepage, search, reading paths, a book page for each kind of score (Fux, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prout), a translated page, a sources page and the error page, in light and dark themes, together with keyboard-only, screen-reader naming, 320-pixel reflow and reduced-motion checks. We will repeat the review after significant changes to the reader and update this page.

This statement covers playablebook.com. Prepared following the W3C guidance on accessibility statements.