Native Instruments’ Komplete Kontrol shipped with no VoiceOver support. I defined and tested an accessibility layer that adds screen reader navigation, keyboard access, and toolbar labels.
What this project shows
VoiceOver sees a blank window. I directed and tested a way to navigate it.
The project investigates Komplete Kontrol's custom-rendered interface and creates VoiceOver elements around reachable parts of the UI. I defined the accessible behavior, guided the technical investigation, and validated each working interaction with VoiceOver.
My contribution
- Identified the inaccessible component boundaries and priority workflows
- Defined expected VoiceOver labels, roles, navigation, and keyboard behavior
- Directed inspection and implementation using macOS accessibility APIs
- Tested every implemented control as a daily VoiceOver user
- Separated working improvements from the still-inaccessible areas
What the project implements
Practical accessibility improvements that make the application usable for daily music production workflows.
Accessible preferences
The application's preferences window is now fully navigable with VoiceOver, including all settings panels and controls. Keyboard shortcut support was added so the preferences window can be opened and closed without a mouse.
Toolbar label correction
The application's toolbar buttons had no accessible labels. The accessibility layer identifies each button and applies descriptive labels so VoiceOver can announce their purpose instead of reading generic or empty text.
Keyboard navigation
Standard macOS keyboard commands like Cmd+comma for preferences and Cmd+W to close windows now work as expected. These conventions are essential for keyboard and screen reader users but were not implemented in the original application.
The challenge ahead
The browser content area, including the preset list, tag filters, and product grid, is rendered entirely as a bitmap by a proprietary widget toolkit. Making that reachable means walking the internal widget tree and creating NSAccessibilityElements for each item. That work is still ongoing.
Technical approach
Building accessibility into an application that was not designed for it.
Dynamic library architecture
The accessibility layer is implemented as a dynamic library that integrates with the application at launch. A lightweight loader handles the connection between the application binary and the accessibility code, keeping the two cleanly separated.
UI component discovery
The application uses a proprietary widget system for rendering. Understanding its internal structure required reverse engineering the component hierarchy to identify which objects correspond to visible controls and how to attach accessibility information to them.
Minimal footprint
Rebuilding the accessibility layer requires only a simple build script and an application restart. No administrator access is needed for day-to-day development, and the accessibility code can be updated independently of the application itself.
Why this matters
Music production software should not quietly exclude blind musicians and producers.
Komplete Kontrol is one of the most widely used instrument browsers in modern music production. Without accessibility support, blind musicians cannot browse presets, audition sounds, or configure instruments on equal terms. This project shows that meaningful accessibility progress is still possible, even when the vendor has not prioritized it.
Implementation uses
- Objective-C and macOS Accessibility APIs
- Dynamic library integration
- Runtime introspection and UI component analysis
- Custom build and deployment tooling
Want to see more of my work?
The portfolio includes web and mobile accessibility audits alongside these technical projects.