Any updates on accessibility for the blind on MK III?

TheBlindHawaiian

Hey everyone. So this is my first post on something like this. I recently purchased a Kontrol S61 MK III. Because I am totally blind, I rely on accessibility software to help me navigate. However I did not know that the MK III keyboards did not have accessibility, eventhough we are approaching a year now of the kontrol MK III series, and I was just wondering if anyone from NI or otherwise knew of any sort of timeline of to how long we blind folk would have to wait to play a keyboard we spent nearly a thousand dollars on? So far, its just sitting in its case in my closet.

Jeremy_NI

Unfortunately the accessibilty features will not be implemented very soon, not before the end of the year. @TheBlindHawaiian I already reached out in another thread, we'll initiate a return & refund.

JesterMgee

Yeah good question. I guess just like Midi Templates, Maschine integration and many of the other features that disappeared in V3, Accessibility is also considered "not popular enough" based on their user metrics so was not prioritised. And NI still have the perplexity to even wonder why people are upset about this release when we had everything working just fine and have to now sit for probably YEARS and wait for lost function to return, let alone any actual improvements.

Honestly i'd be returning it at the moment as it literally could take them years to get to (I mean it's almost been a year already and we are still waiting for the first of any updates. Slowest dev team I have ever come across.

TheBlindHawaiian

Yeah agree man. I already have an M32 coming in the mail, so may just return this thing taking up space in my closet. If its not included, they should have at least put that on the product page. I mean after recieving complaints about it, its still not on the product page for the mk III, which would probably cause another blind individual to make the same mistake I did.

BIF

I don't think accessibility features will be coming very quickly. There just seems way too many things that the developers need to finish first.

Assuming I'm right, I would highly recommend that you NOT keep the MK3 at all. Return it before the return period expires. You're locking up too much money in an instrument that you can't use and don't know when you WILL be able to use.

You can always keep tabs on the situation and re-purchase if features for the blind are made available in a future update.

Just to give Native Instruments an opportunity to respond (in case there is new info available or I'm just not aware of current plans), I've tagged @Matthew_NI . Matthew will know for sure if any accessibility features are planned and/or being actively worked on.

In the meantime, good luck with your M32, dear OP.

Jeremy_NI

Unfortunately the accessibilty features will not be implemented very soon, not before the end of the year. @TheBlindHawaiian I already reached out in another thread, we'll initiate a return & refund.