Some Switch Access Options for Playing Music

Posted by Claire Harrison on the 10th October, 2022

Category Communication Support Needs Assistive Technology

On a visit to a specialist base in a mainstream secondary last week, we explored some options for extending and developing a learner's switch access skills. I thought it might be helpful to share some of the technology tools we tried and compare their different features. This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the options; this is what was possible within the constraints of this particular school setting. 

Option One

The Switch Adapted Inclusive MP3 player has been around for a while, but this was my first time using it ‘live’ in a classroom with a learner. We set it up with two switches, Play/Pause and Skip Forward. It’s straightforward to set up and use; gather some MP3 files on a USB Pen Drive, plug it into the top of the device, plug in the switches and away you go. The speakers are good, producing a clear, loud sound. The video below is a short clip of the MP3 player in action. 

Option Two

The school has access to the free iOS SoundingBoard app. One of the great features of SoundingBoard is that Switch Access is built-in, and it’s simple to create boards with additional ‘Auditory Prompts’ so that as a switch scans through the cells on a board, a message is read aloud. So, rather than recording a communication message in each cell, we recorded a clip of music around 30 seconds long. In addition, we added Auditory Prompts to each cell so that the name of the music was spoken aloud. The Auditory Prompts allow the learner to scan through the choices, listen to the song names and decide whether to play the music. This video shows where to find these settings and demonstrates what happens when you access it with two switches. 

Option Three

Finally, we explored creating a customised playlist using Tar Heel Gameplay. It’s a website that enables you to create a customised playlist of any video on YouTube. You can add pauses and choices within the YouTube videos, and it’s switch accessible, allowing you to independently start playing a video and, at the end,  choose whether to listen again or play something different. The switch scanning also has built-in auditory prompting, so you can toggle through a selection by listening to the video titles and deciding whether to start playing the individual videos. It also has a simple way to curate a personalised playlist, so it's ideal for gathering a selection of links to music videos on one page. This video demonstrates navigating through the playlist, playing a music video, and making choices about what to do at the end of the song.