Accessibility in our products

We’re committed to creating a world where everyone can express themselves through music.

NI Accessibility Helper offers speech feedback for blind and visually impaired users across our controllers to give you full control of plugins, DAW, and external synthesizers.

How it works

Training Mode: Learn by touch

Training Mode: Learn by touch

Get to know the physical layout of your controller at your own pace. Just double-tap Shift and touch any knob, button, or encoder to hear its function without triggering an action.

Universal plugin control

Universal plugin control

Whatever you’re working on, your controller makes parameters accessible for editing with full speech feedback in Kontakt 8, Komplete Kontrol, third-party plugins, and your DAW. Accessibility Helper announces parameter names and values as you adjust them.

Control external hardware synthesizers

Control external hardware synthesizers

Make any MIDI-connected hardware accessible. As you adjust controls on your connected gear, the Helper announces both the parameter name and its current value.

Play Assist – music theory made audible

Play Assist – music theory made audible

Set scales, chords, and arpeggiators entirely by ear. Accessibility Helper announces Scale Banks, Types, Key Modes, and Chord inversions.

How to use the NI Accessibility Helper with Kontrol keyboards

How to use the NI Accessibility Helper with Kontrol keyboards

Brian from Native Instruments shows how the NI Accessibility Helper brings full spoken feedback and seamless navigation to the Kontrol S-Series alongside major DAWs. Learn how to enable accessibility features, browse sounds, and control both software and hardware instruments from your keys

[play type="video" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ94O5Jkebs" label="Watch video"]

Accessibility guide for Maschine hardware

Accessibility guide for Maschine hardware

Learn how to use the latest accessibility tools in Maschine MK3 for visually impaired users. Discover the new Accessibility Helper, a new program that runs alongside the Maschine software, allowing users to hear the buttons that they are selecting on the Maschine MK3 hardware. Users can also see the names of the buttons they are using in a larger font on their screen.

[play type="video" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug1xVsxGZPw" label=" Watch now "]

Our partners

Our partners

We’re indebted to our consultants, Andre Louis, Tim Burgess (Raised Bar), Jason Dasent, and Chris Ankin – musicians from the visually impaired producer community, whose knowledge and expertise have been invaluable in the development of accessibility in our products.

Supported hardware and software

Supported hardware and software

The Helper works with Kontrol S-Series MK3, Maschine MK3, and Maschine+ (in Controller Mode), and Komplete Kontrol S-Series MK2 (with legacy support and built-in speech output).

On the software side, it integrates with Komplete Kontrol, Maschine 3, and Kontakt 8, which features enhanced NKS accessibility capabilities. Deep DAW integration with Logic Pro and Ableton Live for transport, mixer, and navigation control, plus experimental support for Reaper.

Accessibility Helper is compatible with both macOS and Windows, though users on macOS 15 Sequoia will need to adjust specific settings in the Helper app.