We are excited to announce a  Special Track on Accessible Digital Music for the upcoming ArtsIT international conference to be held November 2025 at Heriot-Watt University, Dubai, UAE.

This track will focus on the intersection of music, technology, and accessibility, bringing together experts, innovators, and advocates from diverse fields to explore the potential of making digital music more accessible to all.

THE ACCESSIBLE DIGITAL MUSIC NETWORK

The ADMN Network was born from a Symposium organized by the University Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne (France) in May 2024. The Symposium was dedicated to an exchange of experiences between operators interested in Accessible Digital Musical Instruments, their use, design and evaluation. The exchange has proved to be very fruitful and promising for future developments. So it was decided to create a Network that can connect various operators, researchers and designers, in order to compare the different approaches and share the results of their experiences.

ADMN – Accessible Digital Music Network with support from relevant organizations or partners.

We look forward to your submissions and to a fruitful discussion on advancing accessibility in digital music!

This track seeks to address the challenges and opportunities in the digital music landscape as it pertains to accessibility for individuals with disabilities. We invite contributions that highlight advancements, research, technologies, and practices that help make music more inclusive. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Accessible Music Production: Tools and technologies that facilitate music creation, production, and distribution for individuals with disabilities.
• Music and Assistive Technology: Innovative uses of assistive technology for music creation, performance, and consumption, such as screen readers, tactile interfaces, or specialized hardware.
• Inclusive Music Education: Approaches for teaching music to individuals with disabilities using digital tools and methods.
• Music and Cognitive Accessibility: Studies or technologies that address cognitive barriers in understanding, appreciating, or engaging with music.
• User Experience (UX) in Accessible Music Platforms: Design principles for accessible music streaming services, applications, and devices.
• Digital Music Accessibility Standards and Guidelines: Exploring current standards or the need for new guidelines to ensure digital music is accessible to a wider audience.
• Research and Case Studies: Empirical research, case studies, or user-driven design approaches focused on accessible digital music solutions.
• Social and Cultural Impact: The role of accessible music technologies in fostering inclusion and breaking down barriers in music communities.

Marcella Mandanici
Conservatory L. Marenzio of Brescia (Italy) 

Marcella Mandanici is a music composer, researcher, and professor of music education at the Music Conservatory of Brescia (Italy). She has authored many vocal and theatrical works and, between 1986 and 1993, served as the artistic director of “Nuovi Spazi Sonori,” an Italian association for promoting and advancing contemporary music.
Mandanici’s academic background includes a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Music Technology from the Conservatory of Como, which she obtained in 2012. Later, in 2016, she earned a Ph.D. in information engineering from the University of Padova. Her diverse educational background reflects her interdisciplinary approach to research and teaching.
As a researcher, Mandanici focuses on applications for music education and rehabilitation. Her work has explored innovative ways of integrating technology into music education and using music as a means of rehabilitation. Since 2019, Mandanici has taught for the MSc degree in Technologies for Music Education. Throughout her career, Mandanici has authored over 30 scientific works in the areas of sound and music computing, multimedia, and music education.

Elena Partesotti
University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil

Dr. Elena Partesotti is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Unicamp, collaborating between the Brazilian Institute of Neuroscience (BRAINN) and the Interdisciplinary Nucleus for Sound Studies (NICS). Her interdisciplinary research spans various fields, including the development of Extended Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs) prototypes for rehabilitative, creative, and performative purposes, as well as exploring topics such as philosophy of mind, music cognition, music therapy, behavioral processes, dance networks and art installations. Elena holds an International Doctorate Cum Laude on Music Technology in rehab from the University of Valladolid, Spain, and Unicamp University, Brazil, where she also patented an EDMI called E-MOCOMU. Elena has contributed to the design and investigation of music technology as a multimodal and interactive therapeutic tool. She has been the first to integrate concepts such as Creative Empowerment, Virtual Affordances, and Embodied Cognition into rehabilitation, particularly within the field of music therapy, using EDMIs. In addition to her research, she also serves as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Art Therapy and as a guest Editor for the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, contributing to a Special Issue on art and music technology for rehabilitative purposes.

• Marcella Mandanici
  Conservatory L. Marenzio of Brescia (Italy) 
• Elena Partesotti
  Unicamp University, Brazil
• Coralie Vincent
  IRCAM, France
• Emma Frid
  Independent Researcher, Sweden
• Matteo Olivo
  Jean Monnet University, France
• Leonardo Gabrielli
  Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM), Italy
• Giuseppe Bergamino
  Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM), Italy
• Luc Nijs
  University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

All registered papers will be submitted for publishing by Springer – LNICST series and made available through SpringerLink Digital Library: ArtsIT Conference Proceedings.

Proceedings will be submitted for inclusion in leading indexing services, such as Web of Science, Compendex, Scopus, DBLP, EU Digital Library, Google Scholar, IO-Port, MathSciNet, Inspec, and Zentralblatt MATH.

Available Journals

All accepted authors are eligible to submit an extended version in a fast track of:

• EAI Endorsed Transactions on Creative Technologies
• EAI Endorsed Transactions on AI and Robotics

By paying an additional $150, authors can publish their articles in the EAI Endorsed Transactions journal selected by the conference (Scopus and Ei-indexed):

• EAI Endorsed Transactions on Internet of Things (Scopus)

The article’s publication is subject to the following requirements:  

• It must be an extended version of the conference paper with a different title and abstract. In general, 30% of new content must be added.
• The article will be processed once the conference proceedings have been published.
• The article will be processed using the fast-track option.

Once the conference proceedings are published, the corresponding author should contact us at [email protected] with the details of their article to begin processing.

Additional publication opportunities:
– EAI Transactions series (Open Access)
– EAI/Springer Innovations in Communications and Computing Book Series
(titles in this series are indexed in Ei Compendex, Web of Science & Scopus)

Papers should be submitted through EAI ‘Confy+‘ system, and have to comply with the Springer format (see Author’s kit section).

– Regular papers should be up to 12-20 pages in length.
– Short papers should be 6-11 pages in length.

All conference papers undergo a thorough peer review process prior to the final decision and publication. This process is facilitated by experts in the Technical Program Committee during a dedicated conference period. Standard peer review is enhanced by EAI Community Review which allows EAI members to bid to review specific papers. All review assignments are ultimately decided by the responsible Technical Program Committee Members while the Technical Program Committee Chair is responsible for the final acceptance selection. You can learn more about Community Review here.

Paper submission

Papers should be submitted through EAI ‘Confy+‘ system, and have to comply with the Springer format (see Author’s kit section below).

How do I submit a paper in Confy?

1. Go to Confy+ website
2. Login or sign up as new user
3. Select your desired Track
4. Click the ‘Submit Paper’ link within the track and follow the instructions

Alternatively, go to home page of Confy+ and click on “Open conferences”.

Submission guidelines

– Papers should be in English.
– Double-Blind Review. Papers have to be submitted anonymously.
– Previously published work may not be submitted, nor may the work be concurrently submitted to any other conference or journal.
   Such papers will be rejected without review.
– The paper submissions must follow the Springer formatting guidelines (see Author’s kit section below).
– Authors are required to adhere to the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.

Papers must be formatted using the Springer LNICST Authors’ Kit.

Instructions and templates are available from Springer’s LNICST homepage:

• LaTeX2e Proceedings Templates (zip)
• Microsoft Word Proceedings Templates (zip)

Please make sure that your paper adheres to the format as specified in the instructions and templates.

When uploading the camera-ready copy of your paper, please be sure to upload both:

• a PDF copy of your paper formatted according to the above templates, and
• an archive file (e.g. zip, tar.gz) containing the both a PDF copy of your paper and LaTeX or Word source material prepared according to the above guidelines.

*As per new EU accessibility requirements, going forward, all figures, illustrations, tables, and images ought to have descriptive text accompanying them. Please refer to the document below, which will assist you in crafting Alternative Text (Alt Text). 

Download HERE.