Accessible Guitar Reference
A guitar reference built text-first, for blind and visually impaired players. Chord charts, fretboard diagrams, and video lessons all assume you can see them. This site assumes you cannot, and describes everything in precise, consistent words instead: which string, which fret, which finger, spoken the same way every time so your screen reader develops a rhythm.
Start here
Read How to read this guide first. It is short, and it defines the exact grammar every description follows: how strings are numbered, what higher and lower mean, how muted strings are announced, and how movable shapes work.
What is here today
The reference currently covers:
- Fretboard guide — every note on every string, the landmark frets, and the octave shapes that let two well-learned strings unlock the other four.
- Open chords — the fourteen everyday cowboy chords: C, A, G, E, D, the minors, and the dominant 7ths.
- Power chords — the 5 chords: open E5, A5, and D5, plus the movable two-finger and three-finger shapes that work on any root.
- Barre chords — the movable E and A shapes that turn the open grips into any major or minor chord along the neck.
- Triads — compact three-note major and minor shapes in all three inversions, on two string groups.
- Chord finder — pick any root note and chord type, and get every way this site knows to play that chord, ordered along the neck.
- Tuner — a microphone tuner that names the note it hears and says how many cents too low or too high it is, with automatic spoken updates you can mute.
Planned next: scales (major scale positions, pentatonic boxes, modes), a where-is-this-note lookup, practice quizzes, and audio playback.
Make it read your way
On the Settings page you can choose how descriptions are written: per string from thickest to thinnest, by finger, or as compact prose; and whether strings are identified by number, by note name, or both. Your choice applies to every description on the site.
Works offline
This site is plain HTML with no external services. You can download the whole folder, open index.html from your own disk, and everything works, including settings.
Feedback
The project lives on GitHub at github.com/oasis1701/accessible-guitar-reference. Corrections and suggestions are welcome, especially from other blind players: open an issue there and describe what reads poorly or what is missing.