Company Information

About Dancing Dots
Bill McCann's Biography

About Dancing Dots

Dancing Dots Braille Music Technology, L.P., was founded in 1992 to develop and adapt music technology for the blind. In 1997 Dancing Dots released its first product, the GOODFEEL® Braille Music Translator. Bill McCann, Dancing Dots’ president and founder, sees GOODFEEL® as the first in a series of high-tech tools to harness the power of the personal computer for creative people with disabilities. McCann himself is a blind musician and programmer who has successfully competed for federal and state contracts to advance this work. In addition to selling GOODFEEL®, the company is an authorized distributor for a wide range of assistive technology and music products. Dancing Dots has customers throughout the U.S. and twenty-six foreign countries.

With GOODFEEL® combined with a few mainstream products, any sighted musician can prepare a braille score without needing to be a Braille music specialist. Blind users can make sound recordings and print and Braille editions of their compositions and arrangements. Music scanning software can be used to speed data entry.

Bill McCann, A Biographical Sketch

"I work to make certain that who I am dictates what I do and never vice versa. I want to continuously improve myself and help others to do the same."

Entrepreneur, Musician and Programmer

Mr. William R. McCann is founder and president of Dancing Dots Braille Music Technology, LP He worked from 1982 through 1991 at the Sun Company, where he advanced from Associate Systems Analyst to Systems Analyst III while remaining an active, part-time professional trumpeter and composer.

This graduate of Philadelphia's University of the Arts (1980, cum laude) holds a certificate of Computer Science earned in 1982 at University of Pennsylvania's Center for Information Resources (now AbiliTech).

In 1992 Bill launched Dancing Dots Braille Music Technology (DDBMT). Dancing Dots seeks to offer disabled individuals access to information that can widen opportunity and enrich lives. Dancing Dots announced the release of its GOODFEEL® Braille Music Translator in June, 1997. GOODFEEL® automates the production of Braille music scores. GOODFEEL® converts the same files used to prepare the printed scores into music Braille This software has vastly increased the amount and variety of Braille music scores. McCann envisions GOODFEEL® as just the first of a number of high-tech solutions to benefit people with disabilities.

Dancing Dots has received the US Small Business Administration’s Tibbetts Award. In 1999, Dancing Dots was invited to the White House to demonstrate its technology to the president and vice-president. McCann has been interviewed by the BBC World Service, the Associated Press and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has authored numerous articles about his work.

Musician

On July 1, 1967, on the occasion of his ninth birthday, Bill McCann was presented with his first trumpet. Since 1977, Bill has been composing, arranging and performing professionally. In 1980 he graduated cum laude from Philadelphia's University of the Arts with a degree in trumpet performance, jazz emphasis. In 1992, he was commissioned to write The Magic Moment is Now for the Glassboro Jazz Festival studio orchestra. He has scored the themes for a promotional video for Philadelphia's Associated Services for the Blind and St. Lucy Day School. "MAINSTREAM", an inspirational documentary about McCann which first aired in 1989 on Philadelphia's public TV affiliate, also showcases his music.

In 1987, he married Mary Ann Coppa, a gifted concert harpist. Their popular harp and trumpet duo has performed at many church ceremonies and recitals since the mid 1980's. They make their home in suburban Philadelphia with their five children. Due to the increasing demands of building Dancing Dots, Bill hasn’t performed publicly since 1997 but still enjoys playing his trumpet for friends and family.

Programmer

Prior to founding Dancing Dots, Bill pursued a successful career in information technology. From 1982 through 1991 he served as a human resource systems analyst for the Sun company. During his tenure he advanced from the associate level to Systems Analyst III. Almost daily he designed or updated computer programs that generated reports and display screens for sighted coworkers.

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