The Grid 2

For more than 18 months now I’ve been assisting a disabled student with the first module of a music degree course. My role has been a largely technical one - to create an Assistive Technology set-up that will enable the student to do the course, and to work with him in learning how to use it.  I’m not going to name the student or the University, as the whole experience raises some potentially sensitive issues.

Like many teenagers his age, Bradley Warwick is passionate about music. In this sense he is unremarkable; however, in 2010 he became the first student to pilot Drake Music’s Introduction to Music course (accredited by OCNSWR - Open College Network South West Region), achieving a Level 1 pass for all four units. Bradley’s success is especially significant because he has Cerebral Palsy and uses an electronic VOCA (Voice Output Communication Aid) to speak.

In 2008 Charlotte White gained a Bronze Arts Award through working with Drake Music at St. Rose’s school, Stroud. While it was undoubtedly a really good thing to have her musical achievements accredited, a Bronze Arts Award was, quite honestly, a poor reflection of Charlotte’s actual academic and musical abilities. In the same academic year she achieved an A and three A-stars at GCSE in English Languge, Media, RE & Art - the latter achieved largely through mouth painting, and she is now (2011) at the University of Kent studying for a degree in Sociology and Criminology.