Vision
Non-disabled people can make music in many ways. We want the same for disabled people. We want equal opportunities for everyone to make music.
Our vision is a world where disabled people have the same range of opportunities, instruments and encouragement, where disabled and non-disabled musicians work together as equals.
Philosophy
Three things which inform our work:
- We are always learning, and always sharing what we learn.
- Disabled musicians are at the heart of what we do.
- Our work is underpinned by the Social Model of Disability.
The Social Model of Disability
You can read about this in detail in our blog series, or read on for the short version.
The short version is that in the early 1970’s disabled people came together and started to challenge what was happening; identifying that barriers, not bodies, were the problem.
This was the beginning of The Social Model of Disability.
It says that disability is not about an individual’s body, but is instead about the physical, attitudinal and societal barriers which affect our ability to take part in the daily life of a community on an equal level with others.
We work to break down those barriers in music, for example by building a new accessible instrument or creating opportunities for up and coming disabled musicians.
Nothing about us without us
An important slogan from the Disability rights movement is “Nothing about us without us”.
This is key to how we approach our work.
We work with, alongside and for disabled musicians of all ages and abilities. We are allies and accomplices in creating equality of opportunity in music.
Learning and developing
As an organisation we place value on learning. We are a home for new ways of thinking about music, music technology, performance, teaching and practice.
As such we test new ground, learn from other people and organisations and are prepared to take risks and learn from failure as well as success.
Our work is informed by the principles of open sourcing, from sharing the code for a new hackable piece of tech or sharing a lesson plan with new ideas for musical turn-taking.
We learn, and try to share that process publicly, in order to support and inspire further change.