Teaching Music to the Visually Impaired Student in a Standard School Setting

Abstract

In former times visually Impaired students were often placed In special schools. This policy Is beginning to change and young people with varying degrees of sight deficiency are now being Integrated Into standard classroom settings. Such a strategy may pose substantial problems for the specialist music teacher who may have had little training In this or any other field of special education. The purpose of this Paper is to consider the kinds of Information a music educator may require to cope with the needs of a visually Impaired student in a standard classroom setting.

Perceptions of schooling, pedagogy and notation in the lives of visually-impaired musicians

“…Aside from literature mentioned above, there is but a small quantity of literature specifically on music pedagogy in relation to visual impairment (e.g. Clark & Murphy, 1998;MacLeod, 1987;Zimmermann, 1997). In particular, there is little research cutting a broad swathe across visually-impaired musical insiders' perspectives on lived experience in schooling, pedagogical practice or their approaches to reading music.…”

The challenge of reading music notation for pianists with low vision: An exploratory qualitative study using a head-mounted display

“…Aids, adaptations and strategies Some of the means used by the study's participants have previously been discussed in the literature: an adapted lectern, microscope glasses and bioptic telescope glasses (Clark & Murphy, 1998;Labbett, 1995), enlarging the score using a photocopier (Clark & Murphy, 1998;Labbett, 1995), as well as memorization and oral learning (Clark & Murphy, 1998;Coates, 2012). On the other hand, this study has revealed that pianists with a VI also use adaptations that foster visual access by means other than magnification, and that they even use a combination of several aids, adaptations and strategies.…”

“…Magnification, achieved by reducing the eye/notation relative distance, is possible by bringing the notation closer with an adapted lectern (Clark & Murphy, 1998;Labbett, 1995;Whittaker, Scheiman, & Et Sokol-McKay, 2016), or by bringing it closer with one's hands. However, the lectern usually needs to be custom-made, since there are few adapted models on the market (Clark & Murphy, 1998;Labbett, 1995). When the reading distance needs to be particularly close, it becomes impossible to read the score while playing the piano.…”

“…However, since most of these aids are designed to facilitate the reading of text, they present certain problems when reading music (Coates, 2012;Housley et al, 2013). A table-mounted video magnifier provides access to the details in the notation, but the musician needs to stop playing to move the music on the CCTV platform (Clark & Murphy, 1998). There are few aids that can be used hands-free and at an intermediate reading distance (50 to 70 cm).…”

“…Memorization or alternative means. In addition, Clark and Murphy (1998), as well as Coates (2012) encourage memorization, oral instruction and the use of recordings. However, memorization requires some preliminary work before interpretation, and the last two methods require an intermediary between the musician and the notation.…”