CFP: Accommodation and Accessibility in the Music Classroom

 
Joint session, AMS Music and Disability Study Group and Pedagogy Study Group 
 
Within higher education, the terms “accessibility” and “accommodation” are often presented within a narrow framework that mandates institutional compliance to legal statutes such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), and Section 504 and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. It is no wonder, then, that many of the people teaching and studying in higher education have a limited understanding of what constitutes accessibility and accommodation. While this could be said of most academic fields, it is especially pertinent to musicology, a discipline that has historically privileged hearing-centric engagement with sound and has centered the white, middle-class, Euro-American, heterosexual, able-bodied, able-minded, and cis-male experience as normative. Thus we would maintain that music studies count among the most fraught among the fields of humanities in terms of disability because of inherent expectations of fully abled bodyminds, coupled with a historically ableist culture that equates accessibility with compliance. 

Within and across institutions of higher learning, disability is often relegated to a narrow concern with compliance-based “access” to buildings, dorms, resources, and to learning resources and classrooms. While these are valuable aspects of creating inclusive spaces, they are limited in scope. We define accessibility as the ability for all people to engage with spaces, technologies, services, devices, or environments regardless of race, class, disability, gender identity, or sexuality. It is important to note that many factors can limit one’s access to learning resources, spaces, and opportunities, which the study of music can exacerbate. In addition to physical barriers, students may face financial obstacles to educational opportunities and additional burdens of working and caring for a family. Instructors, including graduate TAs, guest lecturers, and contingent faculty, may have access needs that are not fully met by institutional support systems. These barriers and concerns can be further compounded by intersectional experiences of marginalization. 

Through this panel, we intend to address colleagues in the AMS about the barriers and obstacles faced in teaching music and to offer them alternatives through disability-informed pedagogy. Building on Jay T. Dolmage’s generative formulation “academic ableism,” we will propose “musical ableism”/”musical ableisms” as a conceptual space within which to come to grips with assumptions expressed through music. Critical pedagogy ordinarily assumes language to be the necessary communicative medium for analyzing how education–embedded in systems of power, privilege, and oppression–perpetuates restrictive notions about whose knowledge is worthy. But what if critical pedagogy takes place, instead, through music as a communicative and educative medium? What kinds of interventions and analyses of “musical ableisms” would make such a pedagogical framework not only possible, but more importantly, critical? 
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The panelists aim to provide strategies for implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and other disability-oriented approaches in musicological curricula and course design in terms of course overview, learning outcomes, listening examples, classroom challenges, and accessibility support for accommodations. UDL is intended to provide a more equitable environment for all students and instructors by offering a holistic approach to cultivating diverse pedagogical practices that take all of these factors into account. Ultimately, we argue that instructors play a valuable role in expanding accessibility measures by engendering inclusion as an essential facet of classroom culture rather than mere adherence to institutional policy. 

Our panel will present contributions from music(ology) instructors who wish to challenge the narratives that mandate adherence to established normativity and who intend to create accessible environments in their music classrooms.  

The session will feature a series of 10-minute talks. Please email abstracts of no more than 250 words to [email protected]. The submission deadline is Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Acceptance notifications will be communicated by May 15. Panelists will be expected to participate in person at the AMS Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois (November 14-17, 2024).