Oral comprehensive examination – Public lecture: “Accessibility in music education: tools and techniques for music educators”

“Education follows society,” as Michael L. Mark states in his chapter entitled “Music Education History and the Future” in the anthology “Music Education, Navigating the Future” (2015). In music education, the methodologies employed by the teachers are in constant evolution with our society to improve accessibility, diversity and inclusion in class. However, students with disabilities frequently face ableism and lack of support because of the absence of options available to them to include students with special needs in traditional classrooms. Working with professional musicians with disabilities, I have often discussed with them the challenges they faced to continue their musical studies. It is usually thanks to one individual (a teacher, a parent, a friend) who was thinking out of the box that it was possible for them to find the proper adaptations and teaching/learning methods. This implies that teachers keep an open mind and take into account the abilities of their students. As part of a project in partnership between York University and CMST (Community Music Schools of Toronto), I have proposed a series of adaptive instruments and voice workshops to introduce young music students (4 to 13 years old) to different learning experiences in the classroom. These workshops allow teachers to learn new tools and techniques which might be applied in the future, and students to discover other ways of performing and learning music, with ASL and Braille music, new technologies, and traditional instruments used in a non-traditional way. In my presentation, I will give an overview of these workshops and demonstrate how these new tools and techniques can help improve music education for students with all abilities.

Oral defence. Questions will be asked by supervisory committee. No questions from the public.

Online and in-person lecture open to public.