Rather like the category "disability art" the category "disabled musician" has got me wondering.
In what manner might I be a "disabled musician" or an "impaired" one. The two never being cognate of course, in that the barriers to performance or learning to play may be more significant than the impairments.
I would not regard the category autism as qualifying me for impaired musician status, I would consider the pain I have through spondylosis and various neuropathies to be more of a barrier, though I would guess if I were "positioned" as a disabled musician it would be my autism that first came to mind.
There are of course other impairments that have more significantly impacted my musical career, dyslexia being one of them as I find music hard to read though I compensate by having a good memory for tone and musical structure.
The disabilities I labour under are economic, it would be wonderfull to be able to afford a really decent instrument, which if I aspired to any professional musicianship would cost me as much as a small car. It's those sort of barriers that are most likely to impact the category of "impaired" musician given the lowered earning capacity in a workforce that discriminates against impairment and perhaps the prohibitive cost of adaptive instruments. I could benefit greatly by a specialist flute head for instance that allowed me a more ergonomic playing position and less pain, but whose going to provide me with one?
Larry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List [mailto:DISABILITY-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Keith Armstrong
> Sent: 04 April 2012 06:40
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> Subject: Disabled Musicians Direct
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> An Audio forum for disabled musicians or those who support music created by disabled
> musicians. All styles welcome! Even if you are not a musician, but just like to listen to
> good music created by disabled music makers, it is free and you don't have to be a
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>
> http://soundcloud.com/groups/disabled-musicians
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