Assessing accessibility: an instrumental case study of a community music group

ABSTRACT

Creating accessible events is a pressing issue for many music organisations. In the United States, the term accessibility has strong ties to disability, and it is an important concept because what is deemed accessible directly impacts who is included and excluded from music experiences. Music Community Lab (MCL) runs a series of events in New York City called Monthly Music Hackathon NYC. They aim to promote ‘diversity across backgrounds, perspectives, and abilities’. This instrumental case study sought to examine how MCL participants conceptualise accessibility as well as analyze participants’ suggestions for improving the accessibility of MCL events. Sixty-two people who attended one of three MCL events completed a demographic survey and 57 of those respondents participated in an interview. Findings reveal that 63% (n = 36) of participants associated accessibility with inclusivity and 35% (n = 20) of participants associated accessibility with ease of access to resources, places, and experiences. Participants’ suggestions for improving accessibility included social media marketing (n = 23; 40%) and ease of access approaches (n = 11; 19%) including CART, ASL, and live streaming events. Accessibility is challenging for community music groups like MCL to navigate because it is a complex construct with varied interpretations.

KEYWORDS:

• accessibility
• disability
• community music
• music technology
• hackathon

Disclosure statement

We, the authors of this article, declare this work to be original and entirely ours.

Additional information

Funding

This research project was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Notes on contributors

adam patrick bell

adam patrick bell is an associate professor of music education in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary, Canada. He is the editor of the Music Technology Cookbook (Oxford 2020) and author of Dawn of the DAW (Oxford 2018).

Atiya Datoo

Atiya Datoo is a student in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary.

Brent Matterson

Brent Matterson is an undergraduate student in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary.

Joseph Bahhadi

Joseph Bahhadi is an undergraduate student in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary.

Chantelle Ko

Chantelle Ko is a master’s student in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary.