Ways to Be Worse Off

Does disability make a person worse off? I argue that the best answer is yes and no, because we can be worse off in two conceptually distinct ways. Disabilities usually make us worse off in one way (typified by facing hassles) but not in the other (typified by facing loneliness). Acknowledging two conceptually distinct ways to be worse off has fundamental implications for philosophical theories of well-being. (This paper was awarded the APA’s Routledge, Taylor & Francis Prize in 2017.

Music jamming as a participatory design method. A case study with disabled musicians

We propose a method that uses music jamming as a tool for the design of musical instruments. Both designers and musicians collaborate in the music making process for the subsequent development of individual “music performer’s profiles” which account for four dimensions: (i) movements and embodiment, (ii) musical preferences, (iii) difficulties, and (iv) capabilities. These profiles converge into proposed prototypes that transform into final designs after experts and performers' examination and feedback. We ground this method in the context of physically disabled musicians, and we show that the method provides a decolonial view to disability, as its purpose moves from the classical view of technology as an aid for allowing disabled communities to access well-established instruments, towards a new paradigm where technologies are used for the augmentation of expressive capabilities, the strengthening of social engagement, and the empowerment of music makers

Music Segmentation and Similarity Estimation Applied to a Gaze-Controlled Musical Interface

Assistive technology, especially gaze-controlled, can promote accessibility, health care, well-being and inclusion for impaired people, including musical activities that can be supported by interfaces controlled using eye tracking. Also, the Internet growth has allowed access to a huge digital music database, which can contribute to a new form of music creation. In this paper, we propose the application of Music Information Retrieval techniques for music segmentation and similarity identification, aiming at the development of a new form of musical creation using an automatic process and the optimization algorithm Harmony Search to combine segments. These techniques for segmentation and similarity of segments were implemented in an assistive musical interface controlled by eye movement to support musical creation and well-being. The experimental results can be found in [https://bit.ly/2Zl7KSC]

Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal Volume 4 Issue 1

We are pleased to include in this issue the first half of a forum on music guest edited by Alex Lubet and Na’ama Sheffi. The second half of the forum will appear in the next issue of RDS, volume 4, issue 2. Thank you Alex and Na’ama for an excellent and comprehensive forum

Accessibility and dimensionality: enhanced real time creative independence for digital musicians with quadriplegic cerebral palsy

Inclusive music activities for people with physical disabilities commonly emphasise facilitated processes, based both on constrained gestural capabilities, and on the simplicity of the available interfaces. Inclusive music processes employ consumer controllers, computer access tools and/or specialized digital musical instruments (DMIs). The first category reveals a design ethos identified by the authors as artefact multiplication -- many sliders, buttons, dials and menu layers; the latter types offer ergonomic accessibility through artefact magnification. We present a prototype DMI that eschews artefact multiplication in pursuit of enhanced real time creative independence. We reconceptualise the universal click-drag interaction model via a single sensor type, which affords both binary and continuous performance control. Accessibility is optimized via a familiar interaction model and through customized ergonomics, but it is the mapping strategy that emphasizes transparency and sophistication in the hierarchical correspondences between the available gesture dimensions and expressive musical cues. Through a participatory and progressive methodology we identify an ostensibly simple targeting gesture rich in dynamic and reliable features: (1) contact location; (2) contact duration; (3) momentary force; (4) continuous force, and; (5) dyad orientation. These features are mapped onto dynamic musical cues, most notably via new mappings for vibrato and arpeggio execution

Musicoterapia, cognición y comunicación: Improvisación creativa en un único caso de un niño con trastorno del desarrollo intelectual no especificado

La improvisación musical se aborda en diferentes tipos de disciplinas y una de ellas es la Musicoterapia, en la que bajo determinadas condiciones se ha visto que tiene un efecto positivo en la mejora de las funciones cognitivas y la comunicación. El objetivo de este proyecto fue usar la improvisación creativa con un niño de seis años con un trastorno del desarrollo intelectual no especificado durante tres meses para la mejora de las funciones cognitivas y la comunicación. Las sesiones se dividieron en dos partes; una rítmica para trabajar la atención y la concentración con ritmos premeditados e improvisados y otra parte melódica en la que se trabaja la comunicación a través de palabras conocidas para el niño para poder llegar a crear un diálogo musical entre el músicoterapeuta y el paciente. Tras el análisis de datos, se observó que, tras once sesiones de trabajo rítmico-musical a través de la improvisación creativa, los datos obtenidos fueron positivos, habiendo conseguido todos los objetivos propuestos para el proyecto.Musical improvisation is addressed in different types of disciplines and one of them is music therapy, where under certain conditions it has been seen to have positive effect on the improvement of cognitive functions and communication. The aim of this project was to use creative improvisation with a six-year-old boy with an unspecified neurodevelopment disorder for three months for the improvement of cognitive functions and communication. The sessions are divided into two parts; a rhythmic part to work on attention and concentration with premeditated and improvised rhythms and a melodic part in which communication is worked on through words known to the child to create a musical dialogue between the music therapist and the patient. After the data analysis, it was observed that after eleven sessions of rhythmic-musical work through creative improvisation, the data obtained were positive, having achieved all the objetives proposed for the project