[Menvi-discuss] Your advice for music teachers working with blind and visually impaired students?

[Sandra Gayer]

Hello Marc,
I have been on the receiving end of well meaning teachers, as a blind
student. I teach Braille Music so you could say the boot is on the
other foot now. The most important thing to address is clear
communication. Teachers need to be articulate; half beaked
explanations with excellent diagrams or drawings will not do.

Very best wishes,
Sandra.

On 2/17/21, Marc Sabatella <marc at outsideshore.com> wrote:
> Hi!  I'm doing a presentation for NAfME - the National Association for
> Music Education - in a couple of weeks, and I've love to get your input.
>
> The title of the presentation is "Teaching Music to Blind and Visually
> Impaired Students", and the audience is mostly grade school music teachers
> plus high school choir and band directors.  My wife - an elementary school
> music teacher herself - is co-presenting with me.
>
> For those who you who have taught or been taught in that environment, what
> are some things you think it especially important for me to talk about?
> What would you want a music teacher who may never have worked with a blind
> music student to know?
>
> My own experience is mostly in the university area, teaching music theory
> specifically, and I have plenty of information I've gathered over the years
> on various tools and techniques that make sense in that world.  Much of my
> presentation will be focused on sharing what I have learned about
> communicating using different forms of notated music.  But I also know I
> have little experience teaching elementary general music or what unique
> challenges might come up in that environment.  Luckily, my wife has lots of
> experience in that world, but little of it with blind or visually
> impaired students.  Hopefully between all of us, I can find the right 55
> minutes of material to cover!
>
> --
> Marc Sabatella
> marc at outsideshore.com
>


-- 
Sandra Gayer DipABRSM, LRSM.

Soprano Singer
www.sandragayer.com

Broadcast Presenter
www.rnibconnectradio.org.uk/music-box.html

Actor
www.visablepeople.com

Voiceover Artist
www.archangelvoices.co.uk/content/sandra-gayer