[Menvi-discuss] A Reddit Thread Worth Reading: College Professors Talk About Issues Around Accessible Materials in Music Courses, Especially Theory Courses

[Ella Yu]

Thanks Kaiti for sharing your perspective, and I definitely agree, even
though I am currently a college student in a field completely outside of
music, although I still play in a community orchestra and do other musical
things for pleasure. I definitely think there is some sort of notable
disconnect going on somewhere, which is why I made a post to this list
about the reddit thread in the first place. I did reply to two comments on
the thread under the username irisgirl86, but I didn't want to say too much
because I'm not a music major, and the subreddit is geared towards
university professors and not students.

On Mon, Oct 21, 2024 at 3:44 PM Kaiti Shelton <kaiti.shelton at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi, everyone,
>
> It definitely was an interesting read. Thanks for sharing.
>
> I was frankly shocked, though not entirely surprised, by some of the
> comments on the LMS thread. Some of the comments nodding towards questions
> of can blind people even be accommodated at all in score reading or what
> the point of having a blind person analyze a score because people like
> Stevie Wonder learn by ear show just how little knowledge is out there
> amongst professors on this topic. I do know there are faculty out there who
> understand the benefits and drawbacks to any method of learning and
> memorizing music for a blind musician and like most if not all of us here
> advocate for using all the available tools in the box each for their
> beneficial purposes, but holy cow seeing that thread was sobering.
>
> I guess I also just don't understand where the issue really is. It sounds
> like people higher up have good intentions but are reading way too far into
> accessibility issues because they don't understand the role of disability
> services providing accommodated materials. I was taking theory courses
> about 10 years ago, but even then all my classmates were accessing scores
> for analysis online and I was provided embossed braille and" Lime files
> instead. As long as the blind student gets an accessible version of the
> assignment so they can complete it, that's what matters. Why must you have
> absolutely everything for everyone delivered through the LMS, and wouldn't
> insisting on doing so even if it's a student's reasonable accommodation to
> receive the assignment in a different format be also problematic? You can't
> put embossed braille on Canvas or Blackboard, and if a theory student had a
> university giving them accessible notation files or hard copy braille I
> don't think they'd care it wasn't on Canvas. I know I wouldn't. I'd be
> curious to see if any current faculty have more insight into this:
>
> But boy, do we need more blind musicians speaking and presenting at music
> ed conferences, evidently. I have a lot to ponder as I take my stack of
> braille scores off with me to choir rehearsal...
>
> All the best,
> Kaiti Shelton, MS, MT-BC
> Music Therapist-Board Certified
>
> https://www.credly.com/badges/ac95f05b-e4be-41fe-9e82-7300318d6685/public_url
>
> On Oct 21, 2024, at 4:45 PM, Ella Yu via Menvi-discuss <
> menvi-discuss at menvi.org> wrote:
>
> 
> Hi everyone,
>
> I just wanted to share a thread I found on reddit, as I feel the subject
> is very important to the blind music community at large. Specifically, it
> is about accessibility issues for blind/visually impaired students in
> university music classes, especially music theory courses. I know not many
> of you guys hang out on reddit on a regular basis, but since everything can
> be viewed without a reddit account and the discussion is interesting, I
> just thought I'd share it. The post is in a subreddit called r/professors,
> which is a reddit community intended for those who teach in higher
> education, such as college and university professors. There are reddit
> communities for nearly every topic out there, called subreddits.
>
> This reddit thread is actually a spinoff from a different reddit thread
> called "Title II Update of ADA REQUIREMENTS"
> <https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/comments/1g71b68/title_ii_update_of_ada_requirements/>
> (ADA likely meaning Americans with Disabilities Act). The main post reads:
> "Today during a faculty meeting, I learned that the DOJ updated Title II
> requirements of the ADA making it mandatory that web and digital content be
> fully accessible by April, 2026. I then was given a list of content that
> must be made accessible including all Power Points (pictures need Alt-Text,
> font requirements for screen readers and order considerations for screen
> readers), emails (“Every time someone sends an inaccessible email we are
> unintentionally discriminating against people with disabilities”), word
> documents and video/multimedia. What are all of you doing about this? Any
> tips/tricks or insights you can share? This feels so daunting to me and my
> team b/c we teach A&P with an image heavy lab."
>
> One of the comments on the thread, which got 37 upvotes, says:
> "It’s an issue if you are a music professor. Music notation is not
> accessible so any handouts or assignments I post on canvas come back with a
> low accessibility warning. We currently have a student who is blind and
> have had other students in the past. You can’t post Braille music notation
> on canvas. Screen readers can’t read it. We’ve always made it work with
> students, by playing examples on the piano and having them talk through
> their analyses."
>
> Another thread, which is the one that is of most interest to this
> community, was started (likely) as a response to this comment. It is called "ADA
> compliance for LMS for music professors"
> <https://new.reddit.com/r/Professors/comments/1g7f2gx/ada_compliance_for_lms_for_music_professors/>
> (LMS likely meaning learning management system e.g Canvas, Moodle,
> Blackboard, etc). The main post reads:
> "This is in response to the recent post about complete ADA accessibility
> for all teaching materials. If your university is mandating this, do you
> know how music theorists have complied with the law?
> In the last week, I have taught from these two scores. Obviously, they
> cannot be captioned. Listening to the music is of course incredibly
> important, but students have to see the score for analysis and performance.
> We have had blind and visually impaired students and we have worked with
> them individually and/or sent music out to be Brailled if they even read
> Braille music notation. Many cannot read it and it is time consuming and
> very expensive to send music out to be Brailled.
> I think accessibility is incredibly important. I just have no idea how it
> would work in my field."
> There appears to be a musical score attached to this post, which is shown
> as an image.
>
> The comments on this reddit post discuss the issue in depth, and I think
> it is a worthwhile read, especially for those who advocate for
> accessibility in university music courses for blind students, either as a
> student yourself, a teacher, or a related individual. The commenters all
> appear to be sighted college/university professors who share their
> perspectives, so it gives a pretty good glimpse into what is going on in
> the trenches so to speak. I think examining those perspectives is important
> for the blind/visually impaired music community at large because there
> tends to be a bit of a disconnect between what students need/feel is best
> for them and the teachers and other professionals working with them, and I
> think there is quite a bit that can be done to better bridge this gap.
> What do you guys all think? Feel free to share your thoughts on the reddit
> thread.
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