Making Higher Education in Music More Accessible:Exploring Barriers and Enablers for Students who are Deaf, Disabled, Neurodivergent or have Chronic Physical or Mental Health Conditions. Final Report.pdf

The primary focus of this study was to explore the barriers and enablers facing music students with disability studying at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (MCM) to develop a theoretical framework for understanding how Universities can improve access for music students with disability and to develop recommendations to support institutions to do so. To do this, we interviewed 18 current students at the Conservatorium, who self-identified as having a disability or mental health condition or who were Deaf or neurodivergent. We also interviewed three disabled senior secondary students who plan to audition for tertiary music courses in the next few years.

This project was accomplished through a 3-year study, generating recommendations, a series of events and publications, which are collectively summarised in this report. By privileging the voices of students with disability, we were able to highlight the access issues that were most important to their experiences of inclusion in music education at a tertiary level, leading to recommendations based around four topics: 1) increased teacher awareness; 2) pedagogical reforms, 3) improved information sharing, and 4) the unpredictable environment.