Practical Suggestions

*If anticipating a blind or visually impaired student in your department, provide JAWS in some manner for inclusion on a department computer.  Other assistive software and hardware mentioned above will be helpful also.  Accommodation Keyboards  allowing tactile feel of braille can be included. Navigation of the net or music associated software can then be done on campus is assignments are required.

*Check out and enable adaptive and assistive aspects of the computers student may use when on campus. Be aware of and turn on your PC or MAC speech reproduction or screen-magnification accessories (On PC, under Accessories/Accessibility note the  Magnifier, Narrator,  and On-Screen Keyboard).

*Provide a student helper or some type of network to assist with brailing music as is done at Cal State University Stanislaus,  if a blind or visually impaired student  uses this as part of assignments or performance.

*Use Smart Music to help in part identification and learning, by extracting part  from score so a student can work individually  on his/her own part.  

*MIDI vocal or instrumental parts, emphasize specific  part either with timbre or dynamic contrast, and save. This allows the individual part to be heard in relation to the ensemble whether  vocal or instrumental.  

*Have a chorus member record the student’s part with lyrics and phrasing and convert  to mp3 or other formats  so the part can be learned outside of choral organization using iPods or mp3 players. Band members may have this done by section players to provide examples of section phrasing and an opportunity for intonation models.

*Challenge for deaf/hh inclusion. Children are examined at birth for hearing loss and may have a cochlear implant as early as age three.  We are experiencing a new generation of individuals with more opportunity for musical involvement as we provide opportunities for participation.