In The Round: Exploring the Cultural Model of Disability in Accessible Music Improvisation

Ciaran Frame, Steph O'Hara, Alon Ilsar, and Melinda Smith

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

This paper documents the development of In The Round, a musical improvisation using Accessible Digital Musical Instruments (ADMIs) that brings together musicians with and without disability. Key learnings from the project are discussed through a poem that formed the creative foundation of the project. The poem functions as a reflective and epistemic device, unpacking different observations about the process of creating the work that evidence how we have created a culture of accessible music-making deeply linked to accessible practice, technology and creativity. Grounded in the cultural model of disability, the paper argues that accessibility in music-making emerges through interdependent relationships between people, instruments, social techniques, and temporal structures, rather than through ADMI technology alone. In illuminating this way of working, the paper offers an alternative way of communicating knowledge and contributes insights that we hope may be useful to other practitioners and instrument designers in the field.

Citation

Ciaran Frame, Steph O'Hara, Alon Ilsar, and Melinda Smith. 2026. In The Round: Exploring the Cultural Model of Disability in Accessible Music Improvisation. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20784101 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{nime2026_24,
 abstract = {This paper documents the development of In The Round, a musical improvisation using Accessible Digital Musical Instruments (ADMIs) that brings together musicians with and without disability. Key learnings from the project are discussed through a poem that formed the creative foundation of the project. The poem functions as a reflective and epistemic device, unpacking different observations about the process of creating the work that evidence how we have created a culture of accessible music-making deeply linked to accessible practice, technology and creativity. Grounded in the cultural model of disability, the paper argues that accessibility in music-making emerges through interdependent relationships between people, instruments, social techniques, and temporal structures, rather than through ADMI technology alone. In illuminating this way of working, the paper offers an alternative way of communicating knowledge and contributes insights that we hope may be useful to other practitioners and instrument designers in the field.},
 address = {London, United Kingdom},
 articleno = {24},
 author = {Ciaran Frame and Steph O'Hara and Alon Ilsar and Melinda Smith},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.20784101},
 editor = {Benedict Gaster and João Tragtenberg and Anna Xambó and Tom Mitchell},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 note = {},
 numpages = {7},
 pages = {211--217},
 presentation-video = {https://youtu.be/rdY-kHr3rKw},
 title = {In The Round: Exploring the Cultural Model of Disability in Accessible Music Improvisation},
 track = {Paper},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2026/nime2026_24.pdf},
 year = {2026}
}