Hacking for good
Drake Music are leaders in music, disability & technology. They work to open up access to music and have a vision of a world where disabled and non-disabled musicians can play together as equals.
One of the challenges in achieving this vision is a lack of available instruments for disabled musicians to play. Many traditional instruments can present disabling barriers, for example if you have an impairment which affects dexterity it can be difficult to play a traditional stringed instrument.
With this thought in mind Drake Music work to create new accessible instruments using open-source affordable technology.
This DMLab work has already created and supported development of some amazing bits of kit - from the Kellycaster guitar which can be played with one finger to the MiMu gloves first developed by musician Imogen Heap.
Recently we were lucky enough to attend their hackathon at the Southbank, supported by the British Council, where they shared the work being done by makers, hackers, tinkerers and technologists on creating accessible instruments for musicians of all ages and skill levels.
It was an incredibly inspiring and infectious day and has prompted me to buy a Bare Conductive TouchBoard kit to get started with coding!
