Sound Touch

Introduction

This course is designed for instrumental and vocal teachers who are interested in working with blind and partially sighted students. It offers a blend of practical teaching strategies alongside film-based stories, providing real-life examples drawn from the experiences of both pupils and teachers from The Amber Trust.

The course aims to empower educators with effective pedagogical methods tailored to blind and partially sighted learners, enabling them to foster confidence, independence, and musical development. The course offers practical, evidence-based strategies and aims to equip teachers with the tools needed to adapt their approach, promote effective learning, and support students through every stage of their musical journey – from first lessons to performance and beyond.

The Amber Trust

At The Amber Trust, we believe that vision impairment and other disabilities should not prevent children and young people accessing appropriate musical opportunities. We are the only national charity dedicated to supporting vision impaired children with their musical development and education, and our vision is for blind and partially sighted children, including those with additional disabilities, to have the best possible chance to meet their musical needs and aspirations and fulfil their potential.

The Amber Trust supports children with:

Music lessons
Instruments
Specialised equipment and resources
Accommodation and travel for music related activities

Amber also runs direct music services for families with a vision impaired child aged 0-5 (Little Amber) and aged 5-18 with complex needs (AmberPlus). These services aim to help families and professionals gain the confidence and resources to engage with their blind child through music.

We work with other charities to raise awareness of the value of music for these vision impaired children. We fund research into the impact of music and develop materials to help support the musical development of children. Through research, we know that music has the power to influence change in so many aspects of a child’s life: change that can last a lifetime.

Overview

There are around 29,000 children in the UK who are blind or partially sighted, and about half of those children have additional disabilities (RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool).

Many of the blind or partially sighted children living in the UK have a real flair for music and, given the right support, they can develop their talents to remarkable ends, fulfilling their potential as individuals as well as musicians.

The Amber Trust knows that vision-impaired children, including those with additional disabilities, are less likely than sighted children to receive tuition or assistance. This is often due to discrimination and to other people’s misunderstandings about disability.

Across each module in this course you will learn effective teaching strategies, watch videos of individual student/teacher stories, and answer questions testing your increasing knowledge. Topics include: