Disabled Individuals' Perceptions of Music Archives

Introduction

Hello! Thank you for your interest in this survey.

I am Elizabeth Pineo (she/her), and I am currently pursuing my Master's of Library and Information Science at College of Information Studies in the University of Maryland, College Park. For my Master's thesis, I am investigating disabled people's perceptions of music archives because music archives—and archives in general—are locations in which disabled people have faced great amounts of erasure and misrepresentation. Understanding disabled individuals' current perceptions of music archives and what they desire/expect from music archives is one way we can begin to address this ableist reality. This is a call for participation in an IRB-approved survey. For more detail, the full project abstract is included below.

Survey Link

Why does this project matter?

Archives are the location of our societal memories. Our future decisions are based on past experiences, making archives the locations of decisions about how we choose to remember our past and what our future will be. If materials by disabled people and their experiences are left out, disabled people cease to exist—at least, according to the historical record. That is unacceptable, and it is this omission that this project seeks to address.

Why music?

As has been the case in many areas of memory creation, disabled people have been largely left out of musical histories. But music impacts everyone's life in some way, whether it be elevator music or a deep passion for a certain genre. As a result, this focus will not exclude any potential participants. Moreover, this project will be able not just to combat erasure and misrepresentation of disabled people in the archival record, but it will also be able to illuminate the gaps in our musical histories where disabled people and their stories belong.

Who qualifies?

People who:

• identify as disabled,

• have a connection to music,

• and are over the age of eighteen.

It's not required but is a bonus if:

• you've used an archive before!

Survey Procedures

The survey will explore your experiences as a disabled music archive user. It will last approximately fifteen to thirty minutes. Questions will be a combination of multiple choice and open response. Depending on your responses to each question, you might be shown more multiple choice questions or more open-ended questions. Please answer all questions to the best of your ability. No demographic information will be collected, but you will be asked to disclose your disability status, if applicable. If you choose to stop the survey before hitting the final submission button, your responses will be discarded. For more information on privacy, participant rights, and procedures, see the full consent form.

Survey Link

Closing

Thank you for your time and contribution. With any questions, concerns, or other inquiries, I can be reached by email at epineo [at] umd [dot] edu. If you know of anyone else who might be interested in participating in this survey, please feel free to share this page with them. If you would be interested in participating in any follow-up studies that might occur, please fill out the Follow-Up Interest Form.

Abstract

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 4 people is disabled, making disabled people one of the largest minority groups in the world [1]. Yet disabled people are rarely, if ever, referred to in diversity discussions. In an archival collections context, this erasure takes the form of what Michelle Caswell terms symbolic annihilation [2]. I aim to determine the impact(s) of symbolic annihilation on disabled people with a specific focus on disabled musicians' perceptions of music archives. Using this knowledge, I will provide tangible suggestions for archival best practices that increase disabled people's representational belonging [3]. I will employ a mixed methods approach that includes a survey, literature reviews, meta-analysis (where and if relevant), and archival research. Issues of language use, descriptive terminology/ies, and representations of disabled musical figures will also be explored.

This project will have tangible impacts on representation of disabled people in an archival setting. When archival representations reflect the language used by the communities being described, the records from which we have chosen to build our history reflect our valuation of those communities. By altering the ways in which we remember people of the past, we can alter the ways in which we interact with people of the present. Thus, my findings will support ongoing efforts to increase societal awareness, understanding, and acceptance of disabled people with the aim of helping to decrease the prevalence of ableism in our broader society.