Tech column: an inclusive priority

From September 2024, the reorganised 43 Hub Lead Organisations (HLOs), announced by Arts Council England earlier this year, will get £25m to spend on new musical instruments, equipment and technology (hardware and software). One particularly important focus within this has rightly been placed on the inclusion of instruments specifically designed for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Here at UCan Play, a specialist music education sales company, we have a long-standing commitment to these instruments and sell them regularly to schools, hubs and other educational organisations. Over the past 18 months, we have been working with the Technology in Music Education UK charity (TiME) to curate a collection of these inclusive and adaptive musical instruments. We have also been sorting through the considerable difficulties in importing many of these instruments into the UK. A link to the full collection of the TiME-approved adaptive instruments can be found at the end of this article.