This article takes the theoretical and philosophical lens of critical disability studies to critically reflect on the Health and Care Professions Council Standards of Proficiency for Arts Therapists. The discipline of critical disability studies, evolving from disability studies and the disability rights movement, is initially defined before multiple paradigms of disability are introduced as central tenets of these disciplines. The relationship between critical disability studies and music therapy is explored, with reference to seminal publications and the perceptions of music therapy within them. The Health and Care Professions Council Standards of Proficiency are then taken as a source of reflection to attempt to understand the perpetuation of medicalised perspectives in the profession and the potential friction between critical disability studies and music therapy. A selection of the Standards of Proficiency are analysed according to distinct paradigms of disability. Questions are posed to interrogate and contextualise the standards in relation to critical disability studies philosophy. From this critical reflection, a discussion emerges which reflects on the reach of these professional standards and how they might contribute to a continuing, outdated expert-model of music therapy in the United Kingdom. The article concludes by drawing these threads together in a series of recommendations to educators, practitioners and the wider profession.

This article reflects upon the potential mediation of medical and social interpretations of disability through informing instrumental tuition with the strengths recognised in the learning profile of children with Down Syndrome. The learning profile is explored and critically discussed, and its reductionist, deficit-based potential identified; before considering the potential value of applying the evidence-based phenotype to musical provision. While a medical model of disability may interpret this learning profile as a list of deficiencies, this paper proposes that an informed, strength-based approach to teaching could empower students and challenge barriers to participation through suitably tailored provision, providing a relevant and constructive learning experience. This framework therefore aligns more closely with a Nordic relational model of disability that mediates the medical and social models, recognising disability as an interaction between impairment and the environment. Three case reports are presented to demonstrate and emphasise the range of personalities and individual differences between musicians with Down Syndrome, but also how this evidence-based approach can be applicable to many students, potentially contextualised within a “Universal Design for Learning” framework. A summary considers how raising awareness of constructive strategies for informed provision could develop confidence amongst practitioners, and thus in turn increase provision of relevant musical opportunities to students with additional learning needs, including Down Syndrome. In a critical conclusion, the notion of “differentiation” as perpetuating a dominant ableist discourse is considered and recommendations made with regard to furthering connections between critical social practices associated with Critical Disability Studies and music education.

In pedagogic literature informed by critical disability studies, academia is widely cited as an ableist institution: the training ground for the professions of normalcy. Music therapy could readily be complicit in this normalising discourse with its potential to pathologise participants and to maintain a strict ‘normative divide’, between professionals it trains and participants who engage with its provision. Activists, advocates and disabled therapists have posed a welcome challenge to this positioning in recent publications, but the pedagogical dimensions of music therapy training in this area have received less attention. The emerging signature pedagogy of music therapy and its omissions will be considered, which may explain the need for an increased social justice focus in music therapy curricula. This article considers the potential of applying Kumashiro’s typologies of anti-oppressive education in music therapy training: problematising existing pedagogies and critically reflecting upon the potential of a social justice informed curriculum. These approaches have the potential to reframe Otherness by acknowledging expertise in lived experience. Through introducing these frameworks for socially just, anti-oppressive pedagogies, this article invites consciousness raising in music therapy pedagogy through engagement with critical disability studies theory and philosophy.

This article reflects upon the process, the challenges and the opportunities realised in the recent revalidation activity of an undergraduate degree programme in Creative and Therapeutic Arts (CTA) in the UK. The premise of the revalidation activity and the historical context of the course are briefly encapsulated, before engaging with theoretical frameworks at the forefront of contemporary Participatory Arts practice. This includes an initial focus on the relevance of Critical Disability Studies to Participatory Arts education, followed by exploration of the contrasting approaches of Socially Engaged Art practice, Inclusive Arts practice, Participatory Arts practice, Arts in Health and Arts Therapies. The challenge of defining a diverse practice which draws from such contrasting perspectives is further explored in relation to the challenge of working on the boundary between artistic and therapeutic practice. Geographical context is considered, drawing from the Welsh evidence base to inform culturally relevant provision. Curriculum design is reviewed in relation to experiential learning and inclusive practice literature, as well as relevant higher education policies. Upon briefly summarising the revalidated curriculum, a critical discussion around the future of the training and the discipline more broadly is developed, considering the contribution of the critical review and focus groups facilitated as part of this revalidation activity. It is hoped that this discussion will further nurture and challenge educators, students and practitioners in this exciting area of evolving, contemporary practice.

This study reports on the unanticipated findings of a small-scale, evaluative research project. Further to a pilot iteration, a cohort of undergraduate art students engaged with an immersive, inclusive arts curriculum informed by critical disability studies. Students’ perceptions and attitudes about disability were recorded at the outset and conclusion of the pedagogical project, through a qualitative questionnaire. Thematic analysis was employed to surface patterns in the cohort’s responses at both points in their learning journey. While the findings evidenced the anticipated shift from individualized perspectives about disability to an increasingly social, interactional perspective, the full extent of the medicalized gaze and internalized ableism at the outset of the study was unanticipated. This realization has been influential in developing the pedagogical approach and the framing of the content taught, and has exemplified both the potential and the need to learn about disability, disablement and diversity through art education.