The harmony of disability.

At first sight the word harmony does not seem to be one most people would associate with disability. Harmony has a very specific meaning in musical terms, the combination of notes to form sequences of chords which follow accepted patterns and rules. The New Oxford Companion to Music defines harmony as the element of agreement in music, as opposed to counterpoint, in which parts move against each other and thus represent the element of disagreement. In a more general sense the word harmony is used to mean the combination or adaptation of parts, elements or related things, so as to form a consistent and orderly whole. Synonymous words are peaceableness and concord (Concise Oxford English Dictionary). In this sense disability might be thought of as the antithesis of harmony the incongruity and disagreements of human impairment being positively dysharmonious. It will be my purpose in this lecture to look at ways in which we can reduce or reverse this assumption and help to restore the harmony to disability. I will be looking at the limitations which society imposes upon disabled people and seeking specific strategies to reduce this handicap. Much of my own work has been concerned with music and the arts as instruments for this purpose, but there are other aspects of what we may broadly term the rehabilitative process which I would also like to explore.