Blind Musicians Collection Listening Station

Do you know a blind or low-vision artist who has recorded music? We would love to preserve their legacy, alongside other greats like Stevie Wonder, Andrea Bocelli, W. C. Handy, and many others featured in our Blind Musicians Collection at the APH Library.  

The APH Library recently received a grant from the H.W. Wilson Foundation to revamp and make the Blind Musician Collection’s listening station accessible. The new listening station will include a record player, CD player, and APH Joy Player. APH Librarians are using the grant to expand the collection and locate new artists not yet represented. Are you or do you know of a blind or low-vision musician who has recorded music? Tell us about them via our Blind Musicians Collection Suggestion Form! 

Music has always been an accessible art form that allowed blind and low vision individuals throughout history the ability to be independent.  Historically, music has played an important role in the lives of those who are blind or low vision. Many schools for the blind had music programs which taught children instruments like piano, wind instruments, voice, and other instruments with the understanding that music was a way for their students to earn an income. With the emergence of music recording, many blind musicians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries grew to fame through the distribution of their popular songs and albums. It is this important cultural connection between blindness and music that the idea for preserving the legacy of blind musicians was started at the APH Library.   

The Blind Musicians Collection was started in 2015 with a grant from the H.W. Wilson Foundation, after an APH Librarian was inspired by a concert Michael Cleveland, the famous blind fiddler, performed at Kentucky School for the Blind. The collection is the only known collection dedicated to preserving works of music by blind and low-vision musicians regardless of genre, period, or notoriety.  The collection includes 130 artists,350 albums, and a listening station. Artists in the collection range from those who only have a few recordings, like Blind Willie Johnson, to others that are considered international superstars, like Ray Charles, George Shearing, and Nobuyuk Tsujii.  

The APH Library recently received another grant from the H.W. Wilson Foundation to revamp and make the Blind Musician Collection’s listening station accessible. The new listening station will include a record player, CD player, and APH Joy Player. Accessible features for the listening station will include selecting user friendly devices that are easily modified with braille and large print high contrast labels, extensive accessibility testing, and the creation of accessible guides that allow users to interact independently with the station. The listening station will not be open to visitors until after construction on the APH building is complete. In the meantime, you are welcome to engage with the collection via our public Spotify Playlist, the APH Blind Musicians Playlist.  

In addition to the new listening station, APH Librarians are using the grant to expand the collection and locate new artists not yet represented. Are you a blind or low-vision musician or do you know of  one who has recorded music? Tell us about them via our Blind Musicians Collection Suggestion Form! We would love to preserve their legacy, alongside other greats like Stevie Wonder, Andrea Bocelli, W. C. Handy, and many others featured in our Blind Musicians Collection at the APH Library. 

The only requirement to be included in the collection is that we have a way to access music via CDs or downloadable content from the musician’s website or a website like Bandcamp or Soundcloud. If the musician also has material hosted on Spotify, we will add them to our APH Blind Musicians Playlist!  

Do you have questions or are you interested in learning more about the collection? Reach out to the APH Library through our email, resource@aph.org!