Public Funding for Kakou Technologies Limited

"Technology has cemented its place with the world of music making, with latest developments often integrated seamlessly into studio set-ups, instruments and live performances. Musicians, producers and listeners alike readily absorb advances in the sector to exploit the benefits of state of the art music making products. Mainstream products, whilst rich in functionality, are often not designed with disabled accessibility in mind, something that can render some examples unusable to many musicians. Alternatively, assistive music technologies are often limited in their scope for expressive musical performance and lack many of the features that are found in more mainstream products. In addition, they can often present extra barriers to participation as their operation and upkeep requires substantial technical know-how. The social model of disability says that disability is caused by the way society is organised, rather than by a person's impairment or difference. The social model looks at ways of removing barriers that restrict life choices for disabled people. When barriers are removed, disabled people can be independent and equal in society, with choice and control over their own lives. In 2017, a successful pilot project was run that brought together engineers and musicians to research and develop participant-led inclusive technologies for collaborative music making. This project aims to further develop those new technologies, with the aim of levelling the playing field in performance and composition for all musicians - disabled, those with degenerative disorders and the non-disabled."