Music helps the person with special needs to motivate themselves to work on challenging tasks and provides them with a multi-sensory experience. For example, it is known that playing instrument helps children with ADHD or learning disabilities. However, a person with physical disabilities may not be able to access most of the musical instruments.
The United Kingdom (UK) has been very active inventing musical instruments for persons with disabilities. For example, an accessible musical instrument called ‘Clarion’ makes it possible for the disabled to play music. It is a piece of software that contains a near-infinite number of instruments. It is possible to play the Clarion with your fingers, any other part of the body, head, feet or eyes movements. It looks like Clarion can be modified to accommodate a wide variety of any Musicians’ needs. For example, Clarion can be positioned and moved anywhere on a surface allowing the prospective musician easy access. There are different colors, sizes, angles, and rotations to represent notes. Additionally it looks like notes include the variations of expressions by the speed of travel and your position within each shape.
Here is one musician with his Open Musical Instruments.
The National Open Youth Orchestra (NOYO) is made up with UK’s disabled and non-disabled musicians aged 11 to 25, which is launched in September 2018. Their first performance is planned for Spring, 2020. https://vimeo.com/thenoyo
Open Orchestras: https://www.openorchestras.org/