The project will investigate the experiences and life trajectories of amateur and professional blind and visually-impaired (BVI) adult musicians. Our objectives are to understand the acceptance or marginalisation of BVI musicians within professional, amateur and educational musical communities; their involvement with different musical styles, instruments, practices and roles; opportunities and barriers they perceive in relation to personal development and participation throughout the life-course, along with their adaptive strategies; and their learning practices, both when they were children and into adult life, including how, for example, a blind professional musician prepares for a concert. Findings from our pilot study have indicated that BVI musicians tend to feel, on one hand, excluded and discriminated against; and on the other, highly respected amongst musicians generally for their abilities. Overall, there is a pressing need to develop and share information and increase understanding. The findings will be relevant for many parts of the musical community, including employers such as orchestras, educational providers including conservatoires and schools, music therapy organisations, community music groups, and others. Our investigation will begin with a questionnaire survey extended to 700 musicians who are currently registered with the RNIB (Royal National Institute for Blind People) as being BVI musicians. The survey will explore the demographics of musical participation (e.g. age, gender, instrument choice, reasons for starting or stopping musical participation, musical idiom, training background, and so forth). A purposive sample of approximately 40 of the adult participants will then be invited to contribute detailed life history interviews. The interviewees will represent a range of genres and instrumental disciplines, with a mix of professional and amateur performers, composers and teachers. They will be of various ages and sight-loss backgrounds. The study will look at their musical pathways from childhood to adulthood, their life-course issues, their musical practices, perceived barriers, and successful adaptations to musical participation. There will be two half-day seminars held at the Institute of Education, University of London to allow respondents to network, reflect on preliminary findings and offer feedback, and feedback will also be sought throughout the fieldwork process. Our pilot interviewees highlighted the need to belong to a community of music practitioners who share a disability, since this augurs for gaining information necessary for musical development. A website will be created that is accessible both to sighted and BVI visitors. It will be search-engine optimised and linked to the RNIB site and other prominent music industry sites; and the aforementioned survey will be linked to this site. The website will assist in recruiting participants and sharing information about the reflective seminars, our main conference event and findings. There will also be a blog to which the research participants can contribute, thus assisting in building a national network of BVI musicians. These blog reflections will become part of the analysis with respondents' permission. Finally, the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) have agreed to invite the PI, CI and RNIB colleagues to present findings within the LRAM diploma and Open Academy programmes; from this platform, outreach days will be formed that engage music undergraduates in powerful, life-enhancing practical experiences with BVI adult musicians and children.