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One of many problems faced by anyone with a disability and wishing to carve a career in the music business is the acute lack of role models.

Whether this situation is due to some inherent prejudice in the music industry is impossible to discern, but it's something the Sound Access programme, housed in the bright and airy suntrap that is Clarence House in Dún Laoghaire, is endeavouring to rectify with a decidedly practical philosophy.

Michael Deegan and Eoin Fitzpatrick, both active participants on the Sound Access programme, see the course as one positive initiative towards breaking down the traditional barriers, whatever their cause.

As Deegan, a partial paraplegic, puts it: "There's a danger that anyone with a disability can be marginalised in any business, but in such a competitive industry as music the problem can be magnified." His colleague on the course, Fitzpatrick, who suffers from a mild form of schizophrenia, agrees, adding that more role models with disabilities enjoying successful careers in the business would reduce the stigma. "It would help stop people making allowances and help them to treat people with disabilities the same as they treat everybody else", he argues.

The Sound Access programme was set up in 1996 to enable students with disabilities to have training and education that would assist those who want a career in music. "We have thirteen students with different types of disabilities on the course and we have a policy of taking on those who seem most committed to a career of some kind in the music business", project co-ordinator Finola McTernan explains.

To this end Clarence House is kitted out with an impressive array of facilities, including 4-track digital recording, computer editing and a variety of instruments, including keyboards, drums and guitars.

A key feature of the Sound Access programme is Sound Link, a 16-month course accredited by the National Council For Vocational Awards. Through Sound Link the students have access to a wide range of experienced industry professionals who are invited in to talk to the students, including Ronan Guilfoyle, Fintan Vallely, Christy Dignam, Pete Holidai and Tony Clayton-Lea.

The Sound Link course also includes modules covering the industry itself, music performance, sound engineering, radio and sound, communications, event production, social studies and work experience.

One substantial part of the course work has been the production, engineering, mastering, manufacturing, launch and promotion of a CD with tracks by Trist, Morph, Daíthí Rua and Fader which will be released on 20th May at the Temple Bar Music Centre.

As McTernan explains, "We set out to let the students take responsibility for as much of the process as possible, from selecting the artists and the tracks right through to the finished product and right on to its launch and promotion. After much deliberation they picked four unsigned bands, and with some invaluable help from Pete Holidai it's been an extremely stimulating activity right across the board. All we need now to put the icing on the cake is some sponsorship!"

Sound Access also plan a shorter two-month course in the Autumn which will offer students with a disability the chance to explore their talents and interests through a range of lectures and workshops which again concentrate on a wide variety of musical styles and genres.

"We'll also include a basic introduction to sound engineering and MIDI techniques as well as workshops for singers and songwriters," says McTernan, "so it will appeal to both those who want to be performers and those who want to work behind the scenes, as it were."

For further details of the Sound Access programme contact Finola McTernan or Jody Ackland by phone or fax at 01-2301303 or e-mail to [email protected]