What Can a Musical Genius Teach Us About Accessibility?

I was listening to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony last Sunday. And as I enjoyed the beautiful melodies, I remembered a radio documentary I heard several years ago about this man of music.

A huge part of that documentary focused on how Beethoven was still able to compose music at a time when he was completely deaf. And you know what? Beethoven’s techniques were not only interesting, but they also present something important we can all learn.

How Did Beethoven Make Music While He Was Deaf?

Beethoven composed a number of symphonies when he could still hear. But over the years he began to lose his hearing, and this must have been a huge blow to someone who depended on this essential ability.

According to the documentary, Beethoven devised a technique involving his piano. He allegedly cut off all the legs of his piano, so that the piano’s body would sit on the wooden floor of his room. He then sat on the wooden floor and played the piano in this position.

This enabled him to feel the music he was playing instead of hearing it. He most likely interpreted low notes as those that made the most vibration on the wooden floor and high notes as those that made the least vibration. And through this, Beethoven wrote some of his most renowned musical works.

How This Applies to Our Time

I believe that Beethoven’s technique is one of the earliest demonstrations of adaptive strategies made to compensate for a disability. In a regular setting, Beethoven couldn’t hear what he was playing. However, he worked out a way to overcome this disability and use his other remaining senses to accomplish what he wanted to do.

Let’s jump back two hundred years later in our time. Of course not all of us can have the same musical talent Beethoven had. But we absolutely can take his way of thinking in order to eliminate the barriers we may encounter in our lives. More importantly, we can apply this mindset to help improve the lives of other people.

In fact it’s a lot easier to do this now. If we have a product, service, or web site, we can take a few minutes to check if it can be accessed and used by different types of users.

For instance, blind persons may not be able to see the relevant pictures in your web site. People who are deaf may not hear the audio signals you have in your product. But if you take the time to put yourself in their position, you would find that similar to non-disabled people, persons with disabilities also need equal access to information, products, and services.

Making your products and services accessible may take much effort in your part. But similar to Beethoven’s music, they can inspire and eventually change the lives of so many individuals. We ourselves can even benefit from the improvements we would make, as proven by one of our previous posts.

And mind you, you don’t even have to cut off the legs of a piano, or the legs of any poor piece of furniture for that matter. Like Beethoven, all you need is genuine love for what you do, and the drive to touch the lives of others.