Alex Chapman

An experienced accessibility support consultant, administrator, and composer, Alex Chapman has a background in person-focused disability support in musical settings as well as having composed for ensembles including Opera North, BBC Philharmonic, and Aberdeen Jazz Festival. He has an extensive portfolio of accessibility work throughout the UK, including institutions, orchestral organisations, and youth music charities. Alex also has extensive knowledge and experience in supporting neurodivergent youth pursuing music either as a regular activity or prospective career. As a researcher, Alex specialises in neurodiversity-focused projects, aiming to improve the experience of neurodivergent musicians and audiences in the live performance industry. They often work with other researchers, particularly those who work in the neurodiversity paradigm and alongside the social disability model.

Alex regularly engages in speaking on belonging, equality, diversity, and inclusion matters to a wide variety of audiences, including panels, workplaces, and societal organisations. Additionally, he also works collaboratively with other neurodivergent musicians, educators, and researchers on various projects including neurodivergent musicians' experiences in education and the workplace, and practice-based projects on AuDHD traits and musical practice/collaboration. 

Alex’s doctoral research focuses on the exploration of neurodivergent musicians’ atypical auditory processing experiences, motivations and engagement, and reasonable adjustments in live music settings. This project is supported via a Collaborative Doctoral Award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, partnering with Drake Music Scotland. The project consists of an exploratory approach to neurodivergent musicians' auditory processing experiences as well as two case studies exploring specific positionalities of the projet. Alex is supervised by Professor Pamela Heaton, Professor Jane Ginsborg, and Peter Sparkes. In addition to this, Alex is also exploring neurodivergent audiences’ experiences of attending live music venues. Although this is also supported through the AHRC, this will not be documented in the thesis. 

Outside of their doctoral study, Alex collaborates with neurodivergent researchers, advisors, and musicians around the UK, specialising in neurodivergent musicians' experiences in education through to the working profession. This includes participtory-led projects as well as artistic methodologies to uncover aspects of neurodivergent musicians' experiences and processes to music-making. 

• Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion 
• Neurodiversity in societal and musical contexts
• Sensory processing experiences
• Environmental psychology
• Accessibility and reasonable adjustments in education, the workplace, and wider society