In work with clients having profound learning disability, music therapists may include in sessions assistants not trained as music therapists. This study is a qualitative inquiry addressing the questions: 1) How does improvised music influence the interaction between teenagers with profound and multiple disability and learning support assistants? 2) Which aspects of the music are associated with any influences found? A survey of music therapists, exploring how assistants are used and how effectively they perform their role, found that assistants are often used as ‘interaction partners’. To explore how the therapist may facilitate client-assistant interaction, about which little is known, video clips from the writer’s clinical practice were purposively selected in order to illustrate an approach entitled Triadic Support of Interaction by Improvisation (TSII). Seven learning support assistants (LSAs) each viewed a video clip showing her own interaction with a teenager having profound disability, supported by the writer’s improvised music. Semi-structured interviews explored the LSAs’ understanding of the behaviour and inferred mental processes of the teenagers, their own behaviour and mental processes and the music improvised by the therapist to support the interaction. A variant of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis generated shared themes, which included concern for the teenagers’ autonomy, interest in their communicative behaviour and understanding of the mutuality of interaction. The therapist’s improvisation was seen by the LSAs as influencing only the teenagers. All the clips were also viewed by three music therapists, who used a mechanical continuous response device to register the influence of the therapist’s improvisation on four ‘scenarios’: the teenagers’ behaviour, their inferred mental processes, the LSAs’ behaviour and their inferred mental processes. Inter-rater agreement between the three therapists’ continuous responses was generally low, but some intra-rater correlations were found between pairs of scenarios, which the music was perceived as influencing in similar ways. This finding supports the conclusion that musical influences, although they may be analysed according to the four scenarios, actually function as a mutually inter-related system rather than as four independent processes. Each therapist selected decision points from the graphic record of her/his individual responses to discussed with the other therapists as a panel. Positive evaluations were made of the role of TSII in supporting the observed teenager-LSA interactions and the inferred underlying mental processes. This research design was exploratory, and not intended to test specific hypotheses about the mechanisms of musical influence. Tentative suggestions of associations between influences and musical features are however offered by the writer. Indications for the use of TSII are given and other applications suggested for novel aspects of the methodology developed for this study. A refinement of the continuous response task is proposed, and the requirements for any future formal evaluation of TSII are outlined.

Fokus på arbetet ligger på hållbar tillgänglighet för personer med funktionsnedsättning. Arbetet görs i samarbete med en organisation vars medlemmar är familjer där en eller flera familjemedlemmar har en funktionsnedsättning. Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka unga vuxna med funktionsnedsättning och deras användarupplevelsen av hjälpmedelsteknologier och teknologier genom hållbar tillgänglighet och genom en aktivitetsteoretisk lins. Datainsamlingen bestod av en enkät, fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer och tre research in the wild observationer, varav två inspelade och en ute på fältet. Data analyserades genom en aktivitetsteoretisk lins varefter resultatet påvisade tre större teman: • Skillnad i användarupplevelse mellan unga vuxna och föräldrar i användningen av hjälpmedelsteknologier och teknologier. • Skillnad i användarupplevelsen för unga vuxna jämfört med hur många användbarhetsproblem som uppstår vid interaktion med hjälpmedelsteknologier och teknologier. • Brister i hållbar tillgänglighet. Resultatet användes för att påvisa brister på både mikronivå; inom användarupplevelen av hjälpmedelsteknologi och teknologi, samt på en makronivå; hur samhälleligt stöd brister från skola och habilitering ända upp till tillämpning av lagar, regler och rättigheter för personer med funktionsnedsättning. Slutsatsen av resultatet är att det är sämre än vad man kunnat ana vad gäller att lagar, regler och rättigheter för personer med funktionsnedsättning inte tillämpas fullt ut i praktiken i Sverige idag. Detta medför att användargruppen inte får ta del av de möjligheter som står till buds för att bli fullvärdiga aktörer i samhället, vilket dels är ett slöseri med resurser samtidigt som det hindrar deras personliga och yrkesmässiga utveckling och potential. / Focus in this work lies in sustainable accessibility for people with psychical disabilities. This work is made in cooperation with an organization which members are families where one or more family members has a disability. The purpose of this work is to investigate young people with disabilities and their user experience of assistive technology and technology, through an activity theory lens. The data collection consisted by an inquiry, four semi structured interviews and three research in the wild observations, whereas two were recorded and one were out on the field. Data was analyzed through an activity theory lens whereas the result demonstrated three larger themes:' • The difference in user experience between young adults and parents in the use of assistive technology and technology. • The difference in user experience by young adults compared to the amount of usability problems that occurs in the interaction with assistive technology and technology. • Deficiency in sustainable accessibility. The result was used to show deficiencies at both micro level; in the user experience of assistive technology and technology, and through a macro level; how society support fails from school and rehabilitation all the way up to laws, rules and rights for people with disabilities. The final result is that it is worse than what you could possibly imagine in terms of laws, rules and rights for people with disabilities in Sweden today. This causes that this user group can’t take part of the possibilities that stands a head to be full worthy actors in society, which on one hand is a waste of resources and on the other hand stops their personal and professional development and potential.