15.06.2025: Leading a session entitled ‘Diversity, Development and Policy’, UK Music Chief Executive Tom Kiehl informed an international audience made up of educators, artists, researchers and policymakers about UK Music’s work on diversity, with a particular spotlight on its work to support people in the music industry faced with barriers due to disability.

The ABLE Assembly: Arts Better the Lives of Everyone, is an annual conference organised by the Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education (BIAAE). The Assembly focuses on accessible arts education in order to share best practice and explore new research in the field. Berklee College of Music is the world’s preeminent college for the study of music.

Tom told attendees of findings from the 2024 biennial UK Music diversity survey, which revealed that 25.1% of music industry workers identify as having a disability. This figure includes those that identify as neurodivergent, as well as those that may have a physical disability.

Delving deeper into the survey findings, Tom highlighted the continued challenges in engaging employers to make adjustments to support those faced with a disability. 44% of survey respondents said employers are aware of their disability, yet only 35.9% said employers had made appropriate adjustments for health and access needs. Even more troubling, 73.3% of disabled respondents said they felt they have had to compromise their health or wellbeing to do their job, compared to 52.7% of all survey respondents.

Of those that identify as neurodivergent, 34.5% have a clinical diagnosis, with 10.8% stating they have ADHD and 5.4% autistic. Responses indicate a disproportionate number of the music industry workforce is neurodivergent, relative to the population as a whole.

Tom further explained to Assembly-goers some of the steps UK Music as the collective voice of the music industry has taken to support greater diversity in the music industry. This includes the establishing of the Diversity Taskforce in 2025, the launching of the Ten Point Plan in 2020, as well as the subsequent Five Ps music industry action plan. Centred around Purchase, Policy, People, Partnership and Progress, the Five Ps provides a framework for UK Music member organisations, as well as their members, to devise strategies to promote greater diversity, equity and inclusion amongst its workforce and within organisations generally.

More broadly, Tom also highlighted some of the policy and advocacy work that UK Music has sought to achieve in the area of diversity and disability. This included asks of the new Labour Government from UK Music’s A Manifesto for Music which include improved and faster deliver of the Access to Work scheme for disabled music industry workers, as well as mandating disability pay gap reporting.

Tom represented UK Music at the ABLE Assembly on April 11-13 as part of a UK delegation to the conference. The UK delegation was organised by Andrew Lansley (Campaign and Commercial Partnerships Consultant, Attitude is Everything) and also included Sally Currie (CEO, Drake Music), John Kelly (Musician, Drake Music), Tim Yates (Research and Innovation Executive, Drake Music), John Shortell (Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Musicians’ Union), Jay Pocknell (Sound Without Sight and Music Support Officer, RNIB) and Adrian Bossey (Head of Subject, Falmouth University and Chair of the Association for Events Management Education).

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