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Claire McGlew began memorising music from about the age of six.

But this isn't a story about a child genius. It was a skill that was a necessity as Claire, who began playing the piano at five, was born with just 10 per cent vision.

She will graduate from UWA next month as a music teacher, the first blind person to do so.

"The politically correct term is ‘vision impaired' but, as my sight has deteriorated and I now have only five per cent, I'm OK with being described as blind," Claire said.

It has taken seven years for the girl from Dandaragan, assisted by her guide dog Swanee for the past five years, to successfully complete a Bachelor of Music Education.

"And I have the fantastic staff at the School of Music, the UniAccess people and the other students to thank for their wonderful support," she said.

Claire began her studies in performance as a classical singer.

"But when I went to the National Braille Music Camp when I was in second year, I got to teach some children and I realised then that I wanted to teach.  I understand that kids don't like sitting down and being quiet...because I'm the same!"

Claire can play the piano and the viola, had a go last year at the saxophone and received a bass guitar for Christmas. And of course, she can sing.

Nicholas Bannan, Associate Professor in Music Education, took on the role of Claire's teacher, supervisor and mentor, after meeting her at her audition and welcoming her into the inaugural Winthrop Singers, of which he is director.

"I had never had a student with Claire's needs before, so all of us -- Claire, me, the other Music staff and the UniAccess staff - were all working in ways that were new to us," Professor Bannan said.

"We had to work out methods of teaching that would be fair to Claire and to the other students. Sight-reading, as you imagine, was a challenge. Claire had to have her music transcribed into Braille in Melbourne and the turn-around was a few weeks."

UniAccess provided Claire with a scribe in her first years at UWA when she had to write music. Then technology took over.

"Software has developed so fast while Claire has been studying. She has had to keep on upskilling, which has been a big ask for her," he said.

"I used to use a little Braille laptop and I had an MP3 player on which I recorded my music and listened to it over and over to memorise it. Then I moved on to better technology," said Claire.  "It was hard work: some units worked, some didn't, which is one of the reasons it's taken me so long to complete my degree. And I changed from performance to education and I didn't do a full load until last year."

One of the challenges that Professor Bannan and Claire both recall vividly was choral conducting.

"You can't use your hands to read the braille music and conduct at the same time, so I had to memorise the music," Claire said.

"Usually a conductor needs some visual feedback from the singers, but of course this was not available to Claire," Professor Bannan said. "I turned it around and used the situation as a learning tool for the other students in the class to understand the importance of feedback from the choir."

Claire travelled to Beijing and around WA with the Winthrop Singers and has enormous gratitude for the choir members and for all her friends in the School of Music, for the hours they spent going over music with her and helping her as much as they could.

She is one of more than 3,800 graduands who will receive their degrees in 11 ceremonies in Winthrop Hall over the next few weeks. The autumn graduation season begins tomorrow night (18 March) and continues into early April.

The graduands include 100 who will receive a PhD or doctorate.

By Lindy Brophy