Access/VSA Playwright Discovery Program

Tips for 2025 Applications

Young writers with disabilities (generally, ages 14-22) enrolled in high school or high school equivalency are invited to submit a 'ten-minute script' on any topic. Entries may be the work of an individual student or a collaboration of two students that includes at least one student with a disability. A panel of theater professionals selects division winners.

Applications for the 2025 season are due by Wednesday, January 8, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Apply now!

2025 LEAD Conference Tips for Session Proposals

About the Call for Proposals

The Kennedy Center's Office of Accessibility is seeking proposals for the 2025 LEAD® Conference that approach accessibility from a human and civil rights perspective; provide practical information addressing current trends and opportunities in this field; actively engage participants through discussion and/or hands-on activities; explore accessibility for a variety of cultural arts organizations, including performing arts centers, museums, theaters, state arts agencies, parks, zoos, and arenas; and are designed for new, mid-career, and/or seasoned professionals.

Deadline: Proposals must be submitted by December 2, 2024, at 11:59 PM Eastern. Apply now!

Access/VSA International Young Musicians

Tips for 2025 Applications

Each year outstanding young musicians with disabilities from around the world receive the Access/VSA International Young Musicians Award, $2,000, and the opportunity to perform and participate in professional development and music coaching activities provided by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. This program is open to soloists and ensembles of any instrument or genre.

All genres of music are accepted, including but not limited to classical, jazz, hip-hop, rap, rock/alt rock, pop, indie, bluegrass, folk, country, R&B/blues, Latin, and world. All instruments, including voice, are accepted.

Tips for Writing a VSA Program Site Proposal 2024-2025

The Office of Accessibility and VSA seeks arts, education, and cultural organizations to provide accessible, arts-based education experiences to students with disabilities, pre-kindergarten through grade 12. Organizations are invited to submit proposals to implement VSA Programs. Read more about the proposal process.

Why Caption?

McKenzie Wren, MPH,  Wren Consulting

The link to the recording of the webinar "Engaging with The Tiny Survival Guide" can be found under Webinar Recordings.

"Adult providers need healing too! Healing centered engagement requires that we consider how to support adult providers in sustaining their own healing and well-being. We cannot presume that adulthood is a final, trauma-free destination. Healing is an ongoing process that we all need, not just young people who experience trauma.” - Shawn Ginwright, The Future of Healing: Shifting from Trauma-Informed Care to Healing-Centered Engagement

Dr. Julia Heath Reynolds is part of the music faculty at Belmont University.  The link to the recording of Dr. Heath Reynolds' webinar “Inclusivity with Intention" can be found under Webinar Recordings.

Rehabilitation Act - Section 504

★ Rights
• Attend 504 Plan team meeting
• Receive a copy of the 504 Plan
• If you disagree with the 504 Plan:
          - Express view at a meeting & suggest alternatives
          - Refuse to sign the plan
          - Contact your union rep if you believe the plan alters your terms and conditions of employment

The link to the recording of Joahna Tupas' webinar “Encouraging Self-Awareness and Self-Confidence in Special Education Classrooms Through the Arts” can be found under Webinar Recordings.

Big Ideas

• When we want to impart a complex subject matter to our students, it is best to relay it to them through their language, which is through play, art, song, dance, and other activities. This will engage their five senses, and therefore exercise muscle memory, which allows their unique being to process and embody the subject matter naturally and with intention.
• Harnessing self-awareness within students is essential to their growth, and thus, promotes their ability to assimilate random concepts that come through their five senses at every moment. In lieu, we have to approach students with an understanding of what they are feeling, thinking, and doing in relation to their actual environment in real time;
• By being self-aware, students will have a firmer grasp of behaving appropriately in a social setting, from the values that have been inspired within them by their educators at home and at school. In this way, they will be able to learn to self-regulate and navigate their way in the world outside of their own harmoniously;
• Supporting their unique personality comes with helping students manage their unique behaviors by giving them options, enquiring about their feelings, needs, desires, and next course of actions, and by giving them boundaries that would allow them to exercise their will and freedom to be creative and independent in their thought, words, and actions;
• Ultimately, our students should arouse the confidence they need in order to face life’s circumstances through the consistent support and education that we consciously and intentionally cultivate within them.

• Use appropriate, culturally acceptable terminology.
  • Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH).
  • Do not use Hearing impaired, disabled, handicapped, or disorder to describe a DHH student or deafness.
    
    
• Keep in mind that Deafness and Deaf Culture is a spectrum.
• Not all DHH students are the same.
• Each should be treated individually.

• Engage with your DHH student to find out what they prefer as far as identity markers, their sign name, attention getting strategies, and how they prefer to work with you.

• Always subscribe to the cultural perspective of Deafness, not the pathological perspective. 
  • Deaf people are linguistically and culturally rich. They CAN do anything except hear.
  • They do not need to be fixed.

• Ensure all classroom content is accessible. Do not rely on the ASL interpreter to make everything accessible.
  
  
• Learn ASL!

• Remember, Deaf students need teachers, not helpers. So, teach them and hold them to the same standards as you would any hearing student, just be sure to provide accommodations.

Resources for you
ASL Connect: https://www.gallaudet.edu/asl-connect/
The ASL App: https://theaslapp.com
ASL University: https://www.lifeprint.com
Resource List: https://asl.mit.edu/online-resources-asl
VL2 Storybook: https://vl2storybookapps.com/research
ASL Nook: https://aslnook.com

Dr. Brian Cheslik is a professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and it the administrator of the American Sign Language interpreting bachelor's degree. The link to the recording of Dr. Cheslik's webinar “Deaf Culture & Etiquette for Hearing Professionals in the Classroom” can be found under Webinar Recordings.

Social Security Resources

Work Incentives Planning & Assistance (WIPA): Programs to provide free benefits counseling to people who receive SSI and/or SSDI beneficiaries to help you make informed choices about work. WIPAs provide information and referral services related to work incentives. Find your local WIPA at https://choosework.ssa.gov/findhelp/

In their webinar, Andre Avila and Robin McCall of ComMotion - Community in Motion explain how to combine the power of technology, unique partnerships, and multidisciplinary arts to bring authentic voices of Latin America into your classroom through adaptive and inclusive movement programs. Students learn about the world while also exploring social and emotional learning competencies, including self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship skills.

1. The physical and emotional benefits of dance are enjoyed by neurotypical and atypical students alike. Physically, as we strengthen our bodies and voices, we become more expressive and resilient overall. Emotionally, dancing helps us relax, refresh, and feel connected to our community.

2. To help students practice spontaneity and leadership skills, invite them to add their ideas to a dance. Start with a follow-the-leader approach and then ask for volunteers to contribute new movements. For example, demonstrate three circular movements and then ask, “What other circles can we make with our body?” Their answers form the building blocks of the dance.

Trauma and its effects on learning have significant impacts on the K-12 arts classroom, and these are often be compounded for students with disabilities.  In their webinar "Addressing Student Trauma through Mindful Art Practices: Lessons from New Orleans," J. Celeste Kee and Renee Benson explore how mindful engagement in art making can allow students to release their trauma.  Below are some of the practical tips shared in the webinar.

Big Ideas

Special Education Lawyer, Lawrence Lee Wentz, Esq., provides useful tips on ways to advocate for students with disabilities in public schools.  The tips are based on his VSA Webinar, "An Overview of Special Education Rights in Public Schools" in which Wentz discussed current US federal laws that protect students' rights in the public school system, as well as how to effectively navigate legal nuances associated with those laws, and ways the legal landscape has changed as a result of COVID-19. 

• Parents can request that the school district pay for an evaluation by a qualified third-party.
• The school district must either pay for the evaluation or file for a due process hearing to prove that its evaluation was appropriate.

• IEPs (individual education programs) must also contain a statement about the student's placement and where the student will be educated, i.e., least restrictive environment.
• The legal obligation is for inclusion wherever "appropriate" (i.e., mainstreaming)
• A large body of research shows this is more effective for students with disabilities and the students without disabilities.

• Parents or school districts can request a hearing, a "due process" hearing, regarding the provision of a FAPE (free appropriate public education), a students placements, or other matters affecting the student's education.  Less formal than a judicial hearing, but not completely informal.
• Parents can hire an attorney.

• Persistence, persistence, persistence.
• Believe what you see.
• Insist on new services and/or goals and/or progress monitoring (request an IEP meeting).
• Request an independent evaluation
• Be cooperative.
• Use written communications (and save documents).
• Hire a professional advocate.
• Hire an attorney.

Phamaly Theater  is a disability affirmative theater company in Denver, Colorado that exclusively casts actors with disabilities of all kinds.  Phamaly is an artistic home for artists with disabilities as well as a leader in the field of accessible and inclusive practices in the arts.

Educational touring productions have been an important part of Phamaly’s programming for more than a decade.  In its 30-year history Phamaly has primarily re-envisioned shows that may include disability as part of the human experience, but are not necessarily about disability.  The original play Morph Masters, however, is about disability as a creative asset in people’s lives. The inspiration for Morph Masters came during a talk-back for Phamaly’s touring production of James and the Giant Peach. 

Michelle Miles may have just graduated from college in May, but her career in the arts is already off to a bright start. Miles was recognized with the Grand Prize for the 2019-2020 VSA Emerging Young Artists Program. Her work hand model will be featured in the exhibition Connected, which will tour the United States over the coming year. Here, Miles offers insight into her artistic practice, her experience with the Emerging Young Artists Program, and what emerging artists with disabilities can do to support one another.

According to recent statistics from the US Census, there are currently over 20 million veterans and active duty service members in the United States. Although arts play an important role in healing, the veteran community is often overlooked in programming. New Mexico Arts (NMA), a state arts agency, and Art Spark Texas, a nonprofit focused on inclusive arts, are two organizations emphasizing and creating programming for veterans and military families. 

Discovering the Gap

“In 2009, we realized there were a lot of veterans in our community and people who we were going to war and coming back, but not identifying as people with disabilities, which is the population we work with,” says Art Spark’s ArtWorks Director, April Sullivan. “The terminology didn’t relate to them.” 

Laurie Baskin is the Director of Research, Policy & Collective Action at Theatre Communications Group (TCG), a national organization that supports and promotes nonprofit theatre through networking, knowledge building, and leadership. In 2012, TCG partnered with Blue Star Families to launch Blue Star Theatres, an initiative intended to build stronger connections between the theatre community and military families through accessible admissions. Blue Star Families has also partnered with other organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts for the Blue Star Museums initiative, to increase cultural access across the sector.  In our Q&A, Baskin shares about the partnership and the difficulties and successes of the program. 

Q: How did the partnership between TCG and Blue Star Families begin?
A: Through a contact at Signature Theatre in Virginia, our executive director was introduced to somebody at the Pentagon. They had a conversation about active duty and veteran programming, and the connection was made to Blue Star Families, an organization dedicated to supporting active-duty military families.