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

 

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.

 
The power of music to significantly impact the lives of children and communities is widely acknowledged.  But how can we best harness that power in a way that reaches young people of all backgrounds, circumstances and abilities? And, how can we create a world where all people are viewed equally-where diversity is the point of celebration? As artists, can we build projects that enable all young people’s ideas to be valued? And, how can we grow the capacity to deliver innovative creative projects through unique partnership models?
 
 
It is these such questions that inspired the vision for the Music for All Project-a pioneering music-education program in South Australia that saw over fifty students with multiple intellectual and physical disabilities collaborate across a weeklong creative music program. The bold design of the project sought to demonstrate the deep potential of a contemporary and inclusive model for music education that positioned students of all abilities at the centre of the creative process, mentored and guided by world-class teaching artists and emerging musicians.
 
 
Under the direction of award-winning composer and educationalist, Paul Rissmann (UK), and London-based violinist, Belinda McFarlane, students from three Adelaide special schools came together to take part in a series of collective composition workshops, supported by early-career musicians from the Australian Youth Orchestra. Inspired by the heart-warming Australian picture book Fancy Pants, by Kelly Hibbert and Amanda Graham, the five-day program of music-making and creativity was designed to empower and engage students of all abilities and experience.
 
The challenge for the artistic team to successfully incorporate the ideas of so many students with such highly diverse individual needs required extensive creative thinking, flexibility and commitment. The extraordinary outcomes achieved exceeded all expectations and were a true testament to the deep-level of collaboration and ambition demonstrated by all staff and artists involved in the project. A key indicator of the level of success of the project was the way in which each child personally felt acknowledged, celebrated and valued across the entire creative process.
   
 On stage, in a sold-out public performance, the students sang, hand signed, danced, played instruments, and narrated, as they performed side-by-side on stage with the AYO Momentum Ensemble and international artists. The concert integrated the musical contributions of all student groups, interwoven with enchanting musical excerpts and songs composed by Paul Rissmann. The event was a joyous and deeply moving celebration of the power of music and community to bring people together.
 
 
Beyond the artistic achievements of the project, most significant of the successes was the deep level of connection that developed between students, artists, community members and school staff. There is no doubt that the immense impact that the Music for All Project has had on both the school community and the individuals involved will be felt for a lifetime.
   
Emily Gann
Project Leader
Connecting the Dots in Music
 
This project was made possible by a team of highly committed partners.  Project footage available at www.musicforallproject.com. 
 
Creative Directors: Paul Rissmann (composer), Belinda McFarlane (violinist)
Project Leader: Emily Gann
Music teachers: Lucy Standish, Lily Lorraine, Mala Byam
Delivery Partners: City of Marion, Connecting the Dots in Music, Kilparrin Teaching and Assessment School and Services, Australian Youth Orchestra, Raising Literacy Australia,
Partner Schools: Kilparrin, SA School for Vision Impaired, Suneden Specialist School

Gaelynn Lea leapt onto the national music scene when she won NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2016. Since then, the singer, violinist, songwriter, and public speaker has been touring full-time, sharing her unique mix of haunting original songs and traditional fiddle music with audiences all over the United States and around the world. Here, she talks about her musical background, the memoir she is writing, and why she feels strongly about making music venues accessible for performers and audiences.

VSA & Accessibility: Where are you currently based?
Gaelynn Lea: Duluth, Minnesota

VSA & Accessibility: What is your area(s) of artistic practice?
Gaelynn Lea: Music, writing, and public speaking

VSA & Accessibility: What training or experiences have shaped you as an artist?
Gaelynn Lea: I began learning the violin 25 years ago after a creative music teacher helped me to adapt a playing style that suits my frame. I hold my instrument upright in my electric wheelchair like a tiny cello and I hold my bow like a bass player. I played classically all the way through high school, thanks to some excellent orchestra conductors and private lesson teachers. During college, I got very involved in Celtic and Old Time fiddling, which is pretty much all I played for the next several years. It was at this point that my friend Andy Gabel asked me to form a folk duo with him in 2006. This ignited a love for improvisation that only expanded when my friend and mentor Alan Sparhawk introduced me to the looping pedal in 2011. A looping pedal is a piece of gear I control onstage that records what I am playing live and loops it back. I can create multi-layered compositions in real time on stage and this is hugely liberating to a classically trained musician. Exposure to the looping pedal also sparked songwriting for me, somewhat spontaneously, in 2012. So along the way I have been writing my own version of folk songs that explore the contrasting realities of life: birth and death, grief and joy, anger and forgiveness. In 2016, I entered and won NPR Music's Tiny Desk Contest by submitting my original song, "Someday We'll Linger in the Sun" and that gave me a lot of national exposure. This launched my current musical career. In the past three years, my husband and I have been touring full-time; since the Tiny Desk Contest, I have played over 600 shows in 43 states and 8 countries. I also love to do speaking engagements about disability rights, finding inner freedom, and accessibility in the arts.

VSA & Accessibility: What current projects you would like to share with VSA members?
Gaelynn Lea: I released a new single and music video this fall, called The Long Way Around. Also, I am currently working on a memoir about my touring adventures and disability advocacy that I plan to release in 2022.

VSA & Accessibility: Who or what is currently inspiring you in your artistic pursuits?
Gaelynn Lea: Musically, I am currently inspired by instrumental pieces and the way they can create a mood and even visual images in the mind's eye so effectively. I am hoping to work on some instrumental music in the next year or so. But what I am most excited about is working on this memoir. I am incredibly inspired by the idea of disability as diversity, of changing the narrative around disability so that it is more authentic and empowered in mainstream culture. I want my book to be a small part of this wider shift.

VSA & Accessibility: How does disability influence your work?
Gaelynn Lea: I think everyone's life experience shapes the music they write. So having brittle bones means that one minute life can be going along swimmingly and the next minute you break a bone and are pretty much laid up for six weeks. This teaches you about impermanence and even your own mortality at a pretty young age, and I know it's colored my songwriting. A couple songs are more directly about disability, like "Bird Song" and "I Wait," but usually I write about broader concepts like love, sorrow, or being in the present moment.

Although disability is a huge part of who I am and it has certainly shaped me as a person, I also carry other identities and interests. So music for me is not wholly linked to my disability—it's a passion for me that helps me feel connected to my higher self. Performing gives me a kind of energy and grounds me in a way nothing else does. Writing music, too, comes from a place that almost seems super-conscious. Connecting to your creative spirit transcends the physical body, so in that way music lives apart from my disability.

However, because I have a physical disability and use an electric wheelchair, I do unfortunately face additional challenges when it comes to performing and touring as a full-time, professional musician. Often venues are not accessible to me or to the paying customers with disabilities, which limits the places I can perform and thus earn my keep.

I used to be more flexible about accessibility and I would do shows at venues where I had to be lifted onstage and such. But about a year ago I finally took a stand and said I would only play at spaces with accessible entrances, bathrooms, and that I wouldn't have my chair lifted on stage. So either the venue has to have a ramp to the stage or I will play on the floor. I think lifting my chair sends a negative message—that there's not truly equal access for disabled artists.

Another way I have noticed my artistic career and disability intersect is in the realm of representation. Disabled voices are rare to nonexistent in mainstream culture and thus venues and festivals often do not think to seek out disabled artists for their regular programming, even if they are otherwise committed to diverse representation onstage. I believe it is so important that we include disability in our thinking of diversity. Rather than pity or fear it, we should celebrate it in our culture. Although much of the disability community already embraces this concept of Disability Pride, much of mainstream society continues to cling to outdated modes of thinking about physical, mental, and behavioral difference. The arts is a great place to move society forward in this way, by connecting with people’s emotions, dreams, and appreciation of beauty to change hearts and minds. That's a major reason I want to write this memoir, to increase representation and challenged outdated concepts about disabilities!

VSA & Accessibility: What advice would you share with emerging artists with disabilities?
Gaelynn Lea: Not everyone will be famous. Actually, a better way to put that is: almost nobody will be famous. But truly, that’s not the point of music. Music is a healing medium that can touch the lives of almost anyone…and that is the point. All the stuff you worry about (Who is my fan base? What if I am not cool enough? What if no one comes to my shows?) dissolves instantly when you realize that music is simply a gift that we did not create and that is much, much bigger and more valuable than any label or measure of success. Performance and “fame” are just tiny, tiny pieces of the wonderful body that is music.

But obviously lots of people do love to perform and want to do it for a living. It can be frustrating when you feel like your career is moving at a glacial pace. Here I have always tried to remember that all I can do is work hard and then whatever happens, happens. My motto regarding my career in music is, “Act like it depends on me, but pray like it depends on God.”

Action is key; going through the motions is truly half the battle. If you want to be a musician, play as much as you can—open mics, bars, dinner gigs. All experience is good for honing your craft and getting your name out there. Because as cliché as it sounds, you have to start somewhere. Fate will not be able to find you if you are hiding away in your room; it will seek you out in the field as you fight for what you love.

Specifically for disabled artists, I would say never underestimate the impact you'll have by making all your shows accessible. Yes, it will limit where you can play temporarily, but if each of us makes accessibility non-negotiable, it will speed up the much-needed change we seek. You matter. You deserve equal rights. You’re not mean or difficult or picky just because you want to play at spaces that are accessible to you and other disabled music lovers—you’re just asking for the same rights others enjoy. Remember that if you fight for your rights today, you can make the world a little more accessible for the next generation of disabled musicians.

 

Learn more about Gaelynn Lea on her website: https://violinscratches.com/. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @GaelynnLea, and on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/gaelynnlea.

The British Paraorchestra calls itself the world’s only large-scale ensemble for professional musicians with disabilities. By creating a visible platform for talented musicians with disabilities, the Paraorchestra aims to reinvent the orchestra for the 21^st century. Jonathan Harper, CEO and Executive Producer at the Paraorchestra, shared some insight into the organization’s goals, creative process, and future plans.

VSA & Accessibility: Tell us about the Paraorchestra.

Since 1984, the VSA International Young Soloists Competition has recognized talented, emerging musicians living with disabilities from all over the world. Five young artists have been named winners of the 2019 award, each receiving $2,000 and the opportunity travel to Washington, DC for pre-professional development activities culminating in a performance on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. The winners of the 2019 award are: soprano Tori Adams of Minneapolis, Minnesota; saxophonist Avery Dixon of Riverdale, Georgia; pianist Kasyfi Kalyasyena of Jakarta, Indonesia; pianist José André Montaño of Washington, DC; and singer/songwriter Maya Wagner of Hillsborough, New Jersey.

Based in Minneapolis, soprano Tori Tedeschi Adams, age 22, is in her fifth year at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Her most recent performances include Miles in Turn of the Screw and Constance in Dialogues de Carmélites with Oberlin Opera Theater and Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel with LAH-SOW Minneapolis Opera Workshop. In past summers, Adams has been a Young Artist at Songfest and the Oberlin in Italy program where she sang Bianca in La Rondine. Other notable performances include the title role in Griffelkin by Lucas Foss with Project Opera and roles with the Minnesota Opera in the world premiere productions of The Shining, Doubt, and The Giver. She is pursuing her singing career while living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that causes hypermobility, chronic pain, among other symptoms.

Many people know Blessing Offor from his impressive appearances on the television shows The Voice and Platinum Hit. But before television audiences fell in love with him, Offor was a 2010 VSA International Young Soloists Award winner for his piano and vocal skills. Today, the Nashville-based musician is still writing and performing his infectious original songs, and urges other emerging artists with disabilities to decide to be the best at their artistic practice with “no qualifiers.”

What is your area(s) of artistic practice?
Music: songwriting, singing, multi-instrumentalist

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for curriculum development that provides many different points of access for each student.  In recognition that each learner is as unique as their fingerprint, UDL aligned pedagogy offers multiple ways for students to receive information, express what they know and engage with the content in ways they find interesting and motivating.

In this article, three experienced arts practitioners share some of the UDL aligned strategies and accommodations they employ:  Teaching Artist and Music Therapist Deb Neuman; Accessibility Coordinator, Director and Drama Teaching Artist Fran Sillau; and Middle School Visual Art Teacher Samantha Varian.