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ABLE Voices Ep 95: Dr. Deborah “Deb” Amend
4 Plays2 days ago
We are inviting artists with disabilities to be guest hosts for the Able Voices podcast. Today, our guest host is Tony Memmel.
Tony Memmel is a singer, songwriter, speaker, and teacher with unique charisma and creativity. Though he was born with one hand, he taught himself to play the guitar professionally by building a special cast that he designed out of guerrilla tape. He has toured toured 47 of the 50 states, 25 countries, and has worked with 16 countries, virtually sharing his music and his message of hard work, determination, and resilience. His work ranges from visiting schools, hospitals, and churches, to writing and arranging music for children, composing symphonies, performing in historic concert venues, and helping people with hand and limb differences, like his, to develop their adaptive methods that allow them to make music part of their lives. Today, Tony will be speaking to Rion Page.
Dr. Deborah “Deb” Amend is an assistant professor of special education at Northern Kentucky University, a pianist, and a passionate advocate for adaptive music education. Inspired by raising three daughters who learned instruments through creative adaptations, she co-founded the Cincinnati Adaptive Music Camp with violinist Jennifer Petry nearly 15 years ago. What began as a small initiative has grown into the Cincinnati Adaptive Music and Arts Camp, offering inclusive programs in music and visual arts, supported by custom adaptive instruments and tools. Dr. Amend’s work focuses on developing practical teaching methods and training educators to create more inclusive, disability-informed environments, with the goal of helping all students access and participate fully in the arts.
Follow Tony on Social Media:
Website: https://www.tonymemmel.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonymemmel/
Learn more about the Cincinnati Adaptive Music Camp:
https://theadaptiveartsandmusicproject.org/caamc-2026/
The ABLE Voices podcast is produced and edited by BIAAE Operations Coordinator, Daniel Martinez del Campo. The introduction music was written by Kai Levin and the ending song was written by Sebastian Batista. Kai and Sebastian are students in the Arts Education Programs at the Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education.
For more information about our programs visit us at https://college.berklee.edu/BIAAE
Follow us for more weekly updates at:
Instagram: @BIAAE
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BIAAE
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Transcript
Introduction to Able Voices Podcast
00:00:13
Speaker
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Able Voices Podcast. I'm Dr. Rhoda Bernard, founding managing director of the Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education and the assistant chair of the Music Education Department at Berklee College of Music.
00:00:27
Speaker
and I am proud to present this podcast featuring disabled artists and arts educators. We are inviting artists with disabilities to be guest hosts for the Able Voices podcast.
Tony Memel's Musical Journey
00:00:37
Speaker
Today, you'll meet our next guest host, Tony Memel.
00:00:41
Speaker
Tony Memel is a singer, songwriter, speaker, and teacher with unique charisma and creativity. Though he was born with one hand, he taught himself to play the guitar professionally by building a special cast that he designed out of guerrilla tape.
00:00:59
Speaker
He has toured 47 of the 50 states, 25 countries, and has worked with 16 countries virtually sharing his music and his message of hard work, determination, and resilience.
00:01:13
Speaker
His work ranges from visiting schools, hospitals, and churches to writing and arranging music for children, composing symphonies, performing in historic concert venues,
00:01:24
Speaker
and helping people with hand and limb differences like his to develop their own adaptive methods that allow them to make music part of their lives. Tony grew up in, oh, I can't say that, Tony. Where did you grow up? Waukesha, Wisconsin. Thank you, Waukesha, Wisconsin, and now resides in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and two sons.
00:01:48
Speaker
He enjoys playing basketball, swimming, hiking, and cooking and trying new foods especially if hot sauce is involved.
Introducing Deb: Advocate and Educator
00:02:00
Speaker
All right, welcome to another episode of the Able Voices pod. My name is Tony Memel, guest hosting today. And so glad to be joined today by my friend Deb, who does amazing things as an advocate and educator in this community.
00:02:13
Speaker
Once again, just as your guest host, I'll just introduce myself and then we'll get to know Deb throughout the whole rest of the pod here today. But I am Tony Memel, singer, songwriter, speaker, and teacher. I travel all over the world making music for people. I've been to 47 of the 50 states and to 26 countries around the world sharing music and a message.
00:02:33
Speaker
I was born with one hand and taught myself to play guitar adaptively by building a special tool out of a really tough, extra strong tape called Gorilla Tape.
00:02:44
Speaker
And with that song, with the songs that I have and with that story, i get out on the road all year long trying to encourage people in their own pursuits, thinking about their own gifts and talents and abilities and how to think uniquely and creatively about challenges and that they may face in their own journeys.
00:03:05
Speaker
And today I'm so glad to be joined by my friend Deb because what I see in Deb is somebody who has a similar heart for encouraging people to find unique and creative ways to make music possible in their lives. So i want to introduce you to Deb. Deb, would you say hello and just tell our audience today about what you do as an educator and where you teach and where, yeah, where are you based?
00:03:28
Speaker
Great. Well, Tony, thank you. Thank you for inviting me today. I'm really happy to be on the podcast and talk about this. Adaptive music education is probably one of my favorite topics in the whole world to talk about. So currently i am an assistant professor of special education at Northern Kentucky University.
00:03:47
Speaker
I took that position after I started my career as a piano teacher and music teacher a long time ago. And ah over the course of building our family, my husband and I made the decision to adopt three children with disabilities.
00:04:03
Speaker
ah We had two two boys by birth, and then we decided to adopt three children and got involved in the world of disability and adoption advocacy at that point. Along the way, I switched over to special education and I got a master's in multicultural special education and went back to teaching, teaching in the schools as a special educator. And I did that for a number of years and kind of progressed up through the ranks of that and ended up as an instructional coach while I was working on a PhD in education and social change.
00:04:36
Speaker
focusing on inclusion practices and of students with extensive support needs, and then transitioned into this job as a professor NKU. And along the way, as a
Adaptive Music Education and Personal Stories
00:04:47
Speaker
music teacher, as you can imagine, our expectation in our family was that all of our children would learn how to play instruments. And our first daughter that we adopted, Anna, was born with one arm, and ah some differences with her legs that resulted in needing to use a prosthetic leg.
00:05:05
Speaker
So when she was little, and she was about three, she saw her brothers playing piano, and she just assumed that she was going to play the piano too, just like she did everything else they did. And so I began the process of adopting of adapting my instruction for one-handed piano. And that is really how I got started in this whole adaptive music movement was with her I had never done anything adaptively. I taught music in the schools and had inclusive classes because of the schools that I taught in. So I had taught students with disabilities before, but they did not have physical disabilities. This was something that was different.
00:05:43
Speaker
And she really wanted to play those. So piano was my main instrument. After I had stopped teaching in the schools, I opened my own music studio for a lot of years when I was raising my children and in working as a disability and adoption advocate.
00:05:59
Speaker
and So it was a natural place for us to start. and so around the same time, my very close friend, Jennifer Petrie, came into town with ah to visit with their her new daughter that they had adopted, who had been born without arms.
00:06:17
Speaker
And we had not actually been in communication for a few years because we just kind of drifted. We had been college roommates, and then she took a job on the West Coast and then moved to the East Coast, and I'm in Ohio.
00:06:29
Speaker
Cincinnati is near Northern Kentucky. And um So we we just got together to have lunch or something and just discovered that we both had children with missing limbs and just kind of were surprised that we had both fallen this followed the same path independently, but we had.
00:06:48
Speaker
And started talking about, she had started adapting instruction for her daughter to play cello with her feet because her daughter had no arms. And so as we began to discuss, we kind of got back together again a few times and we started to realize that perhaps through our experiences as both music educators and musicians and parents of children with limb differences,
00:07:10
Speaker
we had a skill set that we could share with other children. And so that's when we started talking about, and we launched our first version of Cincinnati Adaptive Music Camp. Yeah, that's what an amazing story.
00:07:23
Speaker
I want just back up a little bit. What... Was the original spark after having two children by birth to like, what was on your heart that, and you know, inspired the decision to adopt, you know, three children who had disabilities?
00:07:39
Speaker
Was it your your time in the schools or did something else going to shape that decision? So um really it was our faith that led us there. So we've both, both my husband and I are very intentional in how we live out our faith.
00:07:54
Speaker
And so this was just another area where we always decided to go prayerfully forward. And as we did, we just really felt like it was an outgrowth of our faith to um bring in children that were waiting for families as opposed to, know, having more children biologically. and we...
00:08:15
Speaker
Just as the more we researched it, the more we realized, you know, marriage is ah is a relationship of promise and um commitment and that parenting would be no different. And so we decided at the same time to our son, our youngest son, who is number two in our birth order.
00:08:36
Speaker
He was diagnosed in utero as having some kind of difference with his brain that we did not know what that difference was going to be. And to the degree where we did not know if he was even going to live past birth, we just, it was a big mysterious, we used to refer to it as the bump. Even doctors didn't know what it was.
00:08:56
Speaker
So we were very prepared to handle special needs because of that time, but through that pregnancy. And he was born and it was a very benign,
00:09:06
Speaker
difference that he was born with and it was corrected when he was an infant and it had no impact on him whatsoever. But when we went into to adoption, we realized we had emotionally and mentally prepared o ourselves for a special need.
00:09:20
Speaker
So we felt very comfortable saying that we could take on something, a situation where a child might be passed over by other people who hadn't gone through just the thought processes that we had about raising a child with a disability. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
00:09:37
Speaker
Thank you for sharing that with us. And what, ah so you you talked about how that looked like for for teaching Anna on piano when she was first getting started, your daughter Anna, but what about your other daughters? What kind of instruction were you kind of learning to teach them through the home with that expectation that we do music in this family?
00:09:56
Speaker
What kind of early adaptations were you coming up with and creating to help music be possible in their lives?
Developing Music Adaptation Plans
00:10:02
Speaker
And if you're willing, share what their differences are and disabilities are as well so that we can kind of see your thought process there.
00:10:09
Speaker
So our middle daughter, Saya, has bilateral radial club hand, and which means that she has shortened forearms and missing radial bones. And she has four fingers on each hand with very, very limited range of motion and very limited. strength in them.
00:10:28
Speaker
And I started her on piano when she was about five, and she didn't really have a strong interest in it. And it was more difficult to adapt things for her because she didn't have that finger strength or independence that Anna had. And even though she had more fingers. And so she actually, ah she did piano with me. She studied piano with me for, until she was in about, I think it was fourth grade.
00:10:56
Speaker
And she decided she wanted to play the trumpet. And so we got her a trumpet and a private trumpet teacher. And she managed that quite well, but quickly we realized that the cornet was more suited towards her hands.
00:11:12
Speaker
And so we ended up buying Pornet for her, which worked really well. We ended up fusing. There was one part for just the tuning slide that we had to have something attached to so that she could manage it on her own. But that was Probably the easiest adaptation ever to just put a cornet in her hand. She could she held it slightly differently because she has the four only four fingers and the shape of her hand. She uses both hands to hold it.
00:11:43
Speaker
And she, I believe... used maybe two fingers to turn down to push down the middle valve. But really, um she played for years going into high school. She was section leader in her band.
00:11:59
Speaker
She marched up early and started ah marching band in eighth grade as an eighth grader and went on to do years with marching band as a section leader in a band that was marching band that won state awards and regional awards all the time. and Loved it. It was a great development, um, for her social development, for her confidence and all of that.
00:12:21
Speaker
She ended up, um, though she still plays her, her cornet sometimes. She went on to get a bachelor of fine arts and with an emphasis in ceramics and painting. And she is now a professional ceramicist and artist in residence at a clay studio in Cincinnati.
00:12:39
Speaker
Wow. um, her, her art journey started with music, but really went more towards, um, more towards the fine arts. Although one, the one summer at camp, she did take guitar with you, Tony. I remember. I remember. I've had the joy of teaching two of your children. I was kind of hoping that we could get to that as well. Cause it's been neat to see, you see them grow, you know, knowing you for a long time, but to see the way that music has worked through their lives and the different things that they were able to, to get access to and to try.
00:13:09
Speaker
by having ah a parent and then hopefully teachers around them who saw potential and and creative ways to to um make things possible, to look for the possible. um And I want to talk about your other daughter as well, but that's one thing that just as we as we break this down a little bit, I noticed two things that you described in your kind of You might not have even been thinking of it as a method at the time, but you have already adapted piano to one hand one-handed instruction for Ana.
00:13:37
Speaker
And then you were thinking about adapting the instrument itself for Saia's situation. What other kind of if those are kind of two two lanes that you can look at as a somebody who's trying to help somebody to make music possible.
00:13:52
Speaker
Do you other other lanes that you pursued as well? Or are those kind of the two main areas that you that you focus on? Well, jumping ahead a little bit to CAMAC actual or CAMC.
00:14:04
Speaker
The camp, actually, when we set the camps up, we set them up to be able to collect data on what we were doing as far as adapting instruction for our different students. And out of that evolved a template as kind of a way and a manner to go ahead and approach adaptive instruction.
00:14:25
Speaker
And i called those music adaptation plans or maps. And we used a very basic format during this the early years of the camp. And we did look at different lanes of, we called them domains of consideration is what I called them. So we want to look at first of all, how is the student going to connect to the instrument? So, you know, in short, what part of their body is going to be used to play that instrument? Because when we're talking about adapting physically, it's not going to be the same. Sometimes it's going to be feet. Sometimes it's going to be
00:15:04
Speaker
Certain fingers, sometimes it might be a residual limb, right? And so we have to determine first what parts of, what what part of them is going to connect to that instrument.
00:15:15
Speaker
And once we've done that, then we can look at the position of the instrument. the position of the musician. and then we can also look at, do we need to adapt the instrument in any way?
00:15:29
Speaker
do we need to add any, provide any kind of supportive devices to the instrument? And then finally, we can look at, um are there any curriculum things that need to change with with how we go about teaching the instrument?
00:15:45
Speaker
And what I found after going back and analyzing all of these maps that I had that we'd collected over the five years of camp, what I found is it's not always the same answer for every instrument and every student.
00:16:02
Speaker
But if we consider all these domains, it gives us a method. for how we're going about it. So for instance, piano very rarely requires an adaptive device of any kind attached to the instrument or special stand.
00:16:19
Speaker
The exception might be if we need to figure out a way for a student to pedal if they don't have their feet. For instance, My daughter, Anna, when she played, did get to the point where she pedaled.
00:16:31
Speaker
for And we ended up working with May We Help, which is a local engineering volunteer charity. And they designed a device that came out from, it came up from the pedal, it attached to the pedal, came out, followed the keyboard, went out to the left, came up.
00:16:51
Speaker
and came back and then came over and she could pedal with her shoulder because it had to be, the bar had to be out of the way for her hand to clear the keyboard, but it had to connect with her shoulder was what was available to pedal.
00:17:04
Speaker
So other, but that is when you're getting into something more complex, you know for most children, you're going to adapt piano for, you're really adapting the music yeah so that they can play it with one hand.
00:17:15
Speaker
As opposed to, say, somebody who is playing maybe guitar and they need a stand to hold the guitar in a certain position. ah You know, like when you taught on a guitar, you know changing the position so the guitar faced her and she strummed with her feet and then she.
00:17:33
Speaker
fingered the cords with her left hand, I'm sorry, maybe not her left hand with the guitar facing her while she needed a stand to do that. Right. So it just every single student, we're not going to have one universal design.
00:17:49
Speaker
for how anything is going to work because each of these students have unique bodies and each of these instruments have unique capabilities. We also, if you remember with Ana, you ended up doing a different tuning system with her as well. So those are all the ah changes to the instrument. That's a change to the instrument. Sometimes we would restring a cello backwards because of range of motions. that Again, a change to the instrument.
00:18:15
Speaker
So there are in each of these domains, just considerations that can guide kind of guide the teacher. Yeah. Yeah. Is there a place that you specifically start when you're working with a new student who comes to you or you like, do you start with the instrument itself? Do you start with the the teaching method? do you start with the, you know,
00:18:35
Speaker
what What is, if I'm trying to get you to to to, or to explain to somebody who's maybe like sitting down with a student for the first time, like walk them through your brain. Like, what would you be considering? ah do you consider like ah cost accessibility to the like items, you know, not everybody will have like an and an engineering team with them maybe, but like, how can you get somebody started in in adaptive music instruction ah if they had somebody come to their, their studio or classroom?
00:19:02
Speaker
So the first thing i always look at, and I've actually been working on more of a universal intake form for teachers to use. But what I typically do is I start by looking at what can the student do? So if they're coming to me directly, and this is not the campus,
00:19:20
Speaker
set up where we offer multiple instruments, and this is just me as a piano teacher, I look at what they're capable of doing. And I don't entirely go off of what they say, because I found they kind of come in with preconceived notions of what their body needs to do.
00:19:39
Speaker
And, ah and so I, you know, I always want to listen to what they're saying. But I also just kind of watch and we will kind of play around with the piano a little bit and I'll just have them hit random keys. And I watch for range of motion, like how much range of motion do they have?
00:19:57
Speaker
I watch, I look for finger strength. I just look for all of those things. And for instance, I recently... worked with a an adult student who was able to use his left hand, was completely unaffected by his disability, but his right hand was was impacted.
00:20:17
Speaker
And he did not think he could use his right hand at all. And in general, he was right. However, i
Growth and Impact of the Adaptive Music Camp
00:20:25
Speaker
know the way it sat next to the piano when he sat there, he could use it for accent notes. If he wanted to, you know, and so it's more of an asset than he actually realizes it is. And um so I look at that. I look at range of motion, strength, things like that.
00:20:42
Speaker
And then again, and then use that information to determine how are they going to connect to the instrument? Yeah. And then if I see like, OK, they need to sit at a certain height or they need to sit at a certain angle, then I look at do I need to change their positioning? Do I need to change the instrument's positioning?
00:20:59
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. it's it I'm curious about that because i think as an ah adaptive music instructor myself, I've never taken what I just instinctively do in my own brain and like written it out for somebody else to understand or learn, which is something that I think is really cool that you're working to do, is to come up with these ways. That's one of the most asked questions that I get about this particular topic is,
00:21:21
Speaker
Like, how can I, when somebody comes to my classroom, help somebody come in? And then I'll walk them through ah if they're doing a ukulele lesson as a group or a guitar lesson as a group. Like the first things that I'm looking at are like, yeah, what, what hand can they hold the guitar with if they have one? What, what, how many digits do they have, if any? And what ah does the guitar have to go on the ground in front of them and be supported by, by, you know, some sort of tool or device, but I The kind of quick thinking things that you do as somebody who's worked in at this for a long time that you know can be broken down for somebody who's maybe experiencing it for the first time as an educator, I think will be a super helpful tool.
00:21:59
Speaker
Are any of those resources available yet for people to to see to see or have if they were curious and wanted to know about it? ah So I've got some articles that are under review in different academic journals. And there is on the OMI website.
00:22:16
Speaker
the presentation that I did with Jennifer Petrie at the last conference. And I think that they are, the maps are available on there. Also, if you connect with me at info at the adaptiveartsandmusicproject.org,
00:22:33
Speaker
I am happy to send a a blank map template to anybody who asks for it that can help guide them in that. That's awesome. And that's a really good segue to into talking about camp.
00:22:45
Speaker
And I'd like to look at this from a couple of different angles, because you and Jennifer, as the founders of the camp, your children made up ah some of the student body as well. And you've talked through like how you brought music into your homes.
00:22:58
Speaker
um What did it look like from what was you you talked about it briefly, but ah what did it take to go from dream? This would be really cool to do kind of conversation into like we're doing it. And what did that look like?
00:23:13
Speaker
oh it was something else. Let me tell you, the learning curve was steep. It was very steep um because we we realized pretty quickly we were trying to do something that nobody had ever done before.
00:23:26
Speaker
And So there were just a lot of things we didn't know. But at the time, i was working on my master's at, it's now Mount St. Joseph University.
00:23:37
Speaker
and my advisor there was like, hey, if you want to try to do this, go ahead and you can use the school building. you know we're happy We're happy to let you use it for free, and which was very helpful.
00:23:50
Speaker
And We both had had people that had just reached out to us independently just because that we were known professionally ah you know as a music as music teachers and also in the disability community because I had done like some writing and advocacy work and things like that over the years.
00:24:09
Speaker
So we started very small with just offering piano and strings. And we thought if we could get just you know a handful of students If they come into town, the parents are just gonna have to figure out housing. you know, we can't do all of that, but we'll put together a fun week of camp for the students.
00:24:26
Speaker
And so that's what we did the first year, very small. and had were we were surprised that we did have parents come into town for it, even though we were not well organized by any stretch of the imagination.
00:24:42
Speaker
we We had not advertised a lot or anything like that. It was the need was there. And so these parents were willing to drive or fly, you know, to get that type of education for their child because they hadn't been able to find it, which really spoke volumes to us as to how big of a gap this was in instruction.
00:25:05
Speaker
Yeah. And how much ah that access means to people, you know, like at the at the camps that I've participated in, people came from around the country to participate as as students with their, you know, travel with their family to come be a part of it, made it part of their summer vacation, even in some circumstances, you know, to build You know, seeing a little bit of Cincinnati into, you know, a visit to work with an instructor who believes in you and what you can do as a student sees that potential.
00:25:30
Speaker
So how did I think I think I taught at the camp for two summers. It moved from ah from you say St. Joseph's is what it's called now. Yeah, Mount St. Joseph. Mount St. Joseph to Xavier was the second campus, I believe. and ah And now this year, the to kind of catch us up in time, it's going to be in an even a new location. So just as somebody who's organizing something, who's starting something from scratch, who's being scrappy, who's on a budget, how did you move from your first location to your second location to your third location? and
00:26:03
Speaker
And what's that story like? So um after our first year, we stayed at Mount St. Joseph for, i think, the next few years just because it was free and we needed free. But as we had more people interested from different places, we had a couple reasons we switched. We weren't able to work with Mount St. Joseph for housing. And it became very apparent to us that and became even more apparent to us down the road, that having everybody in one place built a sense of community.
00:26:38
Speaker
That a part of the park, you know, Jennifer and I are very, we're very teacher focused, and we're very, you know, high quality education focused. And so sometimes the social components of things kind of, kind of fly right past us at first. And um we started to realize that that sense of community, if we could all be together for the week and be staying in the same place, was really valuable for the the campers and their parents.
00:27:08
Speaker
and And so because we weren't able to work with Mount St. Joseph on that, we we checked in with Xavier, which was just another, we looked at different locations around the city at the time, and Xavier are presented as the best option for that at the time.
00:27:24
Speaker
So we switched to Xavier and found pretty quickly that it really made a huge difference because, you know, the children have time to build relationships with each other in the evenings and do fun things in the evenings. And the parents...
00:27:38
Speaker
have time to talk to each other and build those relationships and have those conversations that are really valuable for for them. So we ended up having to shut everything down just because we were and we were hitting a point in our parenting where we had a whole bunch of teenagers and they all needed driven places and they all were, you know, they're, they're younger and you can kind of tell them what they're going to do, but they get older and they all decide they have their own interests. So they're not all doing the same thing. And,
00:28:08
Speaker
And things just got complex. So we did have to close it down. And then a couple of years ago, Jennifer and I were talking, we're both at a place where we we're like, you know, we could relaunch this. and we could relaunch this with ah with a heavier research focus with the purpose of, um which we always had the purpose of trying to collect best practices and make this replicable, but with a really strong focus on how do we do that this time.
00:28:37
Speaker
And because i'm I'm a professor at NKU, I really felt like this might be a good place to hold it. And the the thing that is wonderful about NKU is we have a School of the Arts there.
00:28:50
Speaker
So that School of the Arts, all of the arts programming is in one building. And as we talked about rebranding the camp and rebranding the Adaptive Music Project and what we wanted to do, we really realized we really wanted to expand.
Future Expansion and Vision for the Camp
00:29:06
Speaker
And we wanted to start including other forms of art. And so that's when we decided to rename our project, which it's now the Adaptive Arts and Music Project, and to rename the camp to reflect that change that we're expanding into the other arts. So this year, we are expanding into ceramics and painting. And actually, my daughter, Saya, who is a professional ceramicist, and will be leading the the art portion of the camp.
00:29:37
Speaker
So that will be for students who are not interested in specializing in music, but are really interested in going deeper on pottery, sculpture, and painting for the week. and and so because SOTA has, it's a school of the arts, it's got all the different types of rooms and buildings all in one, all in one building.
00:30:00
Speaker
And our hope down the line is that we will add a drama portion to this and a dance portion and really expand the arts, not to just be music and visual arts. um And so that was part of the thinking with moving it to NKU as well.
00:30:19
Speaker
And along that line, we are also hoping it will not be this summer. I'm hoping it'll be the following summer to offer a teacher training track at of the camp. That's cool. I love it. You know, i think it's really important to point out here a few things that this is some, this is like over a decade in the making then at that point, as you're, as you're mapping this out, I hope people will take note of that, that you didn't go into this with every single thing figured out, but you had a goal, you had a vision, you saw a need and you started somewhere.
00:30:51
Speaker
And then over time, it's had this this growth and you know, you've grown as a, a teacher yourself and as a professional, and you kind of see these other ways that the the camp can support people and, and, and help that weren't maybe even a part of the original vision or even possible in the original vision.
00:31:09
Speaker
Another thing that I wanted to point out as well was when you said the importance of community, there was a market difference as an instructor at the Xavier camp when I had the chance to teach at that one.
00:31:21
Speaker
having the dorm life experience, witnessing that for for the students and their families. You know, they're playing soccer at night and you know, ah hanging out, you know, snacking and talking and just getting this this community built around music, which is something that music and the arts are really all about. I mean, you yeah I can think of so many friends, colleagues, professional relationships. like It spans like so many realms of my social life that all started somewhere, you know being in a choir, playing in a band, you know that um that are some of the most important relationships in my life. And so that's really...
00:32:00
Speaker
an amazing transition from, you know, not being able to even be in the same space, you know, being in the same space and now being in a new campus with ah kind of this even vision for growth over the next few years. And if people want to learn more about this camp and the work that you're doing, or they have a student in their classroom who they think might benefit, or they hear this about the teacher track that you're you're thinking of of envisioning and they want to, you know, reach out to you about that,
00:32:29
Speaker
You just relaunched ah or you launched a new website, didn't you, that had like that's going to be having information added to it? Yes. Will you talk about that process? I mean, there's people probably who have have similar ideas or ah visions and and like don't know the first thing about starting a website. So like tell us about the website and like you know like what are some of those things that went into making this possible this year?
00:32:50
Speaker
So the website is theadaptiveartsandmusicproject.org. And right now it has got a homepage and an announcement about camp.
00:33:00
Speaker
And that's about it. Although we're working on adding more content. We'll be adding a meet the team page soon. And Ultimately, what we really want with that is that to be a repository of open source information for people.
00:33:16
Speaker
ah It will have information. We would really love to build a network of teachers who are are comfortable teaching adaptively. We would like to add research as our research is published, links to that, as well as we're working with May We Help, which is a big component of the camp. And I should have mentioned this earlier.
00:33:39
Speaker
One of the benefits that we've had for the camp is that in Cincinnati, there is a charity called May We Help, which organizes predominantly engineers,
00:33:50
Speaker
But anyone engineering, tinkering, interested in making a makerspace kind of movement, they organize them to do volunteer work for people with physical disabilities. So we partner with them. And that's how we're able to develop these these custom solutions so quickly that week of camp because of that organization.
00:34:15
Speaker
and the resources that they have, the workshop and the engineers and the volunteer pool that they have, which is obviously an advantage we have in Cincinnati that is not replicated elsewhere.
00:34:27
Speaker
And um and so We are hoping to merge that website with theirs and make the plans all open source so people can get them.
00:34:39
Speaker
The issue is always going to be there is not going to be one universal cello stand. There's not going to be one universal bow hold or guitar hand or guitar stand, but there's no reason to reinvent the wheel each and every time. And if we can see what other people have done, then we can build off those things or adapt them. And so that is our, our, that's our hope with that.
00:35:03
Speaker
And starting the website, we just really, this has been a very grassroots effort. That was, this is passion work and it has come out of our pockets.
00:35:15
Speaker
My husband has helped me with designing it and, and getting it out there. So Everything we've done has been very much self-initiated. Yeah, that's great. I think that's so important just to to emphasize, you know, like your your background is not in ah designing a website, but this is the the need and the way you're going to be able to guide people to the work that you do.
00:35:37
Speaker
I think it's really cool that, you know, you're you're figuring it out, you know, as you go. And that's that's such a big part
Inclusivity in Adaptive Arts Education: Advice for Teachers
00:35:42
Speaker
of this. And just to describe that, you could probably talk all day about this. i know I know we're running against time here, but does the camp...
00:35:50
Speaker
cater you Most of the the differences, disabilities that you've described today are physical in nature. does Is the camp, you know, this year or in future iterations of it, um going to cater to people with intellectual, emotional disabilities as well, things that type of students, is that is the camp able to help in 2026?
00:36:09
Speaker
So we have thought long and hard about our focus with this camp because both Jennifer and i are by by nature and by purpose, very inclusive in everything that we do.
00:36:22
Speaker
We really want the camp to focus on physical disabilities right now because that is the niche that we're able to fill that's unique within that camp. That said, we are not, you know, disabilities are comcomitant often.
00:36:39
Speaker
And so we are certainly not going to turn away a student because they have a physical disability and an intellectual disability. or a physical disability in autism, we are are open and welcoming to everyone who would apply. The benefit from the camp right now is going to come if from for people with physical disabilities, both children and adults. We are open to adults as well because we found many have not had access to music instruction, or if they have had some kind of traumatic accident or illness that has changed their body, they may not have had access. So we are open to adults as well.
00:37:18
Speaker
um Ultimately, we'd love to see see the camp spread even more into those areas of intellectual disability and autism. But for right now, we are keeping that focus there yeah as as just our our main focus. But I say that saying we don't want somebody to not apply for the camp because their child has a ah limb difference and an intellectual disability. Like, let's let's look at what's in the best interest of the child and what's the best interest in the way of connecting them with adaptive instruction.
00:37:52
Speaker
ah because we're certainly not going to turn somebody away yeah because of that. And um we have talked through to, you know, as far as physical disabilities, we are not at the point where we're offering any kind of eye gaze technology.
00:38:06
Speaker
That is really something that really, would love to see us branch out into and is on the short list of, of areas to branch out. Cause I think the camp format could be a great way to introduce somebody to that. yeah Right. And give them a week to work on it.
00:38:25
Speaker
to be able to figure out how to use it and if they're able to use it and if it's worth, you know, for them to invest long-term in that. But we're not there yet yeah Yeah. I love it. That is so cool. I love hearing that vision for the future and all the things that you're working on. And just to put a period, an exclamation point on our, or this great talk today, tell us the website one last time and then What is your best piece of advice for a teacher who is going to be working with ah an adaptive student maybe for the first time coming up? And what what would be the first piece of encouragement or um or advice that you would give to somebody who is going to be working with this amazing community for the first time?
00:39:07
Speaker
Sure. So again, the website is theadaptiveartsandmusicproject.org. And the advice I always give people is um none of us know what we're doing.
00:39:21
Speaker
So it's OK. Go ahead and try things. Even as a special education professor, I tell my students all the time, it is OK when we teach and our students fail at something because everybody fails. And people with disabilities are able to try things and not be able to do them, but they need to be able to try things. And so what we want to do is just make failure a part of learning and to keep trying and think outside the box.
00:39:52
Speaker
So I really encourage if somebody is thinking about, you know, that type of teaching or considering a student to just go for it and just figure it out with because that is in everybody's best interest to do that. And we don't know what they're going figure out on their own. ah One thing I've learned from working with people with with physical disabilities is they are very intuitive about how to use their bodies. Like a lot of times more intuitive, I feel like at least than I am with my own,
00:40:19
Speaker
And I suspect that many people who have typically performing bodies are because a lifetime of that adaptive thinking has made them more intuitive yeah to how they can use their bodies. They're more tuned into it.
00:40:33
Speaker
And to not be afraid to go with that. That is awesome. Thank you so much, Deb. That's so insightful. This has been so good to talk with you today. Thank you for being a guest on the Able Voices pod.
00:40:44
Speaker
Again, this is Deb Eamon, and you can find her on the website, and we hope that you'll check check it out. It's a really awesome project that they're working on, and the camp is resuming this year. So check it out, and they're doing amazing things. Thank you, Deb.
00:40:59
Speaker
Thank you, Tony.
00:41:11
Speaker
Able Voices is a production of the Berkeley Institute for Accessible Arts Education, led by me, Dr. Rhoda Bernard, the founding managing director. It is produced by Daniel Martinez del Campo.
00:41:23
Speaker
The intro music is by Kai Levin, and our closing song is by Sebastian Batista. Kai and Sebastian are students in the arts education programs at the Berkeley Institute for Accessible Arts Education.
00:41:36
Speaker
If you would like to learn more about our work, find us online at berkeley.edu.org. slash B-I-A-A-E or email us at B-I-A-A-E at Berkeley, that's L-E-E dot E-D-U.