Extreme Makeover and Inclusive Music Experiences
Did you watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition last night? While I always enjoy the home reveals, one thing that particularly caught my attention in this story of Patrick Henry Hughes, a 19-year-old who is blind and uses a wheelchair, was the way his college band included him and had him out there marching -- with his father right behind, maneuvering the chair as his son played the trumpet.
It made me think of my daughter, who participates in marching band despite the fact that the performing makes her very anxious, and she struggles with some of the movements needed. Her director has slowly increased the amount of participation she has so that she is both comfortable and not, like, bumping into people on the field. It's hardly as inclusive as having a marcher in a wheelchair, but it's a lot more tolerant than I remember higher-level music programs being when I was a kid.
It made me think, too, of my son, whose issues aren't so much physical but behavioral. I had him in chorus one year in elementary school, but he bobbed and weaved and bumped and thumped so much during the performance that I thought it wasn't worth the stress. I've always felt it was too much to ask a choir director to accommodate him -- again, remembering the strictness of my high school choir, and how much one person's departure from the expected could impact on everyone else's experience of the performance.
My guy's not a musician on the level of Patrick Henry Hughes, but he's a pretty decent singer, and he takes voice lessons with a teacher who's enthusiastic about his progress and his low, low voice. Maybe, if a college marching band can accommodate a player in a wheelchair and a parent pushing, a high school choir could accommodate a jumpy bass. Another thing to add to my list of stuff to ask the school about as I prepare for next year's transition.
If you saw anything in Patrick's new super-cool high-tech apartment that you'd like to include in your own home makeover, here's where to find some of the manufacturers, according to the Extreme Makeover site:
- Dancing Dots -- Technology for blind musicians
- Duxbury Systems -- Braille translation software
- Enabling Technologies -- Braille printer
- EyeOn Automation -- Voice activation
- Gould Medical -- Bathroom grab bars and shower chair
- Humanware -- Braille reader
- Invacare Corp. -- Wheelchairs
- Latitude Arts -- Artist Jessie Dunahoo
Hi Terri,
Nice Blog you wrote here on the Hughes family. I was asked by Extreme Makeovers Home Edition to help them out with this episode, and I worked with Ty to set up the recording studio that they created for Patrick Henry Hughes. I wanted to write you about another application that was donated to Patrick, Cakewalk SONAR.
You can read my blog about the experience here.
Cakewalk SONAR is fully compatible with the accessibility features in Windows. Because of that we won an award from the American Foundation for the Blind. Ray Charles even used our software before he passed away. Essentially, we’ve set up SONAR in such a way that any setting in the program can be read by text to speech readers, and we also make extensive use of keyboard shortcuts so that vision impaired users can quickly navigate through the program. In addition, there is a company called Dancing Dots who make a program called CakeTalking which provide macro scripts for Windows that automates things in SONAR that would normally be quickly done with a mouse or complex multiaction functions.
Working on the show and helping Patrick Henry was an incredibly rewarding experience and I feel blessed for the opportunity to do so.
Thanks for writing about it.
Carl
Do you ever do make overs in Canada? I know a family that needs more room.the male has 2 boys and he married a female with six girls,and then they had a child bewtween them,they have a small house,and need more room.
My husband and I have 2 special needs twins.The 8 y/o twins have ADHD as well as Asperger’s Syndrome. I am partially handicapped with severe back problems, Fibromyalgia.We are ranchers and little income. We live in a mobile home that is falling apart literally. It’s a 70’s model. We also have 1 bedroom for the twins, and the old living room was made into a bedroom for my husband and I. The problem is we live in Canada, Alberta to be exact, about 1 hour from the U.S. Border. Are you able to help Canadians with situations like ours? Thank you for your time.
I have no connection to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition; I just write about it. So I can’t tell you if the show would consider Canadian families. However, you can download an application form from the ABC site at http://abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome/index?pn=apply and tell your story.