Happenings

Kyle Woodruff has worked with Janice Kapp Perry and Joy Saunders Lundberg to organize a musical fireside based on the album Far Different Places.

The fireside will feature Michael and Ben Ballam and many gifted musicians with disabilities. It will be presented through song, ASL, enhanced audio, closed captions and braille.Here are the details:

A few weeks ago, we posted some information on two disability presentations from the 2006 Womens Conference.

The first presentation is titled Dealing with Disabilities from Sandra Ruconich, Mary Ann Prater, Roselyn Baird is a PDF document of 28 slides from their presentation divided up into three categories:

1. Parents and Schools: Fostering Child-Centered Partnerships
2. Tips for Church Members and Teachers
3. How to Serve Those with Disabilities and Their Families

The 2006 BYU Women's Conference begins tomorrow, May 3rd and there will be a couple of sessions that address disability issues:

Julia from You Have to Be Deaf to Understand wrote about a Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast performed with a sign language group called Expressions of Silence from Montana. She also provided a video of the performance that you can view online.

Link: Expressions of Silence

If you attended the matinee performance of Savior of the World on Saturday, December 3rd, you may have been able to gain a new appreciation for the show. In addition to the traditional performance, the show was also performed in sign language and was available via captioning, narrative description and the program was provided in braille. In addition, the last two songs were performed by the entire cast in sign language. Hopefully we'll see more of these accommodations made for like productions in the future.

For more information and some pictures, see the December 10th, 2005 edition of the Church News.