Pete:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Welcome to Blind Abilities, this is Pete Lane. In the era of COVID-19, we have seen a sharp rise in the production of virtual music, ranging from individual performers, to bands, to choral groups. Prior to the pandemic, however, this form of music was not only unusual, but even rare. Our guests today on Blind Abilities represent one of those rare virtual music groups that originated before the coronavirus entered the world scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kayleigh:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are an international online choir for the blind, consisting of members hailing from nine countries now, which is still incredible to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pete:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Serenity Virtual Choir is that group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Female choir member 1:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s very easy to feel alone in a time like this. We are all experiencing the effects of a devastating pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pete:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Kayleigh Brendle is the founder of that group, starting out small\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kayleigh:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You know what would be great, is if I could assemble a bunch of my friends to form a little choir of blind musicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pete:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adapting to changes as she went\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kayleigh:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s do a national online choir for the blind!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pete:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Realizing early on that she had a passion for the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kayleigh:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I recognized that there was something here that I didn\u2019t want to let go of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pete:
And as could be expected, the size of the choir grew during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kayleigh:
In quarantine, we had members from Germany and Austria and Kenya and South Africa and Ireland and Italy and Singapore\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pete:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Singing a wide variety of genres\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Female choir member 2:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song that my friend Sophia Rippstein and I will be doing for Serenity Serenade is a song called \u201cI Feel Pretty\/Unpretty,\u201d from the show Glee.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Female choir member 3:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Serenity Serenade, I\u2019m singing \u201cShe Used to be Mine\u201d by Sara Bareilles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Female choir member 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did \u201cIn the Arms of the Angel\u201d by Sarah McLachlan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pete:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And our other guest, Katie Hall, is on the choir\u2019s editing team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Katie:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I was like, this is really cool, I would like to learn how to edit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pete: Katie: Pete: Katie:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It generally doesn\u2019t take super long, but, like, you\u2019ve gotta work together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pete:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And a sense of family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kayleigh: Pete:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And now let\u2019s join Blind Abilities correspondent, Simon Bonenfant, in the Blind Abilities studio, with his guests Kayleigh Brendle and Katie Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simon: Kayleigh:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re good, thank you. How are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simon: Kayleigh: Simon: Kayleigh:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, so when I was 14 years old, I served as the president of my school\u2019s chapter of the National Junior Honor Society, and our faculty advisor asserted that we needed to complete a service learning project, which basically entailed giving back to the community in some way, and my friend, my good friend, she had said that she was going to create a veterans\u2019 fundraiser in New Jersey, and I was well-versed in the New Jersey like, local blind community back then, so I said \u201cYou know what would be great, is if I could assemble a bunch of my friends to form a little choir of blind musicians, and we could perform at your event. I think that would be really nice!\u201d We agreed that that\u2019s what we were gonna try to do, so I started assembling this little organization, and I\u2019d been a part and competed in the International Braille Challenge for many years, so I had connections from, you know, Connecticut and across the country, and many of those connections had begun to reach out to me and enquire whether they could participate, and I had to unfortunately turn them down at that point because it was so localized. But then my friend\u2019s event ended up not being able to take place, which paved the way for me to segway into this new chapter of the organization and create an online equivalent, so I expanded the range, you know, the geographical parameters, and I said \u201cOkay, why don\u2019t we try this out. Let\u2019s do a national online choir for the blind!\u201d So we started meeting over Skype, trying to coordinate these little projects, you know, the first song we ever learned, I think we had maybe six or seven singers. We started trying to put together little videos, we used video editing, we didn\u2019t do audio at first, and then, you know, the school year ended, and my eighth grade year concluded, and technically my obligations to the choir completely disappeared, but I recognized that there was something here that I didn\u2019t want to let go of, so I said \u201cWell, you know what, I\u2019m going to continue this,\u201d at that point we\u2019d called ourselves the Sing for the Spring Choir. I remember one night thinking, you know, I don\u2019t want this just to be spring, I want it to be forever, you know, I wanted a kind of message of peace, and message of love, so I decided to call it the Sing for Serenity Choir. That September, we slowly transitioned to this app called TeamTalk, and now that\u2019s completely what we use. We had members from all over the country, you know, Virginia, California, Connecticut, some from the local area, you know, but we had Alabama, and it was everywhere, and it was still a tiny tiny group, but we began learning a Christmas piece, and that year we posted our Christmas piece to YouTube and just kept it up, and then over quarantine our membership has just exploded, because back then we did have I think one international member, and that\u2019s how I knew I wanted to transition into an international phase of this, because we had children from Canada and England reaching out. At that point it was just 9 to 18. And then, I had some very skilled vocalists like one of the ones on this call with me here, that were outside that age range that wanted to participate, and so I expanded it to 9 to 22, you know, in quarantine, we had members from Germany and Austria and Kenya and South Africa and Ireland and Italy and Singapore that wanted to participate, so the geography of the choir just completely skyrocketed in terms of ethnicities and demographics. Then this past June and July I extended the age range completely, so it would be a youth division for those who are under 18, and an adult division for those who are over 18, and now we are give or take about 90 voices, and it fluctuates because we do allow for that flexibility, you know, we understand we have the marching band kids that can\u2019t do the fall, we\u2019ll have the spring musical kids that can\u2019t do the spring, and we\u2019ll have the adults with their job obligations that can\u2019t do certain months, so we\u2019ll never say, you know, when you\u2019re in this you have to do every piece. It\u2019s very loosely fitting, in allowing them to do what they need to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simon: Kayleigh:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, and thank you for the compliment, we really appreciate that. In terms of how many we do, that\u2019s sort of up to how long it takes us to learn something, and how long it takes the editing team to finish something, but I never put deadlines on the editing team because it\u2019s a type of work that I myself could never imagine doing, it\u2019s a lot of technicalities and I salute them with every fiber of my being for putting all of those tracks together, but in terms of how many we do, we sort of aim to do one every two months. We allow for a bunch of variables to play out as they will, you know, maybe we\u2019ll have a September\/October piece, maybe we\u2019ll have a November\/December, and January\/February and such and such. In terms of genres, I sort of try to cater that to three things. One, if we have any special requests. For example, a piece that we\u2019re going to be putting out in 2021 was requested by a COVID-19 survivor who is in Serenity, and the piece that helped her get through that devastating time and trying time in her life was called \u201cSpeechless,\u201d from the musical Aladdin<\/em>, so I arranged that for her, and then we had another girl who lost her mother, unfortunately. The song that helped her get through that time was called \u201cBlessings,\u201d by Laura Story, so I arranged that one for her. And so that\u2019s the first sort of contention, the special requests, and we actually just received, I\u2019m going to kind of hold off on sharing too many details, but we received an amazing opportunity from a local group that wanted us to do a piece especially for them, I\u2019m very very excited, and I\u2019ll be talking about that more in the upcoming months. The second one is what our members are looking for. A lot of times, like with the piece that we\u2019re going to hopefully be putting out within the next week or so, we had each section nominate a piece that they were looking to do, and then the section leaders and I kind of collectively made a decision about which of those pieces would be the most realistic and most in keeping with our message. We allowed them to, you know, kind of make that preliminary choice, and then from there we kind of solidified that decision. And third is just sort of anything else that pops up, where you know, this is just a suggestion, there was one song that was really great, it was this Sound of Music<\/em> medley, and it was beautiful, and one member suggested it to me, and I presented this to the choir as a whole, and I said, you know \u201cWhat about this? I think this would be amazing.\u201d You know, everybody agreed, and so we did it. So that\u2019s sort of how we device, but genres, you know, we have songs from Broadway musicals, traditional choral repertoire, ordinary pop pieces that I just happened to arrange for a specific purpose, even a little bit of gospel if we need it or you know, if people request it. Classic holiday hits, we\u2019ve done a little bit of everything. It\u2019s difficult to pinpoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simon:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, that\u2019s awesome, that\u2019s terrific. I remember that song you did, \u201cBlessings,\u201d I enjoyed that rendition. Very good, so I\u2019d encourage the listeners to check that out, and we\u2019ll get more information on where they can do so in a bit. How does it work logistically in terms of how all the different people meet on TeamTalk and how they talk about what they\u2019re gonna do? How do they record it and send it into you, their parts and everything?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kayleigh:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right. Let\u2019s start at the beginning of that, and I\u2019ll dive a little deeper and ask for Katie\u2019s input at the end. How we meet, we actually have a secure choir server, it\u2019s password protected to ensure that only choir members have access to the account credentials. You know, we do have some younger members, it\u2019s important that their parents feel that this is something they can trust, so that was why I ensured that there was that password component installed in there. And I\u2019ve coded the server in such a way that there are, oh gosh, probably dozens of channels and subchannels within that to allow for one-on-one instruction, so the way it works is it\u2019s a Harry Potter themed server, so we have a channel where it\u2019s the main channel for our youth division, and then we have a channel for each section, so you know, the sopranos, altos, tenors, basses, mezzos, you know, we have channels for each of those. Then we have a channel for our editing team to meet, and then within, say, that alto channel for example, we have two subchannels so that if a section leader or an assistant section leader needs to more privately instruct a member that\u2019s where they can take them. So typically each section will convene in their main corresponding channel at first, and then if they need to congregate in the subchannels they can feel free to do so, and I\u2019ll make my rounds to begin every rehearsal and just make sure that we\u2019re all on track, and I tell each section leader at the meeting, because we have a section leader meeting after the regular rehearsal concludes, I\u2019ll say, you know \u201cOkay, this is where I\u2019d like you guys to get to tonight. This is where you can shoot for in terms of instruction.\u201d Whether that means members would like to go off and listen to the part a bunch of times and drill it, and then come back and check with the section leader, or whether that means the section leader is teaching them phrase by phrase, note by note. How the part works is whether I arrange it or whether I find it on YouTube and auditorily transcribe each individual part and each individual phrase, what I\u2019ll do is I\u2019ll have the instrumental and I\u2019ll sing that given part to the instrumental, so that each section has a track that they receive comprised of my vocal recording and the instrumental, and that\u2019s what they ultimately record with through headphones and through such apps as Hocuseye and Garageband, we used to do voice memos but to make it a little easier on our editors we do Hocuseye and Garageband now. So when you say go record, they will put that track into a Hocuseye or Garageband project, they\u2019ll record along with it, so that they\u2019re singing along with me, but they\u2019ll do it in headphones so that you sort of don\u2019t hear my track, you just hear their voice. Then they\u2019ll mute it at the end. Most cases they\u2019ll send it to one of their section leaders and they\u2019ll proof the recording and then they\u2019ll send it to me for kind of a further verification, and then I\u2019ll put it in the dropbox. So, Katie, can you talk a little bit more about the dropbox and how the editing team gets all the files from there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Katie:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah, so we have a shared dropbox folder that each editor\u2019s on, and then she uploads the files into dropbox, and if we need to make any corrections to anything she leaves us a comment, like mute this or that, so we can take it from there and put them together and make it sound good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simon: Katie:<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, how I got into it – last summer, we did a thing called Serenity Serenade, and we each recorded our own piece, and so that\u2019s how I got introduced to the app Hocuseye, I recorded my piece in that, and then I was like, this is really cool, I would like to learn how to edit. And the girl that showed me how to use it volunteered to help me edit, so I first lined up the tracked in \u201cYou\u2019ll Be Found,\u201d I learned how to line up the tracks first, which just basically means you put them to where they\u2019re all matched up, because we have people started, you know, at random places, so then you have to like line them up and put them all together. And so that\u2019s how I learned. I had to basically teach myself the rest of it, panning and volumes and that kind of stuff. Yeah, I use Hocuseye, most of us do, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simon:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And how long does it usually take you to edit these multiple tracks and put them into a big piece?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Katie:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It depends on how quickly I get the track. I know like today, I did a bunch of stuff on one of them. I was at it for a couple hours, just because some of them weren\u2019t lining up right. We try to split things up, so there were about three of us working on this one, so one person was lining up tracks, then one person was doing the panning, and then I was doing the volumes, but then I had to line up some of the tracks, so it generally doesn\u2019t take super long, but like, you\u2019ve gotta work together. I did one project by myself and that didn\u2019t take as long because I stay up and do stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simon:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, there you go. That\u2019s good. Kayleigh, you had talked about the Serenity Choir being like a family and a community, and I know that you do some social events virtually on TeamTalk, and I know that you get a lot of people that go to that, can you talk about how that got going and what you do on those events?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kayleigh:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Essentially how that got started is with a comment I received from a person that was part of the choir, and they had commented on the fact that, you know, we are so big now, and I don\u2019t know the name of everybody in every section. I\u2019m getting so many of these recordings, and I don\u2019t know these people. I really took a step back and thought, hold on a second, that\u2019s not how I envisioned this. It\u2019s great that there\u2019s so many people, but I want everybody to know as many people in the choir as they can, and be acquainted with them, so I decided to utilize the sentiments expressed in that comment for a productive purpose and create these social events. What we do is we\u2019ll have three game hosts, we do games that the members request, so it could be, you know, \u201cIt\u2019s Not My Fault,\u201d or \u201cFamily Feud,\u201d or \u201cJeopardy,\u201d or \u201cAccent Challenge,\u201d or \u201cName That Tune,\u201d and someone will host them, and then I will create groups that basically consist of people from different sections. So for example, I remember one night, I was in a channel, looking at everyone who was logging onto the server, and I saw that you know, we had maybe four or so altos, a couple of tenors, maybe a bass or two, a couple of sopranos, so what I would do is I would make sure that there was someone from each section in each group, so I would try to do maybe an alto, a soprano, a person from the monologue team, which just a little bit of background, the monologue team is basically a division of Serenity where the individuals might not be as comfortable singing, and they would rather speak. Simon, you mentioned \u201cBlessings,\u201d there\u2019s a monologue at the beginning and the end of \u201cBlessings\u201d and of every piece, that\u2019s what they do. The monologue team sort of takes care of that speech component and introducing and concluding each video. But back to the social event, I could have an alto, a soprano, a tenor, a monologue team person, and a bass in one channel. They wouldn\u2019t ordinarily be able to interact in rehearsals, but because of the social events, they\u2019re able to coexist and get to know one another. I thought that was really beneficial for them, and I try to make it so that every week, the groups rotate, so maybe that alto would be in a group with a completely different set of people the next week. That\u2019s just sort of like what we try to do, with those social events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simon:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, that\u2019s very nice. And it\u2019s probably true that through the choir, people have made a lot of friendships, and community. That\u2019s terrific, the camaraderie. Where can people find the choir\u2019s videos? I know you have a lot of things up on YouTube and I\u2019ve seen some people sharing things on Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kayleigh:<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, we have a bunch of different social media platforms that are managed by the monologue team. I manage the YouTube channel, and the YouTube channel is the source of our actual performances, so if you\u2019re looking to see what we\u2019ve done and what we continue to do you can subscribe to Sing for Serenity Choir, and Serenity is spelled S-E-R-E-N-I-T-Y, and then if you look us up on Instagram, we do, you know, a member spotlight, so you can hear a little bit more about some of our members, and on Facebook I manage the Facebook page, and I try to post all of our videos and any updates that we have. We have a Twitter, but essentially all of it traces back to that YouTube, that\u2019s where you can find our performances, we just did something called Serene Carols, which was essentially a holiday equivalent of a talent showcase. We had solo performances, duets, trios, quartets, and it was all holiday themed, and everyone did a different piece and there was 20 acts in total with, oh gosh, I think over two dozen participants in both nights collectively. All of our pieces are up there, there\u2019s a community there, there\u2019s an about section where it takes you to links of our other social media accounts. We do have a gmail address, so if you\u2019re interested in joining you can email singforserenity@gmail.com, again that\u2019s singforserenity@gmail.com. One word, all lowercase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simon:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, that\u2019s great. Well, I\u2019d encourage all the listeners that are interested to come out and join and if you have a musical talent come out and join, and even if you don\u2019t, well, you can cultivate it a little bit. It\u2019s a great group of people. To the both of you, thank you very much for coming onto Blind Abilities, thank you for the work that you do with the choir, it\u2019s really great. I\u2019m very supportive of you, and the work that you do, because I also am involved in music, so I\u2019m very supportive of the work that you\u2019re doing for the blind and visually impaired community, so keep up the great work and thank you for coming on today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kayleigh:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you Simon, and on behalf of all of us, we really appreciate it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pete:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019d like to thank Kayleigh Brendle and Katie Hall for joining Simon Bonenfant in our Blind Abilities studio, and sharing details about their virtual online musical group, the Sing for Serenity Choir. The main platform for their music is on YouTube. Search for them and subscribe, at Sing for Serenity Choir. They\u2019re also on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. And from all of us here at Blind Abilities, through these challenging times, to you, your family, and friends, stay well, stay informed, and stay strong. Thank you so much for listening, and have a great day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeff:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com. We\u2019re on Twitter, we\u2019re on Facebook, and be sure to check out our free app in the Apple app store and the Google Play store.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email<\/a> or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities<\/a> Check out the Blind Abilities Community<\/a>on Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page<\/a>, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired<\/a> group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Full Transcript Pete: Welcome to Blind Abilities, this is Pete Lane. In the era of COVID-19, we have seen a sharp rise in the production of virtual music, ranging from individual performers, to bands, to choral groups. Prior to the pandemic, however, this form of music was not only unusual, but even rare. Our guests […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6488","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P6rcRg-1GE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9267,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?page_id=9267","url_meta":{"origin":6488,"position":0},"title":"Introducing Preston : Two Paths, One Team: Meet the Peer Ambassadors of State Services for the Blind","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"December 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Podcast Summary: What does it look like to be a blind high school student who\u2019s busy, motivated, and dreaming big? In this episode of Blind Abilities, meet Preston\u2014a 15-year-old sophomore, honors and AP student, award-winning speech and debate competitor, musician, and newly selected Peer Ambassador with State Services for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6099,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?page_id=6099","url_meta":{"origin":6488,"position":1},"title":"Around the World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective – Episode 6: Brooklyn Rodden Kelly, from Sacramento, CA\u2013 Doing My Thing \u2013 Safe and Aware.","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"July 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Pete: The coronavirus \u2013 creeping onto the world\u2019s scene only a few short months ago and then exploding into our day-to-day lives. Every day we hear about the impact of corona and COVID-19 on \u2013 well, almost everyone. But how is it affecting disabled individuals? Today on Blind\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6448,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?page_id=6448","url_meta":{"origin":6488,"position":2},"title":"Assistive Technology Specialist Jesse Anderson and State Services for the Blind Go Virtual in Providing Transition Services to Students","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"January 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Pete:\u00a0 Welcome to Blind Abilities, I\u2019m Pete Lane. The Minnesota State Services for the Blind, like every other state rehab agency, is certainly not exempt from the impact of COVID-19.\u00a0 Jesse: We started working from home March 16th, we\u2019re probably gonna be working from home for quite the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6122,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?page_id=6122","url_meta":{"origin":6488,"position":3},"title":"Around The World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective: Episode 2 – Chee Chau from Malaysia – Helping Others.","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"July 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Pete: The coronavirus \u2013 creeping onto the world\u2019s scene only a few short months ago and then exploding into our day-to-day lives. Every day we hear about the impact of corona and COVID-19 on \u2013 well, almost everyone. But how is it affecting disabled individuals? Today on Blind\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6118,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?page_id=6118","url_meta":{"origin":6488,"position":4},"title":"Around the World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective. A New Series. Episode 1 \u2013 When it Began Down Under.","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"July 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Pete: The coronavirus \u2013 creeping onto the world\u2019s scene only a few short months ago- British Newscaster (male): -hundred dead, thousands infected across multiple continents. But how did the coronavirus spread so quickly? American Newscaster (male): Now the growing concerns about the deadly coronavirus officially hitting the US,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5380,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?page_id=5380","url_meta":{"origin":6488,"position":5},"title":"iPhone101: Snatch It, Grab It and Paste It! A Review of the Text Selection Features in iOS","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"September 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Pete Lane:Hi, folks. Pete Lane. Welcome to Blind Abilities and welcome to another iPhone 101 demo. Today we explore selecting, copying, and pasting text in iOS. Pete Lane:I want to share today a process that I use that will demonstrate a couple of tips and a quirk or\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6489,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6488\/revisions\/6489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
And has continued to develop her skills\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I learned how to line up the tracks first. We have people starting at random places, so then you have to line them up and put them all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when all is said and done, it takes teamwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are not just a choir, we are a family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hello everyone on Blind Abilities, this is Simon Bonenfant here. Today in the virtual studio I\u2019m here with Kayleigh Brendle and Katie Hall. So how are you folks doing today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, very good. Kayleigh, it\u2019s nice to have you back on the podcast. We\u2019ve had you a few times on here, it\u2019s nice to have you back. Today we\u2019re going to be talking about the Serenity Choir, which is a choir that you started and work for. Can you talk about that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course! So, hi to everyone, it\u2019s amazing to be back, thank you again for the honor. My name is Kayleigh Brendle, and I am the founder and director of the Sing for Serenity Choir. We are an international online choir for the blind consisting of members hailing from nine countries now, which is still incredible to say. We have members from all different age ranges, we have an 8-year-old that we just admitted last night, and our oldest members are adults. We have such a diverse group of visually impaired vocalists, they\u2019re from all around the world, all walks of life, have all different sort of backstories, but the commonality among us all is how devoted we are to music, to each other, and to the community that over the past three years serving as director, that I\u2019ve been able to build. We are not just a choir, I have always emphasized that, we are a family. We are a tightly-knit group, and although there are a lot of us, there are dozens of us now, we allow the number to fluctuate because we know that everyone has different flexibilities, but no matter how big we get, we always ensure that we know each other on a first name basis, and we have that familial atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, that\u2019s terrific, and like you said, the choir has really grown in a really short time, I remember when you first started the choir and now it\u2019s grown a lot. Can you talk about how you started this, how it came about, and how you got the idea to even do a virtual choir? Now it seems like virtual is the norm, but back in the day it kind of wasn\u2019t, so how did you get the idea and get the whole format of a virtual choir going?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, that\u2019s great. So how many pieces do you do, and can you kind of take us through the different genres that you\u2019ve done? I\u2019ve listened to your pieces, I thought they were really amazing, can you take us through that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Great. Katie, you do the editing, that\u2019s a very specific field and it\u2019s great that you do that. Can you talk about how you got into it, and what software do you use?<\/p>\n\n\n\nContact Your State Services<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Contact:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com<\/a>
Send us an email<\/a>
Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store<\/a>and Google Play Store<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n