SAN ANTONIO, Feb. 01, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aid the Silent (ATS), a Texas-based nonprofit organization that benefits the deaf and hard-of-hearing (HOH) community, announced it will host the first known fully deaf/HOH accessible music and arts festival May 20, 2017 at the 1850 Settlement in San Antonio, TX. Headliner for the event is singer-songwriter, Ben Rector.
The Good Vibrations Music & Arts Festival (GVMAF), presented by industry leaders in the hearing solutions Cochlear Americas, Ear Institute of Texas, and GN ReSound, will feature live captioning, ASL interpretation, T-coiling, front row seating, vibrating backpacks and a visual light show, which will sync to performances for a true sensory experience.
The inaugural event will accommodate the deaf/HOH community in a magnitude never-before seen. It will set a new standard, not only providing accessibility but unique opportunities for sensory experiences to all persons with hearing disabilities. This is a dream founder Emma Faye Rudkin, who is also profoundly deaf, has hoped for since a young age. Rudkin is a deaf musician who plays four instruments. When she competed for the title of Miss San Antonio in 2015 and again in 2017, which she eventually would win, the platform offered an opportunity to bring awareness about her mission to assist the deaf/HOH community.
“When I started thinking about how to help others who fall into similar circumstances, I recalled all my struggles growing up as a deaf person. I wanted to be treated and experience the world as any of my friends and family did. It was then that Aid the Silent came into fruition,” she said.
Aid the Silent was founded with the purpose of bridging the gap between the hearing world and the deaf/HOH community by providing resources, programs and services for the deaf/HOH children and teens and their families through four branches: deaf education, deaf ministry, deaf resources, and deaf research.
As part of the nonprofit’s mission to break down barriers associated with hearing loss, GVMAF will bring together the hearing world with the deaf/HOH community. All proceeds collected from this event will go toward the four branches of Aid the Silent’s mission.
Aid the Silent provides children/teens the tools and resources they need to find personal success, whether that be through FM systems (assistive hearing devices), hearing aids, speech therapy, learning sign language, or camps and events. ATS focuses on helping fund educational programs and trainings to help the deaf community. In addition, it supports organizations that dedicate its efforts to finding treatments and technological advancements that benefit the deaf/HOH.
The goal of the festival is to be a place where festivalgoers (hearing and non-hearing) can enjoy, side-by-side, a full music experience. Where people of all ages, backgrounds and circumstances can enjoy crafts, food and good music, together. A place where all can experience a completely interactive, sensory-filled concert and walk away with knowledge about hearing loss.
“Music, in particular, was something I’ve always loved. I want others who are deaf and hard-of-hearing to experience this passion in a way unknown – to feel it with their entire body. Through what Aid the Silent is doing, I want to be able to help the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.”
Captioning and sign language interpreters for this event will be serviced by local deaf/hard-of-hearing communication leaders Caption Source and San Antonio Interpreters.
For more information on GVMAF visit goodvibrationsmusicfestival.com.