When Technology Gives Disabled Artists a Real Voice | Episode 482

When Technology Gives Disabled Artists a Real Voice | Episode 482

A commercial stopped me in my tracks: a young girl onstage making music with her eyes. Not metaphorically, literally. That moment sent me straight back to my experience with a special needs orchestra where musicians use iPads and GarageBand to play songs with confidence, structure, and joy. It also reminded me why Voices for Voices exists in the first place: “having a voice” is not limited to spoken words, and access to expression can be life-changing.

We dig into what assistive technology and disability inclusion can look like when it is done with respect, not pity. From pre-programmed chords to eye-tracking interfaces, the tools may be digital, but the impact is deeply human. If you care about mental health, trauma recovery, neurodiversity, and making creative spaces more accessible, this story opens up a bigger definition of communication, independence, and community.

From there, I get real about persistence. I talk about living with major depression, acute anxiety, ADHD, OCD, ADD, and being on the autism spectrum, plus what it feels like when someone calls the work “useless.” The takeaway is simple: keep going. It might take a lot of tries, but anything worth doing does. If someone hates it, they can turn the channel while we keep building toward a goal of reaching and helping people at massive scale.

Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people who need hope and practical motivation can find it.

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Chapter Markers

• 0:00 Welcome And The Big Mission
• 2:02 A Commercial That Gave Chills
• 8:26 Sunlight, Mood, And Momentum
• 11:15 When People Say You Cannot
• 14:08 Help Us Help Others
• 20:17 Persistence And Facing Fear
• 22:47 Celebrate Every Kind Of Voice

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Transcript

Welcome And The Big Mission

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 0:01

Hi everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast. Whether you're watching, whether you're listening, whether you're here in the United States, or whether you're some other point across the world, we welcome one and all to the Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast. If you could do a couple of free things for us, give us a big thumbs up, like, follow, subscribe, share, reach out to uh 25 contacts in your phone, let them know, share the good news about the voices for voices, TV show and podcast that is grounded at the foundation and at the pillar level of mental health, mental challenges, of trauma, of recovery, of helping people. We have a huge goal to reach and help at least three billion with a B. Reach and help at least three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. Uh, with your help, we can do it. We've made it this far over um over a thousand, actually, over eleven hundred uh cities, over one hundred countries, territories, and provinces. All thanks to you. So thank you so much for being with us on this episode of the show. Uh, we we cover the the tough topics, the hard topics, we cover the easy topics. Uh, and we just want to be a voice for ourselves and a voice for those who may not uh be able to share their voice. And I just have to say, uh I just saw probably, and I'm getting chills about this, one of the coolest uh commercials that I've ever seen. It gives me chills. So many of you know uh over the years I've participated uh with the special needs orchestra. And uh the uh you know the the the short part uh of the the the story is uh individuals all kind of challenges, all kinds of age ranges, and they come together and they play and it sounds beautiful. And I was able to accompany them to play with a real live college orchestra at Cootztown University in Cootztown, Pennsylvania, and that was probably one of one of the highlights uh for me and what most of those individuals part of this special needs orchestra, how they play is their they have iPads and and then they have garage band, and then each song their specific chords. So maybe there's an F and an A and an E and a D. And so all that is pre-programmed in, and so the director just has uh everybody get to uh you know whichever song that they're gonna be playing, and then once that screen is on that song, the four or five or two or three chords that that song, a particular song uses, show and populate on the screen. And so as he's playing a song, he might say C and then press C, D, press D, A, press A. And it's so awesome. And so this commercial that I'm referring to, I'm not gonna refer to the brand and the name, but what was shown on this commercial was what remind reminds me of this special needs orchestra, and it takes it one step further. There's like a little girl, and she had her her uh iPad mounted in front of her, and she may have been a quadruple, and so instead of her or a guardian or a helper, you know, press the particular chord for the particular song, she did it with her eye, and her eye movement was going to the particular chord. Absolutely phenomenal. I mean, like I said, I had the chills then, I have the chills now. Uh that's what we're talking about when we say we're giving people a voice. Because voices come in so many different ways, not just the spoken word, which is predominantly how I use my voice, is through the spoken word. You know, sometimes I'll play play guitar, uh, other times I'll try to sing, but it's almost just like reading the lyrics to a song. Uhers may play in that special needs arena with pressing or having somebody help them press the particular chords, or now with the technology where the musician can guide basically the mouse to the specific chord and have that press and have that play with with the orchestra, with with the band, and I have to learn more about it. So amazing. And these are the kind of stories that we talk about. Sometimes we don't talk about them uh as as much as we should. Um, but there's so many ways to share our voice. There's there's there's so many. Uh it's not just a spoken word. So when we usually conclude our shows, we say, you know, let's celebrate the voices of everybody across the world, and let's be a voice for ourselves and maybe someone else in need. We're talking about all kinds of voices, doesn't all have to be the spoken word. And we don't want to limit a voice to a spoken word. No. How about writing a novel? How about writing a screenplay? How about writing a TV show? How about writing a movie? So many different ways. And just we just scratched the surface. So at the outset, I wanted to touch on that because I literally just saw that uh as we were getting ready, uh, as we were getting set up uh to film this particular episode. And we do have heavy sun coming from uh this uh this this side uh and I'm all for it. So it looks like I'm kind of glowing, I guess. Uh blue sky. I'm a believer, Jesus, my dad. My dad's in heaven, they're shining down on us right now, and uh so we we we love the sun, we we love what it does for our moods, it helps us have a usual, usually a uh you know more positive outlook, and we tend to just be a little bit in a happier mood than when it's not. Uh so we've been not really knocking out the shows, haven't we? Yeah, we really have. It's uh it's a big deal. It's a big deal. We're reaching people that I never thought we would reach, right? We're doing things and we'll be doing things that I've wanted to do for so many years, but on a like a much smaller scale. And I I'm I it just blows my my mind, block boggles my mind, whatever whatever the words we want to use, adjectives, to be able to do this, and what we're about to embark on as an organization is so neat. I'm I can't wait to share it with you all. Whether this is your first show or whether it's uh you've been with us from the beginning. We have over 480 episodes. Let that sink in. A charity that doesn't get paid has one employee, has over four hundred and eighty episodes of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. And let that be the drive, the determination. When somebody tells you no, you can't do it, you say, Yes, yes, I can do it, and I'm going to do it, and I will do it, and I'm gonna start right now, or I'm gonna continue on. I doubted myself. I had somebody tell me how useless, how stupid our videos are, how yeah, useless our shows are, but I continued on. Why do I continue on? Because there's a lot of people that need to see and hear the light they need to hear and see from somebody who suffers from major depression, acute anxiety, ADHD, OCD, ADD, low spectrum autism, you name it. I I got just about every acronym in the book. But that doesn't stop me. It might make me stutter sometimes, it may make me go on tangents, it may make me repeat myself over and over again. But what it won't make me do is sever stop. I'm not gonna stop because somebody doesn't like the show. Somebody doesn't want to like the show or want to have the show succeed. And so when I said there's things that are are are are waiting in the wings to be shared, it it's probably gonna probably gonna make you think twice about judging a show, judging an organization, judging a person, putting expectations, putting limits on the table and going and whispering and gossiping to our you know, our friends and and our our friend groups. So that's why I ask, why don't you help us help others? Follow our social media, give us a thumbs up. These are free, you don't gotta pay a darn thing. Give us a thumbs up, like, follow, subscribe, share. Reach out to twenty-five people, twenty five connections in your phone. Let them know about the voices for voices, TV show and podcast. This is making ripples not just here in the United States of America, but across the world. We're making ripples across governments, across militaries, across average people like myself. And it's because of you, you're helping us continue to carry that torch and continue on. Your demand for our content is the reason we're doing what we do. We could have given up a long time ago. When you hear me talk about how we have over 480 episodes, just think of how many times I could have quit. I could have given up. I could have just said, eh, it's just a show. It's just what's a big deal. But I didn't. And I'm not. I'm not telling you you can't do what you want to do and what you're doing. I have a lot of work to do on myself. I and so I know there's a lot of ways I can be a better person. And I try to work on those. So don't let anybody tell you you can't do it. Because, like that commercial I saw, and that little girl was on stage, and she was playing music with the movement of her eye. I mean, don't tell me you can't do it. You can't try. Yeah, it might take a lot of tries. It may, it may take a lot of a lot of tries. Anything worth doing takes a lot of time, a lot of trying. It really does. Otherwise, everybody else would be doing what you're doing and what we're doing. And so, yes, yes, there's haters, yes, there's people that don't want to be on the bandwagon. That's fine. What do I say? I say turn the channel, I say follow another podcast. That's what I say. Don't spend your time being upset. I don't want to spend my time being upset and doing something that I don't love doing. So let's come together. I say we wanna reach and help at least three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. We want to do just that. I get it. It's a big number. It's a lot. I don't want to spend the rest of my life not trying. I want to spend the rest of my life trying. And sharing my experience. And experience of others. Experiences of others, plural. That's what I want to do, and that's what we're doing. So I can't I can't give in when when people say, oh, you're just doing these stupid videos, nobody cares. Okay. Everybody's entitled to their opinion, and that's okay. That's okay. I'm spending less of my time judging or worrying about how people perceive us, our organization, the things we do, uh, the things we are trying to do, the things we're we've succeeded in, and that we will continue to succeed in, and as you will see and hear and read. So to anybody out there let this be a little bit of a motivational talk. Anyone tells you you can't do it, tell them yes I can. Or share in your voice. Yes I can. Yes I will. That's okay if you don't want me to. That's okay if you don't think I can do it. I'm gonna do it. Every dream started with an idea. Every dream started with an idea. And sometimes we have to look fear in the eyes instead of running from it when we haven't even seen it. So we look at look look fear in the eyes, it's like okay. I see you. We're gonna keep going. We're gonna keep doing. We're gonna keep accomplishing. We're gonna keep helping. We're gonna keep Doing the things that we've set out to do from the beginning. And if it's taken a year, two years, five years, ten years, it's okay. It's called persistence. It's called persistence. Not only do we have it, but you have it as well. If we want to persist, we will persist. And don't let anybody tell you that you can't. So let's celebrate all the voices in the world. And let's be a voice for not only ourselves, but maybe somebody else as well that may not be able to share their voice. And we'll see you on the next episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. Thank you so much. We'll see you next time. Bye for now.