Aphasia Tones get top billing for Yosemite performance
The Aphasia Tones in 2012 (Photo: Barry Zepel)
- June 4, 2013
Even Carnegie Hall can’t present as glorious a site as the one at which The Aphasia Tones©, Cal State East Bay’s chorus made up of persons learning to live with aphasia, were set to perform.
Try Yosemite National Park.
Aphasia, a communications disorder that most commonly occurs after a stroke, affects speaking, understanding, reading and writing. Approximately two million Americans are living with the condition.
The National Park Service and Yosemite Conservancy, reaching out to make the location welcoming to aphasia survivors, have created the first aphasia-friendly printed guide to the park. The Aphasia Tones were slated to perform to help promote the newly published guide, which includes walking tours and notes specific services for persons who have aphasia.
“We’re proud that the Aphasia Tones were invited by the Yosemite Conservancy to perform in that magnificent setting,” said Ellen Bernstein-Ellis, director of the Aphasia Treatment Program (ATP), which is part of the university’s Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders. “It truly is an historic event to see our national parks improve communicative access with the launching of the new guide.”
CSUEB Professor Emerita Jan Avent, Bernstein-Ellis and their ATP colleagues provided review and feedback to the conservancy and National Park Service as the aphasia-friendly guide was being developed. Bernstein-Ellis noted that the Yosemite Conservancy provided a grant that was used in part to fund the travel to Yosemite for the singers and ATP staff.
The June 5 program at which the Aphasia Tones performed a noon concert, took place at the Yosemite Lodge. In addition to their singing, the chorus members and their guests were escorted on a walking tour of the park.
Cal State East Bay’s Aphasia Treatment Program was founded in 1996 by Avent. In addition to speech and language treatment, the program includes communicative discussion groups and a book club among many other activities. Bernstein-Ellis developed the Aphasia Tones in 2009.