Experience
Hear, feel, and see the full song through the listening methods available to the child.
A Musical JourneyTo Comprehension
Three Steps, One Musical Journey
Pilot Sessions
Build the language
Children explore rhythm, vibration, visual cues, sound, and musical elements while building words for what they feel and hear.
Format Studio
Discover the conditions
Songs and stems are explored, separated, and adjusted to identify what helps each child distinguish and comprehend music.
Music Signature™
Adapt the music
The child’s listening profile guides the transcoding of eligible songs into a personalized musical experience.
Every session teaches us more.
One Child’s Discovery ImprovesMusic for the Next
De-identified observations show how Deaf and Hard of Hearing listeners perceive music.The findings guide hearing technology, streaming platforms, artists, and researchers.
Music is accessible.
Sound, Rhythm AndSensory Exploration
How Pilot Sessions Work
The disAPPility team begins each Pilot Session with a clear plan and several ways to explore music through vibration, sound, visuals, movement, simple instruments, and everyday objects.
The children guide what happens next. The team continues activities that spark curiosity, changes activities that do not connect, and stops activities that create discomfort.
Each session helps shape the next one. The team learns which tools work, how children communicate, and what helps them recognize and enjoy music.
Building The Vocabulary
Hands-on activities in a small, relaxed group. Children who do not use
hearing instruments are always welcome. No music experience required.
Stage 1
Experiential Vocabulary
Children feel rhythm through vibration,touch, and contact with speakers.
Stage 2
Musical Vocabulary
Children connect those experiences to words for rhythm, vocals, instruments, and other musical elements.
The skills children develop reach far beyond music.
The next step
Both Stages Prepare Children
For The Format Studio
Pilot Sessions give children words for what they feel, hear, recognize, and prefer.Children use that vocabulary to explore songs and stems in the Format Studio.
Choose A Session
Ages 6–15
Feeling first, then technical vocabulary, at a pace that fits the group.
Ages 16+
A separate group for teens and adults. Most bring some memory of music, good or bad, that becomes part of what disAPPility learns.
Good to Know
Pilot Sessions are free, and space is limited. Ian, profoundly Deaf and fluent in conversational American Sign Language (ASL), leads every session personally.
A shared vocabulary begins here.
Format Studio ExploresConditions That ImproveMusic Comprehension
Before music can be adapted
First, Understand How EachChild Experiences Music
The Format Studio changes songs, stems, listening methods, and sensory supports.The sound engineer identifies the musical information each listener misses.Music Signature transcodes those discoveries to restore recognition.
How A Format Session Works
A consistent framework produces reliable data. Each child’s responses guide the session.
Separate
Explore vocals, drums, bass, melody, and other approved stems alone and in combinations.
Adjust
Change stem balance, frequency emphasis, haptics, delivery method, and other controlled variables.
Identify
Document the conditions associated with recognition, comfort, enjoyment, attention, and comprehension.
Confirm
Apply those conditions to unfamiliar songs, compare the result, and refine the child’s profile.
Every Format Session Produces Two Outcomes
For the child
A personal Music Signature profile
The session identifies the listening conditions that can guide the transcoding of eligible songs for that child.
For the field
Music perception intelligence
De-identified observations expand the field’s understanding of what Deaf and Hard of Hearing listeners can distinguish, what listeners may miss, and which changes may help.
One Studio. Two Purposes.
Format Studio
The Format Studio team runs controlled listening sessions, develops personal profiles, validates transcoded results, and builds the research dataset.
Recording Studio
The Recording Studio generates revenue. Participating artists may contribute approved stems for reduced recording rates and future accessibility insights.
The Studio discovers the conditions.
Music Signature Applies Those Conditions to the Song
Discovery becomes a listening profile.
Music Signature™Transcodes MusicFor You
From shared language to personalized conditions.
A profile before a song
Music Signature Is a Personalized Listening Profile
The Format Studio identifies the conditions that help a child distinguish and comprehend music. Music Signature stores those conditions and applies them when the listener selects an eligible song.
When Does Transcoding Occur?
The Music Signature engine transcodes a song after the Format Studio develops the listener’s profile and receives a rights-cleared song with usable stems.
Song + Stems
The original recording and approved component tracks enter the engine.
→
Music Signature
The listener’s profile supplies the personalized parameters.
→
Transcode
The engine adjusts, rebalances, processes, and reassembles the stems.
→
Personalized Playback
The engine delivers the adapted version through the selected listening method.
Every Listening Response Adds Evidence
Each Transcoded Song RefinesThe Listener’s Music Profile
The listener’s responses add information about recognition, comprehension, comfort, and preference. Music Signature uses that information to refine the profile across songs, genres, artists, devices, and changes in hearing.
The profile adapts the music.
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Compare different versions of the same song
Original
Your version
Cover 1
Cover 2
Turn on one or more versions. Switch between them at any time.
Explore The Console Controls
The Console adjusts four core musical elements.A future version will use real recording stems developed through artist partnerships and the Format Studio.
Available in the current Console
VocalsDrumsBassMelody
Potential future parameters
Masking controlFrequency emphasisDynamic rangeHaptic outputDevice delivery
Engineering, clinical, accessibility, rights, and user-testing partners will establish the final controls.
Pilot Sessions begin the path toward the Format Studio.
Control your preferences.
What MusicTeaches UsAbout Hearing?
A New Research Question
What Is MissingFrom YOUR Music?
Hearing technology measures thresholds, speech, amplification, and noise.The Format Studio studies the musical information each listener misses.The Studio identifies the changes that restore recognition.
What The Format Studio Studies
Listener
Hearing profile, age, musical memory, communication, and preference.
Music
Vocals, bass, rhythm, melody, masking, genre, and production.
Technology
Hearing instruments, processors, Bluetooth, telecoil, speakers, and haptics.
Response
Recognition, comprehension, comfort, attention, and preference.
Who Uses The Findings
Hearing technologyStreaming platformsArtists and labelsRecording engineersUniversitiesAccessibility developers
Where the Stems Come From
Rights-Cleared Music Access
Artists contribute approved stems through Studio sessions, direct agreements, label agreements, streaming partnerships, or licensed catalogs.
Research value supports negotiated access, licensing, and data-sharing. Every agreement must define rights and royalties.
The Research Value Exchange
Music Access
Approved Stems and Catalogs
Rights holders enable controlled research and personalized adaptation.
Research Return
Music Perception Data
disAPPility shows how Deaf and Hard of Hearing listeners experience music.
Public Benefit
Better Music and Technology
The findings guide accessible mixes, hearing applications, and streaming features.
Music Signature Is the First Application
The Dataset GuidesWhat Comes Next
Every child teaches us something new about music.
The guitar lesson was the beginning
🎸The Guitar Lesson
As a Deaf and Hard of Hearing child, I wanted to play. The instructor wanted to teach. I knew I needed accommodations, but I did not feel empowered to ask for them.
There was a baby in the house. I sensed that asking for more volume would wake the baby. I stayed quiet because I did not know how to assert myself.
Communication breakdowns are rarely one thing. They are several things at once.
↓
🔍The Search
When I was a student at NTID/RIT, I spent countless hours listening to the Born in the U.S.A. album by Bruce Springsteen. Some vocals were easier to follow than others, but songs like Born in the U.S.A. were especially difficult to decode.
Long blocks of lyrics, with almost no punctuation or visual structure, made the cassette liner notes hard to follow while listening.
I could hear the music. What I could not do was tell which voice was singing at that exact moment.
By the time I found the lyric I was looking for, The Boss had already moved on.
↓
🎵 The Recognition
When I was home from college on break, I was watching Real Genius. As the closing credits rolled, the captions appeared, spelling out the opening lyrics of Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears.
For the first time in my life, I recognized a song playing on television.
↓
💡The Realization
My hearing had not changed.
The conditions had.
That realization sparked disAPPility.
You Are Invited
Ian Portnoy
Founder, disAPPility
Building disAPPility one conversation, one observation, and one discovery at a time, guided by what children need.
Email:
music@disappility.com
Phone (Text only):
954-549-8553
Not sure where you fit?
Reach out anyway. The right conversation shapes the next step.
Families
A child-first Pilot Session gives your child room to build skills for life, with you as familiar support.
Hosts, Educators, Clinicians & Community Partners
Bring insight from education, audiology, accessibility, or community-based support.
Research, Music, Technology & Investment Partners
Help build the Format Studio, contribute stems, advance hearing technology, develop research, or scale the conditions that make music comprehension possible.
Ian is in your corner.