A public-benefit technology initiative

Technology for good, in practice.

Deaf-led, Portland-based. Music you can see and feel, accessibility taught to the people who run schools and make media, and calm tech help for older adults. Built with the people it serves. Two programs are running now, the third is in pilot.

See the programs → Work with us
The context

Mission-driven teams are outpaced by their tools.

Nonprofits, schools, arts and culture organizations, and public-interest teams need better technology support, but lack the capacity to implement it safely and accessibly.

"The opportunity is not just to use new tools. It's to help communities shape technology around their own needs."

Our programs

Three programs, one practice.

Accessible technology, built with the communities it serves. Led by disabled technologists and artists, with a disability-led board by design. Two are running now, the third is in pilot.

Program 01 About ten people spread across a stage playing marimbas, vibraphone, hand drums, keyboards and guitars together, several wearing lit headgear and haptic vests.

Inclusive Music Technology

Most music teaching assumes you can hear it. That leaves Deaf and hard-of-hearing people out of playing, not just out of listening. We make music something you can see and feel, so a mixed group can play together without anyone having to adapt.

In practice that means two things we build and use ourselves. Pixelboop gives every note a color, so pitch and harmony can be followed by eye instead of by ear, with no notation to learn first. Audiolux turns live sound into light and vibration, so a performance reaches a whole room, including the people in it who cannot hear it.

Current partner: the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, toward a Deaf-led jazz concert in 2027. The PJCE partnership ↗

Case study: Deaf jazz workshops at Southern Oregon University →

The technology →

Program 02 A working session in a rehearsal room: a guitarist plays and laughs while a person in the foreground wears a haptic vest with round drivers across the back, and two others set up gear behind them.

Education & Advocacy

School workshops. Deaf students are often handed a support worker and left at the edge of the music room. We run the session itself, in ASL and English together, so those students are the ones playing. Currently in a Portland Public Schools Deaf education program.

Training for people who make media. Captions and audio description are usually added at the end, by someone who was not in the room, and it shows. We teach filmmakers and producers to plan for them from the first day, which costs less and works better. Delivered in July 2026 for the production staff of a national documentary series.

Case study: SeeSound at Creston School →

Accessibility consulting for film and media is available. Accessibility services →

Program 03 · pilot Flat illustration: an older adult and a helper sit at a table as equals, looking at a tablet together, with a speech bubble of caption lines above it.

Tech Support for Seniors

Older adults get the least out of technology and take the most of its harm. Usually they are told to be careful, then left alone with it. We do the opposite.

One to one. A person to ask, by video call or in writing, before you click the thing that looks wrong. Also for the ordinary stuff: the phone, the photos, the video call with family that will not connect.

In groups. Short sessions at libraries and community centers, in plain language, on staying safe and on the things technology is genuinely good for: turning on captions, checking whether something is true, and finding what you saved six months ago.

Starting in Portland, Oregon. Find a helper ↗

Illustration, not a photograph. This program is a pilot.

What we build

Sound is not the only way in.

Music usually travels one way, as sound, which leaves out anyone who cannot hear it. These three tools carry it other ways instead: as light, as color, and as vibration you feel in your chest. All three are in classrooms and on stages right now.

Visual music A performer on a low black stage in a hall with a wood-slatted ceiling, standing between freestanding light tubes glowing teal and magenta, with a faint circular projection on the wall behind.

Music you can see

Audiolux turns sound into light and color as it happens, so a song can be followed by eye rather than by ear. Audiolux Jam puts the same color language on a screen, so a group can play together and keep track of each other by looking.

This is what the school workshops run on, with instruction in ASL and English together. jam.audiolux.app ↗

Color-based music learning Three people working closely at a bank of synthesizers and screens, one playing a bass, one seated listening, one leaning in at the keys.

Music you can play without reading it

Pixelboop is an iOS app, on the App Store today, that gives every note its own color on a grid. No notation and no theory are needed first, which makes it a way into music for people the conventional route leaves out.

Current partnership: the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, a twelve-piece jazz chamber orchestra. A joint Oregon Arts Commission proposal was filed in August 2026. pixelboop.com ↗

Haptics Two people at a marimba, both wearing haptic vests with round drivers across the chest, mallets raised, laughing as they play.

Music you can feel

Wearable haptic vests carry the music to the body as vibration, so a room of Deaf and hearing people shares one performance instead of two. Up to thirty vests have gone out at a single event, alongside ASL interpretation and audio-reactive visuals.

Case study: Deaf jazz workshops at Southern Oregon University →

Behind these sits a fourth strand: a disability-led virtual production lab, run through the COVID period, which coordinated accessible video productions with partner organizations and Deaf artists. Captioning, interpretation and visual design were part of the production pipeline rather than added afterward. All of the technology →

Accessibility services sit alongside this rather than inside it: captioning systems and access production for live events, and accessibility consultation for film, television and media. Accessibility services →

Case studies

Work already delivered.

Every one of these happened in a real room, with a partner who can vouch for it. Helpful Tech is new; the work is not. These were led by its founder under earlier partnerships, and the method and the relationships came with him.

December 2024 · Ashland An ensemble at instruments across a lit stage, seen from the back of the hall over rows of empty auditorium seats.

Teaching jazz you can feel

Southern Oregon University, with CymaSpace, funded by South Arts Jazz Road. Two workshops in one day with the university's Honors and Percussion ensembles, joined by members of the local Deaf community.

Outcome: thirty Deaf and hard-of-hearing participants, fifteen SOU students, a haptic vest for everyone in the room, and an invitation back to expand outreach in the community.

Read the case study →

2025 to 2026 · Portland A school auditorium stage set for a workshop: tall LED tubes lit in color, a bass drum, and a row of color coded percussion tubes laid out across a floor mat printed with a musical staff, with rows of empty seats behind.

SeeSound at Creston School

Portland Public Schools, with CymaSpace, at the school that houses the district's Deaf and hard-of-hearing program. A school year of monthly workshops, taught visually with SeeSound LED tubes and jam.audiolux.app, in ASL and English together.

Outcome: seven workshop days, four student groups in rotation each time, ages K-5, three hours of ASL interpretation per workshop. The school's principal has confirmed support for a spring 2027 return.

Read the case study →

July 2022 · Hillsboro A performer in a straw hat and sunglasses grins with both arms raised on a low stage, in front of a wall filled with large projected capital-letter captions, with lit white and orange light tubes on stands beside him.

An ADA Anniversary built for Deaf audiences first

Hillsboro Parks & Recreation, with CymaSpace, at the Hidden Creek Community Center. A Deaf-led bill of hip hop, stand-up comedy and DJ sets, where every act on the program was Deaf.

Outcome: live captioning with a CART provider, ASL interpreters scheduled across the whole run of show, and lighting and projection cues written so the music was visible. Access sat in the technical rider next to sound and lighting, not after it.

Read the case study →

Being written up next, as records are confirmed: the Northwest Deaf Arts Festival, and video productions coordinated for partner organizations and Deaf artists. All case studies →

Lineage

We are already in the room.

Helpful Tech grows out of more than a decade of Deaf-led work in Portland. Its founder, Myles de Bastion, built the sound-to-light and haptic instruments shown at the Portland Art Museum and OMSI, founded the Northwest Deaf Arts Festival, and produced a 2019 visual-music concert with the Oregon Symphony for Deaf students. Today that work continues in classrooms at Creston School with Portland Public Schools, on stage with the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, and in accessibility consulting for ITVS, Gallaudet University, the Oregon Health Authority, and the Academy Museum.

A packed lecture room at Southern Oregon University, an ASL interpreter signing at the front, roughly forty students watching a music technology demonstration.

Southern Oregon University, December 2024. Part of a South Arts Jazz Road tour with workshops and performances at SOU, Western Oregon University and Portland Community College. Read the case study →

A university percussion room mid-workshop, musicians at mallet instruments and gongs, haptic vests over the chairs.
Western Oregon University, percussion workshop. Participants wear haptic vests so the music can be felt as well as heard.
Two musicians at a vibraphone, an older man seated with a saxophone across his lap reaching in with a mallet while a standing guitarist plays beside him.
Learning by playing, not by watching. Players of every age work the same instrument together.
A percussion ensemble pauses mid-session around marimba, vibraphone and gongs.
A full ensemble session. Access built into the rehearsal, not added at the end.

Helpful Tech is new. The relationships are not. Myles has worked with, or been funded by, every organization below, between 2014 and 2026.

Three of these written up in full: Southern Oregon University · Creston School · ADA Anniversary, Hillsboro · all case studies →

Schools and education
Creston School, Portland Public Schools, with students from Columbia Regional Inclusive Services Tucker Maxon School Gallaudet University, Motion Light Lab
Arts and culture institutions
Portland Art Museum OMSI Oregon Symphony (2019) Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble Northwest Deaf Arts Festival (founder) Oglethorpe University Museum of Art Academy Museum of Motion Pictures D-PAN, Deaf Professional Arts Network
Media and film
ITVS / Independent Lens StoryMinders CNN Great Big Story Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Funders
National Endowment for the Arts (through CymaSpace) Oregon Community Foundation and Oregon Humanities, Fields Artist Fellowship United States Artists, 2025 Fellow Oregon Arts Commission Regional Arts and Culture Council and the City of Portland MusicOregon Echo Fund Charitable Partnership Fund (fiscal sponsor) Epic Games Unreal Fellowship Open Signal New Media Fellowship

de Bastion, Inc.

Partner studio. Builds and maintains the tools Helpful Tech programs run on, under a written license. inc.debastion.com ↗

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble

Active partner. A Deaf-led jazz collaboration using Pixelboop and Audiolux, toward a 2027 concert. The PJCE partnership ↗

Creston School

Active partner, Portland Public Schools. Deaf-led music and technology workshops, 2025 to 2026, with a spring 2027 return in planning.

Tucker Maxon School

In conversation. Partner on the 2027 Deaf-led jazz project, with a Pixelboop workshop in discussion.

Founder: Myles de Bastion, a Deaf and Low Vision musician and technologist. myles.debastion.com ↗

Who we serve

Communities the commercial market underserves.

Organizations that need technology but can't rely on standard commercial models alone.

A workshop leader signs mid-session, wearing a haptic vest, with a saxophone, a camera and recording equipment around him in a university rehearsal room.
Sessions run in ASL and English together, led by a Deaf technologist, not translated at the edge of the room.
Nonprofits Schools & Universities Cultural Orgs Deaf & Disabled Communities Public Agencies Under-Resourced Communities Community Orgs Older Adults
Why Helpful Tech

Accessibility, ethics, and implementation, together.

Most support stops at a workshop or a recommendation. We stay through implementation, building with communities, not at them.

Structure

Forming as a nonprofit, with a fiscal sponsor as the bridge.

Helpful Tech is forming as an Oregon nonprofit with a founding board of three, growing to five, and 501(c)(3) status to follow. Until then it operates with a fiscal sponsor as its back office, so grants and donations can flow now. The tools are built by de Bastion, Inc., a separate studio, and licensed in. Mission, money, and method stay separable and reviewable.

Get involved

We're early. The communities are growing.

  • Partner with us. Nonprofits, schools, disability orgs, community health providers looking for technology that doesn't extract: we want local partners ready to work with us, not just receive.
  • Hire us. Accessibility consulting for film and media (captions, audio description, access-first production) and workshops for schools, libraries, and community centers. Accessibility services ↗
  • Follow the work. We publish what we build. Read the vision brief ↗