Today we have a special treat for you! Our hosts Drs. Dieker and Hines get to sit down with Dr. Janet Bertoni, a part of Autism on the Seas. Autism on the Seas is an international organization that develops cruise vacation services to accommodate adults and families living with children with Special Needs. This includes but is not limited to, Autism, Asperger Syndrome, Down Syndrome, Tourette Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and all Cognitive, Intellectual, and Developmental Disabilities. Tune in as they discuss what it’s like sailing for the families and the individuals they serve using their services. For more information about Autism on the Seas, visit their website: https://autismontheseas.com or (800) 516-5247 or (203) 604-0278.
Don't forget we love to hear from our listeners! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. We look forward to receiving your questions on our Google Phone (407) 900- 9305, Facebook (Practical Access), Twitter (@AccessPractical), or Instagram (@Practical_Access).
Today we have a special treat for you! Our hosts Drs. Dieker and Hines get to sit down with Dr. Janet Bertoni, a part of Autism on the Seas. Autism on the Seas is an international organization that develops cruise vacation services to accommodate adults and families living with children with Special Needs. This includes but is not limited to, Autism, Asperger Syndrome, Down Syndrome, Tourette Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and all Cognitive, Intellectual, and Developmental Disabilities. Tune in as they discuss what it’s like sailing for the families and the individuals they serve using their services. For more information about Autism on the Seas, visit their website: https://autismontheseas.com or (800) 516-5247 or (203) 604-0278.
Don't forget we love to hear from our listeners! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. We look forward to receiving your questions on our Google Phone (407) 900- 9305, Facebook (Practical Access), Twitter (@AccessPractical), or Instagram (@Practical_Access).
Welcome to practical access. I'm Lisa Dieker.
Rebecca Hines:And I'm Rebecca Heinz. And Lisa, in our summer of fun, I can't think of a topic more fun than today's Who do we have?
Lisa Dieker:Welcome, Janet, we're so excited. You're with us. what do you do on autism of the sea? But what if I want to be a part of it? What does it look like? What does that organization do?
Janet Bertoni:Sure, so autism on the seas is essentially a travel agency that supports families who are traveling with exceptional guests. Although our focus is on cruising, we also do resort stays, and we do some in Disney, some in Turks and Caicos, and things like that, but our primary focus is cruising. So all of our staff members are professional volunteers. Typically, each Cruise is staffed
Rebecca Hines:So I just okay, as somebody who has been on a cruise with kids, I just want to be sure my ears are not deceiving me. You're saying that you you and your team, provide support so that me and my adult loved ones can go and do something else for a while, while you guys help support our kids no matter if they're a student with special needs.
Janet Bertoni:Right. So let's take a sea day, for example, when everyone is on the ship, and no one can get off. So what a sea day would look like is we would provide support for breakfast from eight to 9am. If that means cutting up the child's food with family direction as to whether or not the size of the food is appropriate. That's what we can do. If it means helping the child in the buffet
Lisa Dieker:I see that happening.
Janet Bertoni:Oh yeah. There's usually short break after Pool time for everyone to get showered up. And then we report to lunch. And we provide support in the lunch buffet area on a cruise for about an hour again, assisting however families need that. After lunch, we will take the children in our total care for a total of about two hours for respite and that's where we'll do. It's very much is really great for our families because one of the primary characteristics of autism and other related exceptionalities is that waiting in line can lead to behavioral events that are dangerous or uncomfortable for families and also for other guests that are on board. So having those private sessions is key, and we assist with those following that we will assist at formal dinner, which is in
Rebecca Hines:I have to say it really does sound almost too good to be true. You that is an amazing service. So the natural question is, is there a fee at all for families? Or how does that work?
Janet Bertoni:Sure. So families do pay a service fee, it's based on the number of nights of the vacation, and the number of individuals in their travel party. And it's sort of a per person per night fee. And really what that covers is the cabin read for the volunteer staff that are supporting them. So, you know, many families initially are like, well, you know, taking a vacation is very
Lisa Dieker:And I'm curious about a different question. Because you know, I think we're all of the same party here that we believe all kids to be everywhere all the time. What have you found to be the reaction of two groups of volunteers, like when they finish, but even of the people that aren't volunteers? Like what have you noticed is kind of the culture as you provide this service? Because I
Janet Bertoni:Yeah, so you know, typical guests on these vacations who are not part of our travel party. First of all, they tend to think we're part of the ship crew, because we're wearing a staff shirt uniform all week. Although it looks very different from the cruise. It says staff, so they think that we're part of the staff and we know where the restroom is, or the dining room. So it I can't tell you how many times I stepped into the elevator. Just this past week, I had a team of five, myself included, and I met people in the elevator on a daily basis who just you know, we're like, what do you guys do? Like I always see running, there's so many of you. And I'm like there's literally only five of us. We're just really fast. And we're everywhere because we're wherever the children go. So it definitely brings a sense of awareness to And I think that that means one thing in an interview and you're really excited, but then coming out of the volunteer experience and realizing just how much we work. I think it can be a little bit of a shock to the system. We certainly do get volunteers who volunteer once and they just Say, you know, that was a great experience, but it's not for me. And then, you know, we get volunteers who do this seven or eight times a year, and they're just totally hooked on it.
Lisa Dieker:That's great. And when my quick follow up question is, what do you think the volunteers take away? From that experience? What did they learn about themselves? Do you think because I'm just seeing a great opportunity for somebody who thinks, oh, I want to be a teacher, or I think this is a population I want to work for. And is there an age limit to like, you have to be 18, 21,
Janet Bertoni:So in order to volunteer with the organization, you have to be involved in you have to be a special education professional already of some sort. So for some individuals, this is a nice way to take like a recreational approach to special education, as opposed to you know, that school based, academically, behaviorally socially focused, you know, emphasis that we have in schools, we always emphasize to our staff, like you're not working, we're not changing behaviors, we're not shaping, we may redirect, we use positive techniques and redirection as much as possible. So this is not school. Although Yes, you probably could teach that child to accept three more unique foods in this. You
Rebecca Hines:I really love this, and I so appreciate this service that that you guys provide. So I'm sure you're asked this all the time, Janet, but my final question is, you know, do you serve exclusively families and students with autism? Or do you broaden that at all?
Janet Bertoni:Yep, so we actually serve on anyone with any level of exceptionality from ages three up. So you know, most recently, I had guests with Williams Syndrome. I've had guests with prader willi syndrome, intellectual disability, traumatic brain injury, I've even had guests with medium grade anxiety and the families really just wanted us to be there as kind of like a buddy. So there is Going out to karaoke together. But, you know, they we're called Autism on the Seas because that really was the primary focus of our group and it certainly is the primary area of expertise of our volunteer base. But you know, we we get a fair amount of information from our families about our guests prior to sailing. And the team's responsibility. their homework before traveling is really to
Lisa Dieker:Love it. So so I'm going to end with my last question and since this is the theme is summer fun, if you could summarize in a sentence or two, what do you think families would say collectively is the most fun about the experience they have with your organization? What do you see as like the fun cuz I can only imagine like my mind is blown to I can think of a million. But what do you see over and over again?
Janet Bertoni:I think that for our families that the fun part of this is being in an environment of total acceptance. So if when their child has a self described meltdown, no one really bats an eye, it's this, you know, ability to be able to go out vacation and feel zero judgment about any of their child's behaviors during that time. And also knowing that they can trust this new family of
Lisa Dieker:And I think fun and relaxation is exactly what everybody should do with their last remaining days of summer. So we thank you so much, Janet, for not only all you do to volunteer and serve kids and families, but for being on the podcast today. Thank you so much. And if you have any questions for us, please send us a Tweet at Access practical or you can also send us a question on our Facebook page. Thanks