Birder breaks down barriers through Birdability [Video]

In conversation, Cassandra Dean smiles easily and laughs often. But her eyes well up with tears remembering a birding event she led last fall at Indian Cave State Park.

At her event, designed to be inclusive to people with disabilities and other health concerns, Dean met a mother who brought her son, who has muscular dystrophy.

“I think he was more passionate about birds than I was that day,” Dean said. “His eyes just lit up.”

His mother thanked Dean and said that as her son’s disease progressed, they would need events closer to their Omaha-area home.

It’s a sentiment Dean hears often. Dean, who lives in Lincoln, volunteers with Birdability, a nonprofit working to share birding with people who have disabilities or other health concerns.

She’s acutely aware of the immense need, but also of her limitations, both as one individual and a volunteer, and as a person with …