Outlook on Radio Western: Recent Episodes
Outlook on Radio Western
Inspired by The Canadian Federation of the Blind, Outlook is a show about accessibility, advocacy, and equality. Hosted by two siblings who were born blind. Heard on 94.9 Radio Western every Monday from 11 AM to noon.
at this point, in 2026, what is it?Check out “The Accessibility Advantage” podcast with Max as he addresses the topic:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-accessibility-advantage/id1740242884Accessibility is my message because I feel like I am uniquely suited because of my experience, to approach accessibility from the positive benefit side and leave the scare people to death side to everyone else.We talk AI and falling on the ice and getting right back up - It’s Everything Max with a laugh along with our friend with the Texas charm. Check him out, everything Max, by going to his website:http://theaccessibilityadvantage.com
Our guest says: It really made you realise how different all of us/all of you with rare diseases are. We assumed we’d find some things in common but we found more differences than more things in common which is interesting just because of how vast it is and what an area it covers.Janet is back, talking being the mother of two one in a million children, a full seven years since that time after her first well received radio show guest appearance with us back in May of 2019 - that’s right, we’re speaking with our mother for the full hour on Outlook this week.We’re thrown right into sounds from the big city of Toronto, to kick off the show, as today we’re discussing sister/co-host Kerry’s recent attendance at a rare disease conference put on by The Canadian Organisation for Rare Disorders.CORD, as they’re known, gave her a scholarship to attend, in person this year. It was Kerry’s first year going to this particular conference, but she went with our mother who once had no other way of researching her child’s rare disease back in the mid 90s, new, and scary symptoms during the pre-Internet days, but than to request medical journal articles (full of complex clinical language) being sent from one library to another.Check out this first half hour appearance of Janet, our mom, on Outlook with us all the way back during our very first Mother’s Day episode:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2019-05-13-mothers-day-feat-our-mom-janet/id1527876739?i=1000488226654Returning to this latest hour, we discuss again how Kerry found out about this conference and its associated scholarship to begin with, about going as one of the patient advocates while feeling lost amongst the medical minefield of a hotel conference room full of mostly physicians and drug companies and researchers, and about why it was decided for Kerry and our mom to go together (from both Kerry and our mom’s perspectives).They share a bit about their relaxing stay at a downtown Toronto hotel which included sitting by the coy pond and fountain, about the sketchy wifi, and about the handy location of the place in the city even if the rooftop pool wasn’t yet open for the season, along with the wonderful array of healthy and not snacks and meals provided which also included room service after a long conference day.Both share about what it felt like to be amongst other families, parents, and caregivers, earlier along in their loved one’s rare disease journey than we are, who they could see themselves in, doing anything and everything to advocate and learn about rare and ultra rare diseases. It was easy to empathise, in a place like that, with both Kerry and brother/co-host Brian having been diagnosed with Senior Loken Syndrome by the geneticist team at Toronto’s Hospital For Sick Children in 1997.Kerry describes not only the positive parts of attending, but also about hearing the word “burden” used throughout the conference. She explains what it felt like when a room of medical professionals looked at things clinically, from a medical model of disability and chronic (rare) disorders, when those of us who are the patients, in this case are why the conference was going on in the first place.Janet then describes what it feels like to be a parent in a room like this, 30 years on from Kerry’s first diagnosis with a rare disease related condition of renal failure.Note from Kerry: I talk a lot about rare disease, but just chronic illness in general and how we accept things in life and how we learn to live with them. Then when do you push for some answers and that’s what I’m doing right now and that’s why I attended this conference for the first time. Again I wanna thank CORD, Canadian Organisation For Rare Disorders for supporting me and attending my first rare disease conference with them.Check out more from CORD by going to their website:https://www.raredisorders.ca
What’s an omnibus? What’s an archer?This week’s program kicks off with the theme to BBC Radio 4’s The Archers Omnibus, a song that pumps up Kerry and Barry at the start of every week. The Archers, which is celebrating it’s 75th anniversary this year, also happens to be the longest running serial in the world. This radio drama which takes place in rural England has become routine listening for Kerry and Barry the last couple years. They comment on the show’s impressive sound design, how it tackles issues such as race and class, and how the plotlines mirror real life. Though Kerry has always loved TV, radio dramas like this appeal to her these days with her vision lessening because they give her brain a break from the visual stimuli.We wrap up this mixed bag month discussing the varying quality of audio description out there. Brian comments on the AD for Running Point as voiced by friend Nefertiti Matos Olivares comparing it to that of the new King of the Hill season. This is an excellent example demonstrating how important it is to blend into a show as an audio describer, without trying to sound like your own character.We also put out a call for donations to The Pacific Training Centre for the Blind as unfortunately a grant they rely on wasn’t approved this year. We’ve spoke of them on this show a lot, outlining how essential centres like this are where blind people share their lived experience with other blind people to help with independent living. Donate here:https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/blindstewards/To finish off, we hop back on The Archers Omnibus and head to the Academic Archers Conference in Birmingham. Kerry and Barry had been planning to go to this for months and as luck would have it, they were sick, but still took the trek. They share about accessibility including the cab driver walking them for 5 minutes into the airport as there was no accessible drop off close to it. Workers from the hotel they stayed at offered to guide them to the conference centre during the weekend event. There were volunteers at the conference that helped them with the food as a buffet lunch isn’t the most convenient for blind people. They share about the papers and panels presented. One of the actors from the show, Ryan Kelly, who also happens to be blind was there. Another great example of representation, a blind person playing a character in a show that isn’t blind. They briefly got to meet him, though the exchange was awkward, showing just because someone is also blind it doesn’t mean we immediately connect with them. Though Barry also met an attendee who is blind and they had much more time to chat as they were at the same table during the banquet while Ryan Kelly was on his way out.And the big highlight for them was sitting in a giant meeting room with everyone at the conference on the Sunday morning, listening live to The Archers Omnibus together. This was a one-of-a-kind, shared experience with all of the show’s quirky and nerdy fans.Listen to The Archers Omnibus:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-archers-omnibus/id338529121And learn more about the PTCB from Elizabeth Lalonde’s appearance earlier this year:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2026-02-02-structured-discovery-training-in/id1527876739?i=1000752097822
“Are you really blind?”We three don’t usually get questioned on whether or not we’re really unable to see, but in a large room with around eight hundred people, BF Barry had the question posed to him as he held a mic and called out the guy, on stage, with the bag over his head.It’s a somewhat x rated April mixed bag show, last one from Ireland to Canada for a while, with Sibling’s Day having happened recently, but one difference between Canada and Ireland is that the word “siblings” isn’t used in the latter like it is in the former.We spoke, back in February on our third Family Day show, about the word “siblings” with our brother and sister as our guests once more, while this time brother/co-host Brian shares how he learned since then that the word doesn’t exist in Spanish either.This week on Outlook we speak on sister/co-host Kerry, BF Barry, and Oyster’s recent adventures which include head injuries acquired in a hotel lobby, more lack of braille on the floors above, and inaccessible room menus. They share about getting over the “not Covid” along with fuel shortages and bus station closures, Brian describing his recent experience taking public transportation in Toronto, while Barry and Kerry were having to look for assistance from other travellers after being escorted by a security guard over the bridge when Dublin practically shut down (image description Brian reads painting the picture of a famous Irish capital city’s street in the midst of country wide fuel protests by farmers). This was after their trip, down south, to Limerick City to see a live recording of their favourite Irish podcaster who just so happens to call himself “Blind Boy,” even though he’s not actually blind, known for wearing a bag over his head.We all share our thoughts on someone calling themselves blind when they are not. Also, the upheaval across Ireland produces flashbacks of the 2022 winter Ottawa trucker convoy and the chaos that too caused as we discuss how such protests, while reflecting real and serious issues in both countries, can create very real and serious barriers, especially for people with disabilities.From north to south - travels lately and everything from stab vests to moon launches on this latest one. For more on Blind Boy and his podcast, go here:https://shows.acast.com/blindboy
It’s an April scramble, we’re celebrating the birth of a few friends of the show, and it’s two months exactly till the big performance - sister/co-host Kerry finally appears, BF Barry in the background.This week on Outlook we’re talking getting sick/on our own and together, VoiceOver gestures, and kidneys on the mind.Kerry can’t handle the germs, brother/co-host Brian reflects on his first kidney transplant surgery day from our mom (April 6, 1999), and poor Oyster the guide dog is recouping.Brian shares about his band’s first show coming up (Supply and Demand), King Orca, and we’re all already planning details of the evening. We’re remembering braille on cassette tapes and Kerry is brought back to 1996 through Cup of Soup. Kerry holds onto her fear that Canadian/Ontario hospitals and the healthcare system won’t be functioning like she’s used to as she and Barry both tell the story of an up close encounter with the NHS (National Health Service).I’ll look out for you and you look out for me. Compassion osioeorhcpijsie … religion … oauelkwjnfvljelijras Kerry cuts out, Brian tries to rain things in (April showers) and scrambles to end the show - Canadian flurries and a blur of Easter Monday into Easter Tuesday.As this episode is being shared as a podcast in early June, Brian’s band King Orca’s show is coming up on Saturday 6 June at Supply and Demand Pizza and Beer in London. Doors 8 PM. Would love to see you there if you’re in the area. You can listen to a couple of their songs here:https://kingorca.bandcamp.com/album/the-ceramicist
Kerry agrees that it was a pleasure getting to know Bovard, along with the others, during their time in British Columbia and we hope you will check out this episode and learn more about Jennie's advocacy work, in media and in sports and education, along with hearing her firsthand lived experience of Albinism with Albinism Awareness Day coming up on June 13th.Check out the “Pretty Blind” series by going to:https://www.amiplus.ca/welcomeAnd, as we kick off this one announcing the availability of The Western Gazette’s issue with Outlook featured in it, we’re once more here including a link to the online version of the article:https://westerngazette.ca/culture/the-voice-of-activism-the-kijewski-siblings/article_d025e980-1680-4eb5-a189-b4f2f89ea6f5.html
remain kindred spirits with their shared love of this iconic literary character, like Anne Shirley, one fictional and two real life writers utilising writing for self expression, and through work as advocates in the differing work they do from their little corners of the world, until they can one day meet IRL once more.In the meantime, check out Kerra’s How I Made A Film Without Film School newsletter over on Substack:https://waterinmybones.substack.comOr go to her website:https://kerrabolton.com
So join us for this first part, a before from this before and after “Blindness 101” with Blaine as Blaine and Kerry look back and reflect on their training weekend and how the group bonded, practiced, and connected, through learning how to facilitate “Blindness 101”.And if you are a business, organisation, or other group who might be interested in having a “Blindness 101” workshop (free of charge in 2026), if you are located in Saskatchewan, Ontario, or elsewhere in Canada then reach out to us, Blaine (deutscherblaine@gmail.com), or by going to their website:https://www.blindbeginnings.ca/blindness-101-workshopOr by emailing us here at Outlook and we can pass on any requests to the appropriate provincial facilitator: outlookonradiowestern@gmail.com as we hope this will eventually spread to all provinces and territories not just British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. (Later in March on Outlook we’ll be speaking with Nova Scotia’s facilitator so stay tuned here and for the rest of the year for “the before and after”.
Life is one giant puzzle and we spend it simply gathering up all the pieces we can and attempting to put them in some sort of working order.This week we’re talking the puzzles of life on Outlook - it’s nearly Rare Disease Day, an awareness day that is on the final day of February each year, as every four years it will then fall on February 29th, the rarest day of the year. Sister/co-host Kerry is sharing about recently looking into other possible conditions to add to the diagnosis she and brother/co-host Brian seem to be dealing with, as we also discuss more about the rare syndrome we have already been diagnosed with: Senior-Løken syndrome which includes our retinal blindness, kidney disease, and scoliosis.Kerry explains why she’s taking things to the next level and what she’s doing such as applying to get into a clinic in Toronto for connective tissue disorders and Brian explains the where and when and what of Senior-Løken.Kerry brings props into the studio for this one including a giant marble model of the Earth Barry gifted Kerry and the braille heart puzzle she gave BF Barry for Valentine’s Day to illustrate how difficult it can be to sort out proper medical diagnosis for a wide array of physical and mental and emotional symptoms like ours. Also, to make a heart the right way up with the braille in its proper place.For years, as patients and spending plenty of time at children’s hospitals, there were always puzzles to keep kids occupied, on tables in waiting rooms. Our older brother follows the steps, as he did when he came in, fully equipped, to figure out what the issue was with Kerry and Barry’s surround system speaker while our grandfather always had someone’s homemade wooden puzzle for us to figure out when we visited. Other members of our family have always had double jointed fingers, extra flexible feet and hands, enough that a few hundred years ago we could have been in sideshows, but with Kerry’s latest symptom of daily foot pain we’re reflecting back on our medical past while Kerry receives tests like an ECG of her heart to try to find out more about a possible hyper-mobility condition such as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.We discuss running into our old Braille transcriber at a community spaghetti/lasagna dinner, sports including Canada’s hockey losses in the Olympics and fantasy baseball starting up again, while BF Barry and Kerry announce they’ll be flying with the leprechauns in March, springing once more four or five hours into the future with the clocks about to change and spring ahead.But before March we’re finishing up February as the boys share about birthday month and Family Day, which Barry fits right in on, with the weekend guys night to celebrate our brother-in-law’s birthday a day after Barry’s and BF Barry looks Kerry up by searching her rare conditions, with a rough sounding voice which might be a clue into all the talking that went into attending guy’s night.We’re extra rare and BF Barry believes it. Dare to be rare and check out more about Rare Disease Day and this year’s theme of “Action and Access” with the voices of the rare youth and their voices for change:https://www.rarediseaseday.org
Sibling: each of two or more children or offspring having one or both parents in common; a brother or sisterRegular co-host BF Barry isn’t used to this term, being from Ireland where the word is less commonly used and more something clinical, a word a social worker might use. He is an only child so we figured he’d be the perfect person to moderate this year’s Family Day sibling episode.This week on Outlook, in honour of it being Family Day, Outlook is doing our third one of these (after sibling episodes both in 2021 and 2022) and after taking a few years off of doing this themed show: us four Kijewski siblings are back together.We start by covering pets, like we often do the weather with our other guests, talking new dogs added to the gang since we last recorded one of these: bulldog Ethel having joined our brother’s family (along with first bulldog Norman back in 2020) and including sister Kim’s “big, dopey sweetheart” Otis the Golden Doodle. And we can’t forget Barry’s guide dog Oyster in the midst of it all.Sister Kim’s family are down to zero bunnies after last count of eleven and we even cover brother Paul’s longtime pet snake Meekus.From pets to wild animal encounters, Paul shares how he first got fascinated by snakes on a 1992 family vacation in Florida. While the sisters recount a surprise interaction with a rattlesnake on a gravel path, in the woods, at the camp all four of us attended as a pre-grade eight graduation class trip where Kim was sister/co-host Kerr’s guide for the week.From pets and wildlife to children/nieces and nephew updates, Paul and Kim share about the ages their children are now at. Paul’s Sophia is in high school, all grown up, and going for her driver’s permit at the end of this year while Kim’s daughter Mya is in third grade and liking school, nots so much until she is there, but enjoys a good old snow day when she can get it growing up in snowy Canada like we four all did. The nephews (Reed and Max) are growing up too. Max is an old soul and constantly surprises his mother and father, melts his mother Sue's/Paul’s wife’s heart with the things he says. Kim’s Reed is heading for the same camp we all attended, near to Kerry’s favourite memorable spot on the rocks by the water, heading for graduation from eighth grade and onward to high school next year. Kerry will only be down the street if he ever needs somewhere to go for lunch.Barry inquires whether our sibling’s peers ever said anything mean about Paul and Kim having younger siblings who were blind, but the answer is surprising, more hopeful and positive than that. Then, he asks them if they ever liked to tease us because we couldn’t see them, however their answer is a regular, boring one whereby we all recount tormenting each other in equal measure (sneaking up on one another) just like any other sibling might do.We all get along rather well and our memories are of growing up in a family like any other, the usual fighting over the TV, as only child Barry ponders what it might be like to have such close bonded relationships as we’ve been lucky enough to have.We talk the effort our sister and brother make to learn enough braille to make holiday cards for us in accessible formats, while this next generation continues, in curiosity with our niece having made braille bookmarks to hand out to her teacher and classmates in the past.It’s a good, old fashioned family conversation about snakes and dogs and kids.Barry says, in regards to doing this show with the four of us: A good bunch you’s are.While oldest sibling Paul says in reply: We like talking to you. You are a good dude.And so BF Barry leads us through this familial chat as part of our family now. Maybe next year he will do an episode where he and our sister and brother-in-law have a chat about what it’s like joining the Kijewski family along the way.Check out the previous two Family Day (sibling episodes) here:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-02-15-family-day-with-the-kijewski-siblings/id1527876739?i=1000509546236https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2022-02-21-family-day-2022-return-of/id1527876739?i=1000551891982
Ra Ra Braille!We at Outlook are cheerleaders for braille, whether it’s Braille Literacy Month in January or now being into the month of February and for this first Mixed Bag show of the month following January’s BLM, we continue talking braille this and braille that.This time we’re talking third co-host BF Barry using his learned braille skills to play a card game with brother/co-host Brian or Brian having a go at playing a new game on his phone: Whack a Braille!“An audio first and blind first game built around increasing your touch typing and braille literacy.”This week we’re talking bagpipes, supporting local, and accessible app and game development with Barry’s tales of his favourite inclusive game Glory Frontline.Sister/co-host and Birthday Girl Kerry shares about an audiobook she’s been reading, a memoir by a female musician first introduced to Kerry at the Perkins Museum in Boston in 2024 - I Identify as Blind: A Brazen Celebration of Disability Culture, Identity, and Power.Lachi says about disability, “Just say the word,” along with describing what she terms “disploitation” meaning the exploitation of people and their disabilities (for centuries with a bunch of racism tossed into the mix), then speaking of PEP which stands for positivity, empathy, and pride in the “Disability Movement” and in oneself.And speaking of...Kerry talks trying to be open to another side or perspective (in this case a conservative viewpoint) with a recent Canadian Conservative Leadership Review weekend in Alberta and a Con politician who propped up a trans Con to say that intersectionalities like those on the gender spectrum are unimportant: “Me being trans as like the least interesting thing about me,” this person said on said politician’s video This, Kerry and the boys discuss, is about ideology and tokenism and the well-known “I have a black friend” defence for things like belittling and scrapping the need for EDI (equity/diversity/inclusion) even if that is representative of recognising us all, on this show, as full human beings who acknowledge all the parts of us.So from online and virtual games to the old-school card games made accessible, whether it’s using braille or listening skills and being comfortable with our own voices with a good old-fashioned ramble we’re delving into the mixed bag of topics for this one at the start of this Rare Disease Month.Find out more about Whack a Braille! and play by going here:https://marconius.com/fun/whackABraille/Check out resources for Black History Month and beyond at Western:https://www.edi.uwo.ca/events/black-history-month/Learn more about the organization, “Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities”, that Lachi founded:https://rampd.orgAnd here’s a little bagpipe action by Mudmen for you:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00kh2OZ79L8
Elizabeth shares her lived experience of blindness growing up and connecting with an opportunity to “learn blindness skills” training which led her to want to bring the same sort of rehab program to others closer to home. She tells us about the non visual skills they offer at the PTCB and the “Blind People In Charge” program she launched with the help of a grant from the provincial B.C. government.Elizabeth recognises with non visual learning: “When you have sight, you just tend to use it, (you can’t help it) so it can distract you from using your other senses to get around and to do things.” We talk about the hesitancy, whether new to blindness or not, for many of us to be afraid of wearing things like sleep shades to remove the distraction of any level of seeing when we’re learning how to explore our environment, with all our senses and perceptions, during blindness rehab.We reflect on the types of messages on blindness and early O and M instruction we were given and training we were taught, we highlight the common sense and lived experience in the expression “the blind leading the blind” as sister/co-host Kerry relates that back to her most recent memory of the community and confidence-building that can come from traveling in a group of blind people, and we examine ways of adapting “structure discovery” for the individual and their specific intersectionalities and unique learning styles,Regular Outlook co-host Barry says: “We’re getting taught static navigation for a dynamic world,” when it comes to how blind people receive orientation and mobility instruction. This conversational, truly from an international perspective along with our focus on Canada (with the thesis we’re featuring for its historical significance to blindness rehabilitation anywhere) episode provides a fairly comprehensive bunch of topics that return, always, to the subject of Elizabeth Lalonde’s thesis and our lived experiences with it.We at Outlook want to thank Elizabeth Lalonde for her hard work on presenting us all with a wider window on the landscape of blindness skills training here in Canada, on some more particulars around this thesis, and by doing this on completion of a Master’s degree in Community Development from the University of Victoria. Your work on this topic will be an important study and resource of rehabilitation for the blind in Canada and beyond.Through multiple modalities: including literature study and interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA, a qualitative methodology) ) with interviews she conducted with both students and teachers of the “structure discovery model”, Elizabeth paints a clearer picture of the landscape of Canada’s attitudes and offerings of blindness skills training. To learn more, check out the contents of Elizabeth’s thesis at this link:https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/items/28e4e9ee-884b-44f7-9111-9ff43af95eea
Shawn has done these workshops, for years now on her own in Vancouver, for things like daycare worker staff training and medical office assistant college classes so anyone could potentially hold these for their employees or students or members. So if there’s any organisation, company, group, or business (public services) who would like to discuss having one of these workshops, please do reach out to either us, outlookonradiowestern@gmail.com (for Ontario) or (in other provinces) Blind Beginnings for more information:https://www.blindbeginnings.ca/blindness-101-workshopContact Kerry:https://kayconsulting.caLearn more about Shawna Lawson’s Inclusive Experiences:https://www.inclusive-experiences.caAnd listen to Shawn Marsolais’ previous appearance on the show:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2022-10-10-limitless-possibilities-with-blind/id1527876739?i=1000582557754
Sounds like… sounds like braille! What does braille sound like anyway?This week on Outlook we’re continuing with braille. What does it sound like, look like, feel like? From the analog to the electronic and the hiss of fingers sliding, reading along braille paper’s page, it’s the music of the six dots of the Braille code we’re listening to on another Braille Literacy Month edition of Outlook with a mixed bag of topics with our first all-back-in-studio show together of the new year.We discuss the upcoming year’s Blindness 101 workshops sister/co-host Kerry will be putting on in Ontario, with the next episode’s guests coming on to explain how these will work, so we’re going over ways to demonstrate the six dot braille cell.Speaking of music and the media, we’re also talking accessible guitar amps, sound boards, and other accessible devices in our digital world, all while we’re joined (in-studio) by a Western Gazette newspaper representative who’s doing a story on Outlook, six years on from some of our first media coverage for the show.Kerry and BF Barry share about their most recent Air Canada flight and requesting seat back entertainment system screen reader activation, requiring the flight crew to turn it on at their station, not to mention the wider helpfulness of the crew on this last flight when such customer service isn’t always the case. Plus, an airport inclusion update, from customer service to customs officers.Then there’s story time with storyteller brother/co-host Brian and a tale of Mr. Rogers, a young blind fan, and a question about the feeding schedule status of the on-set goldfish. This alongside discussion of some more upcoming Outlook guests, including for March’s International Women’s Day, while looking back on the previous few years of IWD guests, restorative justice, and a CBC Morning story, in the news, of lived experience of a sexual assault victim minimised in police academy student chat logs.From harsh discrediting to quiet inclusion to book reviews and release announcements (with “The Will To Change” and the January 20th release of “The Culting of America”).We’re grateful for accurate media representation, with coverage for this radio show/podcast, but we also needed to end off this one by revisiting the lazy use of “blind” and “blindness” in the commonly used language and culture.Mechanical or manual, slate or sheet. Keys or stylus. These are the sounds of BRAILLe and check out a link to the patchwork of braille sounds we found in this Youtube video we feature to start this week’s program which our blind and sighted audience can all get something out of:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGMsc7G1kiQ
Our first Outlook guest of the year says: I think we’re very poor at educating our population about what our government does and what it doesn’t do and what our rights are and what they aren’t.Late last year he made headlines after a ruling, his case covered by multiple media sources, but the sensationalisation of how much he was awarded in damages became the clickbait detail, in the end letting the company off the hook from having to truly address their discriminatory attitudes and practices. So, in the end, is this truly a win for workers with disabilities or society as a whole?We discuss seven modalities of learning and the benefits of learning braille for the brain and for future career development as we begin the show, with our first guest of 2026 and January, for Braille Literacy Month and our conversation with all three of us and long-time friend, Erik Burggraaf. (Happy ending spoiler, he now has a rewarding job in the federal government only after years of fighting with employers to be given a chance to prove he could do the work.)This week on Outlook we’re speaking with our friend about his recent human rights case, a lawsuit win and the media coverage that has followed from his success plus the parts that don’t feel like success even still.So how do you know what a legitimate grievance is? How do you know that you have a human rights complaint?Our guest for this one will share his experiences filing human rights cases. It took nearly a decade but Erik was awarded a settlement after proving he was discriminated against when applying for work at a company unable to prove they had exhausted every possible option for making their in-house software accessible and inclusive.Erik Burggraaf shares how those in positions of authority but with no lived experience discouraged him from exploring his full potential and extensive variety of interests as a young person, how he felt he learned more about his own rights from briefly being in the States than all the rest of his life (up until that point) as a Canadian living in the country of his birth, and how he can’t imagine what life would be like now if he were to lose the job he currently has helping other federal workers receive the accommodations they need to continue to do the work in the positions they hold.He happily imparts his own knowledge, wisdom, and experiences, hard earned, with us and our listeners.Check out an article and video on the ruling from CTV News:https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/im-relieved-blind-ontario-man-awarded-28000-for-facing-discrimination/And read the full Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario’s decision here:https://dawncanada.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Human-Rights-Tribunal-Decision-Erik-Burggraaf-Convergys-.pdf
Robert tells us about screen readers tech bros think can be created using AI instead of accessibility being a cornerstone on the syllabi in higher education environments of all kinds, about venting on the blank page/document about doorknobs, and about voicemails that hold the voice of a dear friend who was killed in a hate crime and keeping audio as memory artefact like sighted people keep pictures on their phones to be able to look back.Our chat in this second, slightly shorter, part picks up with a discussion on AI and the spots it comes up in our guest’s writing and life and ends, in the spirit of the season, with a heartfelt voicemail message…wrapping things up with a third grader’s letter to Santa.We’re hearing more from Kingett’s perspective, along with a selection of his essays, turned into audio essays narrated by Sean Crisden who you can find here:https://seancrisden.com/en-cadDon’t forget to go and check out Robert’s musings, perspectives begun with a feeling rather than sharing endless opinions over on social media, over on his own personal blog:https://sightlessscribbles.comLearn more about The Fitzgeralds:https://www.thefitzgeraldsmusic.com
Has your fridge ever thought you were in a cult? Has your date, on a first date, ever stolen your last chocolate chip cookie? Well our guest in this final interview for the year has written about these experiences and much much more on his blog: Sightless ScribblesHe thanks us for “indulging his narcissism” with this one. Welcome to Part one of two parts with Robert Kingett who describes himself as:“an obscure, blind, and gay writer that writes fiction where disabled protagonists or disabled love interests find their happy endings and non fiction that is always personal but sometimes educational.”This week and next on Outlook we’re speaking with Robert, digital nomad, who’s everywhere and who “holds onto audio the way sighted people hold onto pictures” about his genre and essay writing along with hearing multiple audio versions of his essays on everything from a stolen cookie to a smart refrigerator named Chillbert.Whether it’s a “deep bruised purple” or “a brittle bone white” Robert writes about how “even silence has its shades.”We’re lucky to get to hear Kingett’s perspective on his synesthesia when it comes to colour, along with his describing how, as an author who is disabled and writing about disabled characters getting their happy endings, he’s come up against a publishing world with what he defines as “a defect in their media literacy” and he tells us how he wants the jagged and the gritty rather than some impossible standard.It’s a December two parter and with Christmas approaching, this episode includes music clips from a recent live performance at Stonecroft Folk, A Fitsgeralds Christmas.Robert says: I may not see the colour of your eyes, but I will always see the colour of your intent. It is a language of profound and sometimes painful clarity.We’d love to have Robert back again sometime, and we will…whether it’s talking romance or technology and AI - so that’s “topics for another day,” but we’re so glad he reached out and joined us to round out 2025 here on Outlook.Check out Robert’s blog:https://sightlessscribbles.comLearn more about The Fitzgeralds:https://www.thefitzgeraldsmusic.com
Niagara Falls and a Christmas snail.Twas the grand month of Christmas and all through the studio, it was our final in person episode of 2025 you know.From Best Western to Radio Western, light shows and Niagara Takes Flight. At the Falls the mist was rising into the air, our 70th birthday celebrations to show our father we care.The photos of Bob through the years, made up by his eldest son whose artistic talents were clear.Sister/co-host Kerry and BF Barry and Oyster were all ready to fly back to Ireland for Christmas, Air Canada’s accessibility features on their TV screens, inclusion and access so good we could cry.When what to bachelor brother/co-host Brian’s hands does appear, but the best Christmas gift, from any sister, of any a year.When what with our blind eyes should appear, but Bill C15, announced by Canadian Assistive Technology, Canada Post appealing The Free Literature for the Blind Service, this development is unclear. Learn more here including how you can help:https://nnels.ca/news/bill-c-15This December it was a snowy holiday visit to Niagara On The Lake for us and, for Kerry and Barry and parents, a Coyle’s Christmas shopping extravaganza, coming home with gifts for parents, seasonal snacks, and nature themed ornaments for the minimal Christmas tree at Walter Street.Nollaig Shona duitBFB (Barry) and Lester/Oyster wish everyone, our amazing listeners, a Happy Christmas, from one Canadian weather extreme to the other, in the Irish language.So farewell as we at Outlook close 2025. Bob through the years, hands off Franklin The Turtle, and Niagara Takes Flight yet it could be even more inclusive with audio description.Happy Winter Solstice or however/whatever you celebrate this time of year. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.And get ready to rumble! Reindeer rumble that is.Check out Snaildartha: The Story of Jerry the Christmas Snail,” played annually on John Solomon’s 25-hour holiday radio show, with a soul jazz extravaganza in a festive league all its own:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k1jilPdaFEo5KA8cFOrGgZgOIfHTx4v00This year, 2025, this month is the ten year anniversary of a bad fall Brian had, acquiring a brain injury and seizure disorder just before Christmas and we wrote a song about that time which premiered on Jon Solomon’s show in 2020. Check it out here:https://soundcloud.com/skipatrolmusic/ski-patrol-lighting-up-a-dark-seasonAnd here’s co-host Kerry’s favourite Christmas song Brian plays for her on his Christmas edition of Chin Music every year:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARq6uYSsUq0
Winding down and ramping up.Bf Barry and guide dog Oyster (not Lester) are back for a pre-Christmas visit and join us as our additional Outlook crew.The Centre for Independent Living Toronto, Fanshawe College and George Brown and Toronto Metropolitan University, Disability Without Poverty, and Alliance For Equality of Blind Canadians all celebrate December 3rd’s United Nations International Day of/for Persons With Disabilities along with our other holiday related news.This week on the show we’re pre-recording because of last minute 70th birthday celebrations, but we did a Friday night recording discussing IDPD and related events, Barry shares his AI personal assistance/unpaid testers and snowy return to Canada diaries, and we discuss how “seeing isn’t knowing” on this Mixed Bag Early December episode.We’ve been eating a lot of cake lately and we talk Thanksgiving in the States, how this time of year can be a difficult one for many, and yet the arrival of changes of the holiday season becoming more diverse. On a high note, Happy 70th birthday to our dad, who met our mom 50 years ago this month, while we look back a few weeks ago to a special honouring of an early sibling organ transplant story at London, Ontario’s Health Sciences Centre.Brother/co-host Brian’s been winding down as the end of this year draws near while sister/co-host Kerry has been ramping up with Blind Beginnings, (more about that in January).Give Leona’s article a read:https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/blindness-photography-paul-strand-walker-evans-jacob-riis-1234763708/Check out the George Brown/TMU event with David Lepofsky:https://tinyurl.com/4k85hpnh
And this year, on Saturday, December 6th, from 1 to 4 PM EST, Alliance For Equality of Blind Canadians is putting on a virtual day of events to mark the occasion.This week on Outlook we’re speaking with President of AEBC, Marcia Yale, about going from the busy streets of Toronto to the busy summer/sleepy winters of Huntsville, about her experience at what was then the Ontario School for the Blind and then being integrated locally at home, and about how she got involved in AEBC and ended up in her current position there.So check out the podcast and stay tuned for events all week, including replays on Youtube as We’re discussing more about AEBC and the speakers and panel happening on the 6th - all with her guide dog companion Nottingham supervising our conversation.It’s true that inclusion does benefit everyone and that’s one of our main messages (of universal design principles) at the heart of what we do on this show.To register for the conference, click the following link:https://tinyurl.com/36bxf8v6Or email IDPWD.event@blindcanadians.caAnd learn more about AEBC on their official website:https://www.blindcanadians.ca
proclaimed by government of British Columbia 2017 - United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities recommended Canada officially proclaim and recognise IDAM nationally every November.For the first boots on the ground Mixed Bag show of the season, this week on Outlook we’re marking IDAM, Disabled Veterans Day, and Remembrance Day. Then sister/co-host Kerry shares about a disability focus group held by Irish literary journal The Stinging Fly, the “Say It Plain) course put on by her writer/activist friend Kerra, and howling like a wolf in community with a group of women creatives facilitated by other friend and previous Outlook guest Jen.Speaking of British Columbia, we’re talking fear and risk as Kerry is traveling solo there, to the Blind Beginnings offices in Vancouver, for a training weekend, facilitated by a federal grant to put on what are known as Blindness 101 workshops in Ontario during 2026 (more to come on this early next year).Question: About how many needles have you had in your lifetime? Have you ever tried to count?We both wish we would have counted.We’re discussing an event this month we’re attending, with our parents, as the four of us who’ve donated and received kidneys are excited to be taking part in a celebration of 50 years since one of the earliest living donor transplants from one sister to another at London Health Sciences Centre back on November 19th, 1975.Finally, Santa, if you’re listening, Kerry could use a new white cane for Christmas.Happy 70th birthday Dad and check out Irish literary journal The Stinging Fly mentioned in this episode:https://stingingfly.orgListen to an episode from the Outlook archives with Neil Belanger, CEO of The British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-12-06-neil-belanger-from-british-columbia/id1527876739?i=1000544243467
No man’s ignorance will ever be his virtue.”—Seriously, from This American Life, written by Sara Bareilles, sung by Leslie Odom Jr.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI8TCA3fJcs
Picture this - five ladies, two blind and three sighted and from Canada, the States, and Europe; getting together in a group to practice the skill of creating good quality audio description. Practice requires we now put our training into practice.Introducing “PICTURE THIS ADC (Audio Description Collaborative)”This week on Outlook, find out who the founders of Picture This are as individuals and the skills they bring to the collaboration - join in with Kerry Kijewski, Stephanie Johnson, Kristina Cosumano, Maureen Austen, and Lolly Lejewski. The five of them gather for a group chat to share what experiences with audio description have taught them, how each came to the group initially, the art and the craft of it, and the mission undertaken collaboratively to make audio description clear and inclusive.Picture This (in the mind’s eye) creates quality audio description for blind people...for short films and documentaries, streaming programming, along with exhibits, museums, and galleries. Their combined experience, knowledge, and skill pooled together has made the collaborative they now are and they care deeply about making art, culture, and media accessible for blind users, coming together from across North America and Europe to do just that.For inquiries email the team at: picturethisadc@gmail.comCheck out Kerry’s previous work on behalf of audio description availability:https://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/2018/03/21/woodstock-resident-hopes-to-help-blind-people-enjoy-the-movies-with-better-descriptive-audioAnd check out links for where you can find some of us and our work:https://www.stephaniejohnson.prohttps://kayconsulting.cahttps://licustranslation.comThanks to Brian Kijewski and Nick Marrs for their audio engineering.
Boo! She’s back.Sister/co-host Kerry’s back and up to her old tricks on Outlook this week.A lot to cover again on this Mixed Bag episode. Kerry teases her new audio description company she’s part of that will be revealed on the next show, but first her and brother co-host Brian discuss the state of podcasting today, along with other social media trends and where to take Outlook.As we share about our fall so far, Brian reveals recording of some music with his band at a local studio, The Sugar Shack, as the weather grows cold, announcing something upcoming of his own.Kerry tells of a chronic grief about missing colours, like the colours of the changing leaves. She still has all the other senses this time of year.Halloween brings the end of October and the end of Bam. Blindness Awareness Month is still on for a little while longer, as Brian shares about ODEN (Ontario Disability Employment Network). Their theme for this one is Inclusive Employment Across Canada: Building a Workforce Without Barriers. Barriers oh barriers, that’s all we keep hearing about, that barriers are recognised, but then what? Where are we headed with all of this?We’re sharing trailers of documentaries today, where we demonstrate why audio description is so needed, The Alabama Solution and Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, but what would it be like if you could only hear them? We debate documentaries not saying their names in the trailer.As No Kings just happened, we discuss oppression in prisons, shown on The Alabama Solution dock. Fighting defeat, apathy, we do not submit prematurely.This week Kerry explains about her team’s most recent project on deaf actress and activist, Marlee Matlin, starting with the trailer, mostly sign language. On Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, Kerry learned, through working to add audio description to it, how adding AD and ASL can produce something that flows well together.As Brian lets slip something controversial, we learn all sorts of things about Marlee’s life, through this PBS documentary. Kerry explains, again, what extended audio description is as we lead up next week to the official announcement.And some tips about our tips, white cane tips.Go Jays!Note: At one point Kerry said translator when she meant intervener.
BAM! 2025 - coming to you live on location.Yep, October is more recognisable for being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but while Blindness Awareness Month is less familiar to some, it sounds better, more straightforward, rolling off the tongue as acronym than BCAM. This week on Outlook, with the start of a new month…October, we’re highlighting BAM even though, we always say, every month is BAM for us.On this BAM Mixed Bag episode sister/co-host Kerry is streaming live and on route, but luckily makes it back to “the flat” still within the first half of the show, a major Uk cellphone service is down which made it difficult to get a cab back from the furniture warehouse.But luckily, freezer deal was found (with help from Barry’s assistant AI as he terms his co-processor) and service from the store’s sales guy was excellent (lovely British chap) who didn’t necessarily know how to assist two blind people, yet was all the things we ask anyone to be when interacting with the public. BAM getting off to a pretty good start after last week’s nightmare (see previous Outlook for more on what not to do. It’s really not that much different from how to assist anyone else, just be willing to listen to our guidance, as we know what we need as blind people).It’s Thanksgiving for brother/co-host Brian back in Canada, but it’s also Columbus Day in the States (Indigenous Peoples Day in approximately 30 states now) and we’re discussing this update/correction on which one is preferable, along with celebrating our lovely mother’s birth, and thankfully the cab finally arriving to take Kerry and BF Barry home is hardly noticeable in the background.We’re comparing Canada and The States as baseball rivalries intensify in October. Some things are, as “American as apple pie” while we’re talking thankfulness (which should be as obvious as “Apple cake” with details of what Historian Heather Cox Richardson says about Columbus Day’s origins, years of colonial subjugation, and the difference in definitions that can become glaringly clear in 100 years.Outlook On Radio Western stands on the foundation of Diversity and we’re talking definitions of all of this, plus on things like BAM or World Sight Day, from orgs like the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) or the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) and using a daytime TV infomercial about “blind children in poorer countries” and how helpless images make it seem. While no country should think itself above another like how even the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) tries to raise money by using Canada’s blind people and cute images of guide dogs to elicit pity and donations.The NFB thinks of BAM more from the standpoint of independence which often, to them means employment, but though we reject another definition that’s all about the patronising angle of everything we do as inspirational, we lay out the harmful impacts of something like the messaging from World Sight Day’s promotional material. While the International Agency for the prevention of blindness (the IAPB) is focusing on eye health around the world, some organisations and charities and nonprofits go about fundraising in reckless ways.Brian is riding the fader live in the studio while Kerry was out tracking down monkey nuts (but shhh Mom is listening), returning by cab and sharing how drivers often struggle (as sighted as sighted can be) to find the address, Kerry foreshadowing a recent struggle with such things plus one of Marlee Matlin’s similar experiences with those of us who have our sense of hearing which Kerry heard on a recent audio description project. That’s why our mom recently painted Kerry’s garage door bright red and put up a huge house number, Barry in the process of doing something similar for those drivers who might as well be blind behind the wheel, Brian using the example of Uber drivers trying to find the door into the University Community Centre (UCC) where we record our show out of. We use the Pin The Tail On The Donkey example of disorientation to make the point that these are just more additions of those tropes that are harmful to us blind people and those that are simply the truth of our current reality.Multi sensory, multi media, and interactive - from a recent work experience she had doing cultural consulting and quality control for Toronto’s version of the Nuit Blanche festival, she then tells of another Canadian connection (as we call it) when out during a Saturday pub night for many in neighbouring Belfast. Instead Kerry and Barry chose to attend a local boy’s return performance, Brian Kennedy (Canada has Cory Hart while Northern Ireland has BK), to the classic Black Box Theatre as he played some Joni Mitchell covers including “Woodstock,” (not the same Woodstock but still). So on this one Brian with an “I” and Kerry with a “y” are talking the Dominos that have to fall in our lives with dealing with how sometimes sighted people can and do suck which adds up the blocks of frustration and fatigue as Kerry shares a bit about a recent visitor experience at Belfast’s Titanic Museum and how baseball radio broadcasts put us on an equal playing field (baseball metaphor there for you).BAM! It gets someone's attention at least and we’re thankful for our mother, apple cake instead of pumpkin pie, and the Toronto Bluejays beating The Yankees and moving on to take the American League championship, from east to west and north to south - BAM begins.
As we go into BAM (as we call it) there’s very little “awareness” of Blindness by the public. As the saying goes: when someone closes a door, they close another, and put up a sign which helps no blind person ever.September is also Pain Awareness Month, on the last day of September it’s the National Day For Truth and Reconciliation, and we’re here for all of it with music for our final show for our Outlook anniversary month as we talk church acoustics, assault, doubling down, and much much more.The Silkworm and Dianogah music featured in this episode was lifted from the following videos:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FKQFKTP1iEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQOUj_bWykghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmKxMODNpz8
The Music Director at Radio Western says: I’m just so grateful to have you guys on our station, to have Outlook here on our programming, and congratulations on reaching your 300th episode.Note at this point: we are a radio show first, as our theme states, and then become this podcast, if anyone was unaware of how and where we started/start each week - 94.9 on the dial locally, streaming audibly live at radiowestern.ca, at 11 AM EST weekly.Bird’s eye view, an Outlook.It was a bird’s eye view of our show with this one, as we were on Twitch, just for this particular episode and only for the live version. We love the irony to that as we discuss things like our pet peeve that many podcasts these days feel they need to have a visual component to them, even if podcasting is an audio art form so naturally we thought we’d “try” going live on Twitch for this.Irony or hypocrisy - you decide.This podcast episode still retains all the best bits, even if you’ve missed the live version. We are joined by those, we joked, who are forced to listen to Outlook every Monday, live, the staff from Radio Western in London, Ontario where we originally broadcast live from every Monday morning at eleven Eastern.To celebrate show 300 and our seven year mark we spoke with Radio Western Music Director (essentially Music Librarian) Ian, Marketing Director (Whirlwind) Elijah, and (new) News and Spoken Word Director Ryan and BF Barry (our sometimes third co-host) from Ireland.It turned out as a fun-filled and highly humorous discussion with friends and friends of the show about the last seven years, the history of Outlook On Radio Western, and what we want to highlight without claiming to speak for “all blind people” here.We talked wrongful interpretations of what blindness is in media while noting the correcting of that with things like book “There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness” by Leona Godin and sharing a bit about sibling dynamics from everyone around the table. This sibling radio show/podcast celebrates that relationship with 300/7. And that’s all contained here and not just live, even if you can’t watch us, you could listen to Radio Western and/or on our show streaming there on Monday’s.Elijah from Radio Western says to brother/co-host Brian: We all try to make this place as welcoming as possible. This is a place where everybody can feel as though they have a platform especially when you and Kerry are using this platform for good and to get such a positive message out and understanding…an a knowledgeable message, an informing message.Check out Ian’s show Thursday mornings from 8:30 AM to 11,A Person Disguised As People and Elijah and Ryan’s show Outside The Frame Tuesdays at 6 PM.
Guest Maria says: “God I just Love the feel of a good paperback.”To that co-host Kerry replies emphatically: “Books are thrilling!”“Working in the book industry and having a fresh book…the smell of a fresh book, there’s nothing like it,” says Maria Johnson of Girl Gone Blind. This was her life, for many years, before the age of fifty and before she started over in health and fitness and then as someone diagnosed with a genetic blindness condition.On this Outlook we’re speaking with her about what life was like before blindness which includes both books and fitness, about getting her diagnosis at age fifty, and about how to choose the right name for an online presence as an advocate for her post-fifty life as someone diagnosed with LHON, Lebers Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, a mitochondrial condition of the optic nerve.Our very own mother recognised the name of this particular condition when we told her what this week’s show was about because it was a diagnosis doctors thought sister/co-host Kerry had at one time early on in our family’s diagnosis journey with genetic blindness. Both conditions were first described by the same man: Theodor Karl Gustav von Leber, (discovering our eye condition, Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis and Maria’s, Lebers Hereditary Optic Neuropathy within two years of each other in 1869 and 1871).She describes her road to acceptance which includes family also being impacted in all kinds of ways and about how she got so involved with the international conference for patients, their loved ones, and all sorts of doctors, scientists, and researchers along with her hit panel she moderates there each year.Johnson says: “Sure, it wasn’t what I expected. It’s not what anyone expects when you lose vision later on in life, but you can still do so many things and that’s what I discovered - to recreate, reinvent, and restart my life, just without vision.”In September, 2013 she was diagnosed with LHON and in September, 2025 she’s joined us to talk about the intervening twelve years of learning, acceptance, and advocacy and becoming girl, gone, blind as Girl Gone Blind.Check out Maria’s website including her most excellent blog:https://girlgoneblind.com
September has arrived and it’s Labour Day with Laura Bain.Laura is wrapping up school and starting a new job and she’s back on Outlook to tell us all about travel, transitions, and changes she’s made since she was last on air with us.Speaking of schooling, Laura has been on an academic journey in psychology and social work, having just completed a Masters in Social Work, taking her own time to get here and we’re talking making education work for people with all sorts of needs, part-time as Bain did it: “being able to engage more fully with the material,” with ablest views on course load and full-time vs part time program participation in a rigid system. We’re asking for accommodations; there’s no shame in this.Laura tells us about how she navigated through her schooling and then through unfamiliar cities as a traveler. We talk about the differences between travel with others, a sighted partner for example, vs independent travel, interdependence in this or group trips, tackling new surroundings solo with Bain’s trips to New York for the No Barriers Summit. Or whether it’s in France or England most recently: things like being less than bilingual in a non English speaking country, using technology to get around, and the total mental drain it can take to access all our sensory skills when traveling alone. Things like needing time to rest in the hotel and moving away from such a frantic tourist experience as most take on and for which we’re encouraged to join in on in this fast paced world. So whether it’s in schooling or in travel, doing things on our own schedule is going against the grain of go go go.We hear about Laura’s experience doing London half on her own and then half with accessible tour group Seeable Holidays where the guides are trained but sighted people join the group and are there to assist those who are blind.Brother co-host Brian learned about local greeter organisations, specifically London Greeters and the guide Laura had who knew Brian and had been impacted by Brian’s earlier advocating for himself, which prompted this local guide to access some blindness awareness training. It’s a small world after all as the song goes.So with the summer coming to an end, Laura is back at it and telling us about the jobs she’s had recently which include working once more for Accessible Media Inc. and then working locally for her municipal government, Halifax Regional Municipality Office of Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator Accessibility Community Outreach and Research, a long title for a seemingly sweet job with government but she shares a bit about being on a probational basis and finding it difficult, though in the diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA) spaces, she wasn’t getting that direct community engagement she prefers to have.So we finish off, with a new school year ahead for many and for Laura Bain it means taking on a new role at the CNIB as a program coordinator, dealing directly with the community by, for example, coordinating a camp for the community of kids and families. She took the leap from government job, not quite the right fit for her at this time, and what she’s doing on contract until next March and we hope to have her back with us to discuss more on where she’s headed next.We at Outlook appreciate our friends, like Laura Bain, joining us in community as it truly is a small world after all and we look forward to getting Bain’s own tour of Halifax, her city, very soon with the privilege of access to travel making us better, more well rounded people.The No Barriers Summit website says: WHAT’S WITHIN YOU IS STRONGER THAN WHAT’S IN YOUR Way - and that’s what we three have in common as we navigate life with a disability:https://nobarriersusa.orgLearn more about Seeable Holidays:https://seable.co.ukAnd free personalised walking tours for all in London, England:https://londongreeters.org
Content warning: (Please do take care while listening as this episode discusses themes around suicidal ideation and death. If you are in distress currently, across Canada you can call or text 9-8-8 toll free from anywhere around the country.We’ve known of this returning guest for years and first had her on with us back in 2021 - during Covid when she made podcasts from inside her closet, like many others did, while we were all recording from home. She joins us on the show to talk about one of the most contentious topics of our times in the country and especially for the disability community. We’ve wanted to discuss the situation with medical assistance in dying (MAID) on Outlook for a long time, but waited until a journalist could walk us through it, someone with both a professional and lived experience point-of-view.Meagan Gillmore grew up in London, the city where we broadcast Outlook from, but now she lives in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city and reports for New online independent news publication Canadian Affairs which first launched back in 2023.What exactly is MAID and how does it, in any way, differ from physician assisted suicide, euthanasia or any of the other terms you may have heard mentioned in the news?We learn more about the history of medical assistance in dying so from the historical to the political, Meagan walks us through things like eligibility criteria and the two separate MAID tracks, along with changes in the criminal code, private members bills and legislative changes and other political elements, on lawsuits and the courts, and shares how most journalistic outlets do not cover medical assistance in dying with any sort of sustained coverage. We get an idea why journalists with lived experience of disability (either physical or mental) are well suited to keeping the media aware, along with the rest of us who often find MAID made more complicated by the sensitivity of the issue and society’s cultural fear of discussing anything remotely related to death and dying.Gillmore shares with us a mixture of researched and reported details on the path MAID has been on in Canadian society along with her own personal up close experience with considering applying for it herself at one time. Plus we the hosts also share why this subject is so personal to us as Canadians living with disability and chronic illness during these capitalist times where barriers still exist with finding and maintaining steady employment and other factors toward fitting in in one’s community. Common ongoing themes discussed on this show about struggling with independence and dependence (not feeling like a burden when it comes to feeling like we must not burden society) vs interdependence and the grey areas of life and being part of our communities while finding purpose and balance in all areas of life are covered between the three of us.Why would someone ever consider this rout for themselves or are there pressures put on those who have done it or are contemplating it? ? Why are people with disabilities feeling all this most intensely, has this gotten out of hand in Canada in particular, and what do disability organisations and groups think about all of it? How are physicians and other medical professionals feeling and viewing all this? From the legal system to advocating for human rights, all these things and more on this important episode.Read recent articles written by Gillmore for Canadian Affairs: https://www.canadianaffairs.news/author/meagan_gillmore/Find an article on MAID by Gillmore from The Walrus in 2023:https://thewalrus.ca/assisted-dying/And to learn more about Meagan, check out her prior Outlook appearance:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-02-08-interview-with-journalist-meagan/id1527876739?i=1000508230958
After our conversation with today’s guest, check out our thoughts on how theatre and performance spaces can work to be more inclusive and can work towards a greater focus on meeting the access needs of intersecting humans in artistic spaces. As Brian shares about his really missing out on being in those spaces, Kerry shares about others who are out there, if you know where to look as reflections following this week’s guest joins us, live on location:“The broader systems and structures of our work in theatre - is now realising, in catching up essentially with the rest of us that have always had to exist in spaces as disabled humans, that actually this can allow us to think more deeply, consider things in a deeper more innovative way. And it’s actually an exciting frontier, the disruption and the dismantling that access and disability causes in spaces is actually a really an exciting and innovative thing to think about artistically. I think ultimately that shift, we’re at the precipice of that shift right now in the community. We’re just at the beginning and it’s gonna be a long journey and a long thing and many conversations from a space of listening. We’re just at the start, let’s put it that way,” our guest laughs.This week on Outlook we’re hearing from accessibility coordinator Mandy E. MacLean, who has worked as an access practitioner in artistic and theatre settings since moving to Toronto in 2012:“We’re far behind the UK and overseas in many ways, here in Toronto and in Canada…and in Ontario as a whole - it’s an exciting place to be sitting in currently.”Mandy joins us from outside a deaf-led performance, in the shade on a boiling summer afternoon, to discuss how she started work as a producer focusing on access in artistic spaces, about working with young/first-time low vision and blind/disabled and trans performers, both in arts and theatre in Ontario and Manitoba including what she learned about herself and her job facilitating and producing inclusive theatre with students at the W. Ross McDonald School for the Blind. She describes what she learned from first-time performers in a drama class at the school and how she heard from them what they wanted to see in a performance of their creation and making.We talk things like integrated audio description and lighting design for theatre when considering full inclusion or sensory sensitivity as MacLean shares a bit about her own non-visible disabilities which include concussion and associated mental health (identifying as part of the Mad community) and sensory sensitivity symptoms. Mandy shares how first, as a performer, and now as facilitator of accessibility in the arts and theatre with less obvious disabilities of her own, she can be a bit under the radar in performance spaces and still approach her work from a lived experience perspective and to learn from the lived experiences others have as intersections. Also, how she invites others in such spaces to be open about their differences, both visible or non-visible, if they so choose which can diminish stigma.We also find out about her great love of dogs and the story behind naming her own (emotional support animal) cocker spaniel Mulder. Cue X-Files musicWe also learn a new word on this one, which we do every few years on this show, with the introducing of the term “dramaturg” to our ears. As dramaturg, MacLean asks: “How do we shape and hold this piece that eventually is going to be experienced by an audience?”She’s sharing about her own personal curiosities exploring her own disabilities in theatrical settings and on a project she herself has in the works. Then she goes on to tell us about the Summer in the Park Festival with Crossroads Theatre she is working on as an artistic and access producer taking place over the span of three days (from August 22 to the 24th) with an opening night of free food (a community meal) and weekend brimming with performances and storytelling spaces across the three days for all ages and abilities and backgrounds - a welcoming cultural, creative, community driven event that offers a family friendly experience.“I encourage everyone to check out the Summerworks Performance Festival:https://summerworks.caI was one of the accessibility coordinators there. If you’re not able to make it out this year, I encourage you to check it out for the future. It’s an awesome festival, downtown Toronto, and I also encourage you to check out the organisation I work for, Crossroads Theatre. We are excited to connect with folks at Crossroads. We wanna meet people and artists in the community that are interested in access and theatre and live performance of any shape and form and how those two things intersect.”Reach out on Insagram @crossroadstheatretoFor more information on the Summer in the Park series and specifically Crossroads Theatre go here:https://www.crossroadstheatre.org
She’s just a girl and she’s on fireShe’s living in a world and it’s on fire.—Alicia KeysIt’s a slow burn summer, burn as in the wildfires ravaging communities and landscapes across Canada while 18-year-old Canadian competitive swimmer Summer McIntosh is on fire, winning multiple medals at the World Championships, and this is another mixed bag episode in mid summer on the August long weekend as we’re recording it. And one of us is getting over a summer cold as we acknowledge July’s Pride celebrations as the anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act (35 years) arrived this summer season.This week on Outlook we’re starting off sharing what brother/co-host Brian learned when he researched what exactly the August 1st holiday is here in Canada are represented by, either British Columbia Day, Terry Fox Day in Manitoba (the province he was born in), Heritage Day for one province while ours (Ontario) has municipality celebrations for places like Ottawa or Guelph.After this one, we won’t be live for a few weeks with an upcoming Monday where sister/co-host Kerry has a specialist appointment at a connective tissue clinic with a rheumatologist to see if there’s anything new they might be able to offer to manage her changing symptoms and Brian will be recording with his band at London’s local Sugar Shack Studio. We then briefly mention the serious and controversial subject matter (content warning worthy) we’ve got coming up on an Outlook show planned for later in the month, current scarcity mindsets with Alberta’s continuing going ahead with clawbacks for anyone there applying for the new Canadian Disability Benefit, and how that compares to the province we’re in, speaking of different provinces on this August Long Weekend edition of our show.Our mixed bag of topics for this Mid Summer Mixed Bag also includes our friendly sibling competitions even when it comes to why Brian doesn’t get as many colds as Kerry (even though we’re both immunosuppressed as transplant patients) or why Kerry’s creatinine has always remained safely below 100 while Brian’s has steadily remained dozens of points above it.Speaking of clinic, with Brian’s recent transplant clinic visit and dispatches from the waiting room we’re considering a story from CBC about piping in calming bird song sounds into hospital and clinic waiting rooms rather than the less relaxing news television programs.Then, (speaking of content warnings) we recently viewed the first episode of Season 27 of South Park “Sermon On The Mount,” and we’re discussing what we miss without audio description which led us to use a Wiki Fandom site and AI chatbot for more information, the design of the characters Kerry has seen at one time and now must imagine, and the type of satire its creators harness for trolling (passing the sensors by putting little eyes on 45/47’s penis and comparing him to a certain deceased Iraqi so-called “leader” South Park featured in one of Brian’s most favourite earlier season episodes.Reflecting on seeing the value of spending more time with family now that he’s older, (shoutout to Nefertiti Matos Olivares for gifting our family with game Herd Mentality) making for a wonderfully entertaining and enlightening family game afternoon last month - Brian also shares about a sweet and special moment recently where our niece wanted to include him by writing her name tactilely so he could feel it, by writing it on the device we have called the BrailleDoodle (a teaching tool for educators and new braille learners).And speaking of the BrailleDoodle, we’re still looking for somewhere to donate one and Kerry shares about introducing our educational assistant/braille transcriber from our school days to BF Barry and guide dog Oyster a few weeks back.BTW: If you hear this episode and know of anyone/anywhere that could use it, please do reach out by emailing us - outlookonradiowestern@gmail.comYou can learn more about the Braille Doodle here:https://www.touchpadprofoundation.orgGirl On Fire by Alicia Keys:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J91ti_MpdHA
Bumbleberry and BF Barry back with us again.It’s not all roses on Outlook this week, though it’s another Disability Pride Month episode (celebrating brother/co-host Brian’s July transplant anniversary) and we’re talking poutine and pickle fries to mark the occasion.Actually, we discuss an evening out for the three of us at a family wedding as sister/co-host Kerry shares about her blind/female fashion concerns while the boys discuss how it is choosing their own wedding guest wardrobe.Then we cover the ways we utilise our remaining senses to take part in and enjoy festivities such as listening for the evening’s playlist of songs (for dancing to or not) along with all the visual elements we miss, tasting the food truck flavours, and all the tactile elements of how weddings get decorated, like the tactile roses on the tables.Summer continues coasting along, for this Mixed Bag episode, as some of us try not to melt in our shades while others continue to bask in the sizzle of the season.One of us wears their Wayne’s World hat while the other two sport some summer shades as we talk party favours with a dress code of beach formal from the weekend that was.
K: “Community is so important. To knowing you’re not alone and then showing up for each other.H: 100 percent.K: even when a situation is scary and people are thinking about their own situations of course but also thinking about their loved ones and their neighbours.H: We will only survive this with community. We will only survive this together. We will only survive this by showing up for each other. That is our only way out.This is an exchange between sister/co-host Kerry and friend and returning guest Professor H Mayhem May on this week’s show.We’re continuing the celebrating of PRIDE on Outlook this week, as we did almost exactly to the day (three years ago) when May was on with us that first time to share about their short film, “Finding Tiresias”, an inclusively designed experimental piece about identity and diversity and change.Ozzy Osbourne, legendary rock performer died since having H May on this time. In his band’s song “Changes” he sings: “I’m going through changes”.This is the theme of our second discussion, live in studio, with H from just across the border in The Finger Lakes region of New York State.Canada and the States both celebrate birthdays during the month of July along with Pride and Disability Pride, just within a few days of one another, as we’re right next to each other. We’re illustrating the need to recognise that closeness and connection and that need to keep connections between us strong in the face of so much chaos and adversity, both as neighbouring countries and in overlapping communities.So we’re talking interconnection, intersectionality, and interdependence along with examples of loss and grief and accepting of changes as H considers a guide dog for continued outdoor adventures, keeping up blindness skills in an ocularcentric world since being in community with us and others at a Drama Club Camp week in Maine, and in the expanding possibilities developing the ideas from last year’s Maine gathering into a future inclusive and representative theatrical statement with Dr. May’s growing lived experience and directing stage knowledge and expertise at its heart.For more on our friend and ally Professor H May, visit their website and learn more about “Finding Tiresias” and other projects and perspectives:https://www.drheathermay.comCheck out last summer’s Maine experience on the two-parter episode we put together featuring our week in community with H and others:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2024-10-14-our-week-in-maine-well-figure-it-out-pt-1/id1527876739?i=1000673780980https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2024-10-21-our-week-in-maine-well-figure-it-out-pt-2/id1527876739?i=1000675516532And go back 3 years to hear H’s first appearance on the show:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2022-07-11-awaiting-tiresias-with-professor/id1527876739?i=1000569782476
“We will carve our place into time and space.”—Wild Things, Alessia CaraIt’s powerful outcry, a protest and empowerment song by Alessia, as sister/co-host Kerry loves music that’s unapologetic - Things are heating up during July’s Disability Pride Month (DPM).This week on Outlook we’re continuing the Pride talk on another mixed bag with brother/co-host Brian’s baseball adventures, reading image descriptions of the stadium, and then Kerry shares about her memories of seeing the Toronto Bluejay’s Sky Dome (roof open and sky exposed or closed).Accessibility - how he and BF Barry asked at Guest Services for accessible ways to follow the game and a giant company like Rogers doing very little even with all their resources.Advocacy - summer being a time people love to attend festivals and a recent CBC London Morning segment speaking with an accessibility consultant in a wheelchair about how to make something like London’s Sunfest more inclusive.And equality - describing the colours of the Disability Pride Flag as July’s DPM continues.While Kerry and guide dog Oyster recently had a girl’s day, watching Friends, sleeping on the couch, and going out in the back yard for which Kerry is writing an essay about in a July writing class: Oyster’s Secret Garden, Brian and Barry had a good time out socialising in London and spending a lot of time on patios and at local spots across town. He shares about transportation issues and talking with Uber drivers, and. Kerry shares, while describing the need for colours and vivid imagery on a flag like that of DPM along with the grief she’s now receiving peer support for when she misses seeing the colours she has always loved and once could make out.When Kerry was in Ireland and went forest bathing, she was encouraged to take her power back and she finds that works better through song lyrics than through cursing. It’s a summer of Pride, a lifetime of advocacy, and demanding equality along the way with cross-community support so be one of the Wild Ones:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5vUBQBykJ4
As we cross over from June’s Pride Month into July’s Disability Pride, let’s just say it is a summer of PRIDe with us here.This week on Outlook we’re talking about the connections, the intersectionalities between those celebrating LGBTQIA2S+ and celebrating living with disability. Yes, we know that the idea of “feeling proud” of living with disability (in this society which stigmatises anything not able-bodied) sounds strange to some, but here we’re trying to destigmatize the whole thing by refusing to let circumstances out of our control dominate our lives.We’re sharing first about our Friday night excursion out in London and to the home of the host who did a music show (first before us Monday mornings and then directly after). Bernie Koenig (of From Bach to Rock and then Bernie’s Jazz and Blues) is a musician himself, from way back, and hosts jams (out of his basement) where he invites anyone to come to watch some jazz/rock/blues playing. So we went, though Oyster the guide dog didn’t take to the loud drums, guitars, and trumpet so co-host Kerry and BF Barry sat with her just outside on the patio. It turned out it was a nice evening for everyone that way and Brian (who played trumpet briefly from back in high school) enjoyed seeing Bernie in his element. Bernie’s wife, supporting him from the back row, waving and smiling to him was described to us.We then go on to discuss some of the local music shows co-host Brian has been out to lately, some of the navigational issues he dealt with to travel to said shows, as well as the benefits of supporting his community and getting to hear some of the music he so enjoys.And sister/co-host Kerry has what she’s coined a soft announcement on the audio description collaborative team she’s a member of, Picture This, and she shares about the two recent PBS American Masters documentaries they’ve produced extended AD for. She explains more about the docs which includes one on political theorist and scholar Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny, as she also explains more about what extended audio description is.It’s another mixed bag show where we look back on our guests for June including Linsay Lusyne of Vision Loss Travel, friend Zoe Rae Espinoza on blind gaming, and Marie Elise who travels as Beyond My Blur. Plus some podcast recs as we head toward our 300’s episode sometime in the weeks ahead.Here’s a link to the Arendt documentary, though we do talk on this one about how a VPN was needed to view it here in Canada by the person who did the quality control )QC) on it:https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/hannah-arendt-documentary/36135/
Bf Barry says of summer starting, revving up, especially for co-host Kerry:Barry says “hanging out and hanging in”But as we greet the summer season, we’re hanging out with someone Kerry came across through Steph McCoy of the fashion, style, and inclusion platform "Bold Blind Beauty".Of course, it’s about the representation which I think is very important, also for the generations that are younger than me, but also because I think we should celebrate these different perspectives. And I also hope to show other travelers with low vision, that it’s us who get to share this perspective with the sighted travelers and I think there’s a cool aspect in that.Marie Elise joins us on Outlook this week to talk travel, the value of experiencing the loveliness and power of the planet by making use of all our available senses, and adapting to the shifting sands of genetic vision degeneration.Whether it’s chickens, hummingbirds, or horses, Elise wanted to be a veterinarian growing up and now wants to share her message of experiencing the sound of a hummingbird and not just seeing it, and joins us from South America with the sound of those chickens outside the door. She describes her special connection to horses and the trust it takes to ride with fading sight, but the benefits of emotional regulation for a deeper connection and something she could apply to life going forward were helpful for coping with all of it.She says of her life travels, as she’s worked to befriend the anxieties that developed in her 20s as the realities of her Stargardt's blindness became clearer: “I feel like that if you live in another country, that culture and that country becomes a part of you. It really has helped me develop as a human.”So whether it’s growing up amongst the bicycles in the Netherlands, studying Spanish in Spain after high school, or her time in Argentina, Marie has a dream going forward: Of course, it’s about the representation which I think is very important, also for the generations that are younger than me, but also because I think we should celebrate these different perspectives. And I also hope to show other travelers with low vision, that it’s us who get to share this perspective with the sighted travelers and I think there’s a cool aspect in that.Marie has a blog “Beyond My Blur” where she shares her own perspective on the places she’s been lucky to get to experience and how to do this, with the full spectrum of senses, more fully:https://beyondmyblur.com
Our guest says: “Let me tell you, nothing…nothing in the world is as satisfying as fighting a salty gamer bro online in Mortal Combat, winning a match, and then telling them - hey you just got beat by a blind, trans girl. Have a good one. No rematch!”We featured a sibling pair, Zoe and Jessica (both born with the same blindness condition as us, LcA) on our Siblings episode four years ago and Zoe returns as we here celebrate Pride Month throughout June.This week on Outlook we’re speaking with Zoe Espinoza about gaming while blind, a pastime many would assume isn’t accessible for anyone unable to see the screen and the visuals found there, but Zoe and regular co-host/boyfriend Barry geek out on this subject on this week’s episode.With vast knowledge of the gaming universe, our guest shares early memories of adaptations made to play, a love of narrative based games, and a childhood dream to write the stories for these games. She also shares some of the techniques she and her partner (not blind but with other disability such as hearing trouble/brain fog/fatigue) have now come up with to play as a team, co-piloting and coordinating using the skills they both bring to the table to support the other. Barry offering a gaming term, “You’re each other’s augment.” And according to Zoe, “The couple that plays together stays together.”Here at Outlook On Radio Western we start every show by saying - Accessibility, Advocacy, and Equality. So we discuss deliberately accessible vs accidentally accessible and why it’s worth it for companies to make their games inclusive. Zoe Espinoza and Barry advocate by playing and showing the world that there’s an interest and a desire to escape into the gaming world.Sibling co-hosts Kerry and Brian didn’t grow up with video games at home, and blindness is a spectrum of course, but we do encourage geeking out, in all kinds of ways, on this program whether it’s AI or gaming or anything else. Barry and Zoe share resources and tips if you, too, are blind and want to play. Or maybe you aren’t blind yourself, you have other disabilities or work in the gaming world, may simply be interested in the topic, making sure it’s an accessible and inclusive activity for everyone.Check out Zoe’s previous appearance on our show with her sibling Jessica:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-04-12-siblings-series-part-2-jessica-zoe/id1527876739?i=1000516853367
It all started with a trip to Cuba.Our guest on Outlook this week explains: At one moment in life you don’t really know what you’re doing and then, all of a sudden, you get this opportunity and a huge passion just grew out of it.From Belgium to Canada, Linsay Lusyne has a love of travel, opening it up to everyone along the way starting with a previous experience training blind people on navigating and guide dogs for blind travel before travel coaching in a different way.Lusyne shares about growing up on the coast of a small European country and her early memories of saving up for eye surgery at age five,, about her family’s reaction when she left for an island trip, and the empowering feeling she had from that first big solo adventure.We discuss her entry into training guide dogs and their companions which started with a love of dogs and an internship, the move she made to Canada with a desire for long-term travel, and her eventually stepping into becoming a travel coach who helps plan and book travel including recently creating group trips and trips of all kinds, as she helps blind travellers in particular to break down their travel and adventure dreams into manageable actionable steps.As a sighted lover of travel and with her knowledge of orientation and mobility and guide dogs, she runs the Vision Loss Travel group on Facebook and hosts meet-up calls to discuss the group trips she organises with both sighted and blind people, showcasing her love of experiencing the world as independently as one possibly can for everyone.Lindsay says: Travel is not about ticking destinations off a list. I believe in the transformative power of exploration, and I'm passionate about making travel accessible and life changing for those with vision loss.”Check out more about Linsay Lusyne, Travel Coach, by visiting her website:https://www.visuallyimpairedtravel.comFind her Vision Loss Travel Community on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/groups/617168270274903/
LOOK OUT - Goose crossing ahead!Not all take kindly to the following of directions. Communication takes practice. Patience is needed to get where you’d like to be.Last week was National Accessibility Week (beginning on the final Sunday of May) and this time on Outlook (where “accessibility” is a given) we discuss the unhelpful helpers, how we orient ourselves, plus goose crossings and fermented mushrooms.This first Mixed Bag of June we’re talking what’s in store for these warmer months ahead including Pride celebrations, as we examine our gratitude toward those, in other marginalised communities, who come before us in all this disability community’s diverse group and anticipating a new show reboot of the animated King of the Hill with the importance of understanding modern relevance vs a snapshot from a previous generation. Also, we touch on and go over the eager waiting for this month’s announced applications to open up to qualify for the new Canada Disability Benefit and speaking of federal government, with Canada’s new federal cabinet (and Mark Carney at the helm) doing the “Cabinet Shuffle” by eliminating the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion, and Persons With Disabilities.Happy Indigenous History Month and Pride Month to our First Nations, Metis, and Inuit and 2SLGBTQIA+ friends and listeners - from May mixed bags to June, toward the strawberry moon, and celebrating kidney transplant anniversaries during this summer season.
The theme for National AccessAbility Week this year is “ Breaking barriers together: Paving the way for an inclusive future .”Established in 2017, National AccessAbility Week celebrates, promotes and showcases the diversity, inclusion and accessibility in this country, and highlights some of the important initiatives aimed at creating an Accessible Canada.We begin and end in Cornwall with this one as we celebrate “Breaking Barriers” together through exploration and investigation.The birds are out and for this Outlook, we’re back live, as we discuss the themes of this year’s National Accessibility Awareness Week (airport assistance stories) along with a few narrated image descriptions we all caught on our travels lately, with the birth of an old friend’s baby girl to the serenity of the resort’s deck in Cornwall, we share our image descriptions provided by accessibility app Be My Eyes.. From a shoutout to Scott the Uber driver, cheers to George, and thanks to Tim’s clear directions, we’re celebrating accessibility with kindred spirits and friends who make it easier instead of harder.On this last May 2025 Mixed Bag show, Barry and Kerry share about a dog encounter on their recent springtime block rout walk with guide dog Oyster and brother co-host Brian shows us a musical release he found, Robyn Rocket from the UK with People You May Of Heard Of and an inclusive audio version of the record’s accompanying comic strip.From chats with life guards and other visitors including the Cornish gulls at the seaside in Cornwall, England back into studio in London, Ontario - it’s National Accessibility Week, (end of May) as we soon bridge into June.Learn more about NAAW:https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/campaigns/national-accessability-week.htmlCheck out the Robyn Rocket album:https://robynrocket.bandcamp.com/album/robyn-rocket-and-people-you-may-of-heard-of-2
Irish bells, to kick things off, to celebrate Oyster on her seventh birthday like the bells worn around her neck as she runs free at her favourite place.It’s our post-election Mixed Bag show on Outlook this week, until the next one when sister/co-host Kerry and Regular co-host Barry can hopefully be back in studio with brother/co-host Brian. In the meantime, it’s early May and we’re looking back on the recent federal Canadian election after we discussed voting accessibility, amongst other things, on the pre-election episode from a few weeks back.Brian kicks things off sharing about ambulance rides and stitches with his evening adventures in emerge and we share our plan to get him to wear a helmet. We’re looking back on and Brian explains what made him emotional about a recent “Blind Baseball” episode, a review of recent Elections Canada voting accessibility, and about public vs private as Canada goes forward with our new prime minister on the world stage.We also describe double-sided ice cream cones while navigating and getting turned around (like anyone who takes a wrong turn) as we found ourselves using structure discovery at Oyster’s park, using terms like “structure discovery” or “shore lining” to explain how we, as blind people, get around (a blueprint for being blind) - our discussions this week are all about getting lost and found again including mobility, accessibility, and the multi-sensory with Oyster bells and church bells.Fifth day of the fifth month, 2025 as we talk marking the occasion of Red Dress Day on Turtle Island and anniversaries, including it being the eightieth anniversary of Victory In Europe (or VE Day), during the same week, along with guide dog Oyster’s birthday. We’re celebrating, in Ireland, with a delicious lemon cake, which we eat to honour Oyster. Along with all that, the ideal absence of wars, the kinds which sweep disabled people up in the danger and the chaos humans perpetuate with these things, we at Outlook instead honour guide dogs and peace in this month of May.Learn more about Red Dress Day here:https://amnesty.ca/red-dress-day/
“Blind baseball - it’s like the great equaliser. I’ve found the experience of playing the adaptive sports just as fulfilling, motivating, and frankly competitive as the sports I played as a sighted person growing up.”Our guest on Outlook this week was used to adversity in life, having faced both grief and treatment of a serious chronic illness as a teenager. When Zach Ship was newly blind, years later, he was wished a “Happy Disability Pride Month” by The Lighthouse Guild and he didn’t believe there was much to be proud of though he soon learned otherwise.Zach explains to us some of the rules of blind baseball and about what it meant to him when he discovered the sport, in its adaptive form, which gave him something back of the years playing sports like baseball competitively. So when he heard a documentary on the blind baseball team was being made, he was thrilled others might see what blind baseball (difficult to imagine for so many) is like..So from our friendly cross-border Major League team rivalry to the support group and club we three are all a part of/considering starting, Ship has been through everything( from acute/sudden and unexpected health situations/acquired disability to the loss of a parent at a young age) and shares some of the lessons on the possibilities of adaptation and the power of community.“No way of reacting is right or wrong, but focusing on what things we do still have, the things you can still enjoy. Even if it’s just you can eat this delicious meal or you can feel the sun on your face. It could be small things or it could be big things, always keeping that very very close in mind is critical.”We first heard Zach Ship on “It Happened to Me, A Rare Disease and Medical Challenges Podcast - It happened to me. I’m not alone and neither are you.” This is the message he both benefited from thanks to others, in his own journey, but also the message he believes as he’s become a disability advocate now himself.To learn more about Blind Baseball and the documentary being made about Zach Ship’s team, check out this Indiegogo page:https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/blind-baseball-documentary-halfway-funded#/Watch the documentary teaser trailer here:https://vimeo.com/963770229
“On the way to the library, I flew a kite.”We here on Outlook decide to begin this particular Mixed Bag episode with the above quote, start to a social media status, because we on this show love libraries/love books and love the outlook of writer Leona Godin, also close friend of this radio show/podcast, but really because elections make us want to take a break to fly a kite too.As the federal elections here in Canada approach, we’re together, just after Easter, to discuss some of the issues in our country’s politics from a disability perspective as issues facing disabled Canadians have been mostly overlooked during this election season, so soon off of the rushed Ontario provincial elections we just so recently dealt with. We’re telling about the realities of the PC Party being no-show’s at both provincial and now federal disability town halls and a still-totally inaccessible, inadequate, and inequitable voting system/process.Kerry shares about experiencing a new holiday, Irish style, after being in Ireland for Halloween and now Easter, along with being in Ireland last time during the presidential elections in the States and now, being back this time during our Canadian ones. Also, she and Barry celebrated Easter by having KFC fried chicken for their Easter meal, coming to the conclusion that KFC in Ireland seems better to her than eating it in Canada. Parades, Irish Sea gulls, and Kerry cuddling with an Oyster guide dog as we talk traditions, whether holidays or looking for change (but not necessarily only for change’s sake) when voting for politicians who often ignore the concerns of disabled voters.Kerry also shares about a plane ride conversation with a generation z stranger, about the multi-sensory experience of taking guide dog Oyster to her favourite park again, and Brian’s revisiting previous voting attempts and their inaccessibility as he’s off to try again himself.So, it’s Canada’s federal election on April 28th and we’re doing a mixed bag edition, one co-host in studio live and the other in Northern Ireland. With a bit of distance from the anxious Canadian citizenry, sister/co-host Kerry hasn’t flown a kite, but instead has flown like one into the future of the UK time zone five hours ahead of brother/co-host Brian and yet modern technology makes it possible to open up a bit of a pre-election mixed bag of discussion topics, both silly and serious as one voted already while the other is on his way after this show and we will continue with a post-election wrap-up shortly.
Speaking on the Canadian (Can lit) literary scene and on April/May’s The Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) specifically, Canadian author and accessibility advocate Amanda Leduc says: It’s impossible to have something that’s 100 percent accessible all the time. We’re always working towards a more accessible world, working towards making those adjustments, bit by bit by bit. And that’s where I think having a sense of humility about this and an openness and willingness to learn and to change and grow, for all of us, is really important.This week on Outlook we’re talking with Amanda and learning more about Cerebral Palsy and her own experience with the neurological condition causing everything from muscle weakness to fatigue to pain. Leduc tells us about her time getting her Masters at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland and something she calls “a monument to exclusion” when it comes to the inaccessibility of heritage buildings and old cities.From the built environment of capital Edinburgh to the natural environment of Canada’s winters, Amanda is speaking to us on the show about her own accessibility needs plus considering other’s accessibility considerations after being bullied for a visible limp in childhood to her practice of valuing rest and energy preservation (recharging and rejuvenating) in order to be at her most creatively as a writer.For Amanda Leduc, it’s about reimagining what storytelling can mean. Check out more on Amanda’s work by visiting her website:https://amandaleduc.comLeduc tells us about her previous role as the Festival’s Communications and Development Coordinator, about the origins of FOLD for filling a void in Canada’s literary and festival spaces as far as diversity and representation are concerned, and about some of the events being offered (both virtual and in-person) such as the Friday night Literary Cabaret and the Sunday High Tea and her involvement in some panels from April 27th to May 4th.And so as The FOLD celebrates its tenth year here in 2025, we’re talking bringing people of all experiences and perspectives into the fold with creativity and innovative opportunities for diversity, just as we do every week on Outlook On Radio Western.For more on FOLD go to:https://thefoldcanada.org
Taking a big bite out of life, brother/co-host Brian has returned from a birthday celebration trip to New York City and he’s back and telling us all about it.He shares about his accessible travel and airport experiences at Toronto Pierson, JFK, and LaGuardia, the music show “An Evening With Ida and Tsunami” at Bowery Ballroom he attended with friend/Outlook guest Nefertiti Matos Olivares on Birthday Eve, and another round (after his experience in London, England) and again he set up an exploration of a city with greeter organisation Big Apple Greeters to be shown around by a local along with meeting up with friends from around the state, including sushi with an upcoming Outlook guest.His snapshot of NYC and most of its boroughs includes a tour of NYC transport including a tactile map of the subway system and its history (one puzzle pieced put together at a time) found Brian checking out the tactile further with an exhibit of subway station turnstyles through the years and an accessible touch tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For us at Outlook though, it wouldn’t be the same without audio to tell a fuller tale along with hearing about a few wild New York City encounters with security guards, allowing Brian to get a broader, more personalized feel of the place he’s in. Check out audio from the live show he attended, his latest subway and other NYC transport and being live at Grand Central Terminal, and his special time spent on Roosevelt Island and The East River. And time in New York wouldn’t be the same, especially a first visit, without stopping in Central Park to listen to some live saxophone music. Brian shares both audio and Be My AI image descriptions of some of the photos he took for sighted family and friends to see what he did, it’s a full multi-sensory glimpse of the landmark New York City as we meet Brian beneath the big clock.At one point, he stands with his NYC local guide at FDR’s statue there on Roosevelt Island, with The United Nations right there and the words of Roosevelt clearly underscoring some of the dangerous changes sweeping the States these days. Plus, also on The Island, they make a brief stop at the Accessibility Services booth to find out if they have any information for that spot available in braille. Stay tuned for the answer.Along with a sharing of some comforting cuisine prepared by a dear friend, plenty of King of the Hill watched, and a homestay at a Manhattan apartment, with the added benefit of getting to explore NYC with the blind leading the blind, he won’t ever forget his first Big Apple experience shown to him by its locals.Book your own personalized tour with Big Apple Greeters:https://bigapplegreeters.net/visitor/registerCheck out a segment from Ida’s Bowery Ballroom set:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUTcW325GT4
We’re running to keep up with the train of time, yet through slivers of memory, on this yearly audio diary looking back on the year that was. It’s our original podcast, Ketchup On Pancakes, and we’re recapping 2024 as 2025 rushes forward in a blur. On this one, we’re joined by friend/boyfriend Barry Toner from Ireland, someone who’s joined us in the past, down in the basement where it all took place. We’re looking back, on this annual By The Fireside with a tribute episode, dedicated to our dear friend Andrew. As we sit, beers in hand, by the crackling fire, Andrew’s very own drums nearby. We share a few songs featuring or in tribute to Andrew, as well as looking back on travel to Maine (for a drama club camp arts residency) and Ottawa (Kerry and Barry joining the parents on a road trip), and to the things we’re proud we tackled, in fitness and in mental health for instance. We keep up the silly and imaginative with feature Cassette Clip of the Week and new feature Word of the Year, while lamenting the loss of a once-in-a-lifetime sort of fellow, a friendship lost. So farewell, 2024 (with your last taste of security in the wider world), and to friends gone along the way in the march of time. That’s how that was. That’s how it was. That’s how it is.Find Fowler’s Meaning No Harm on streaming services and Bandcamp:https://fowlercanada.bandcamp.com/album/meaning-no-harmCheck out Barry’s first appearance, down in the basement, on Ketchup On Pancakes from 2018:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ketchup-on-pancakes-episode-14-orange-so-it-is-feat/id1527876739?i=1000633134110And take a listen to our two-parter Outlook show where we visit our new friends in Mount Vernon, Maine, for Drama Club Camp:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2024-10-14-our-week-in-maine-well-figure-it-out-pt-1/id1527876739?i=1000673780980https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2024-10-21-our-week-in-maine-well-figure-it-out-pt-2/id1527876739?i=1000675516532
Records sound better than t-shirts. Today we’re talking literature and CanLit, sports, and music around the theme of accessibility as we continue to promote women in the arts for the remainder of Women’s History Month.Well this week on Outlook we’re discussing wearing our message on our clothing as The Festival of Literary Diversity’s (FOLD) schedule of events and festival sign-up has gone live on their website which we’ll share at the end of this episode’s description. It’s an eight day long event (first, half virtual and the second four days in person) as we discuss the importance of both options for events and gatherings, workshops, and festivals of all kinds, for people with disabilities which make in-person attendance more difficult, something we’ve sadly moved away from since coming out of the worst of the pandemic.A friend told sister/co-host Kerry about a recent online author talk, put on by the FOLD, from their FOLD Academy, with Amanda Leduc called “Building a Life as a Disabled Writer” which included topics such as managing energy for writing when living with disability or chronic illness and information on applying for arts grants which are geared to creators with disabilities. (The next FOLD Academy takes place on April 19th at noon Eastern.)Spring has sprung )or is trying to) and that means baseball so brother/co-host Brian is ready, with his fantasy league and with the real thing, as we highlight the usefulness of listening to games on the radio for those of us who can’t see the visuals of the live thing. It’s like audiobooks or podcasts, an audio method of listening. He’s traveling to New York City shortly, but only time will tell if he ends up attending a New York team’s live game, as Kerry remembers the experience of attending a Bluejays game in the Sky Dome, as we forever refer to it.We talk the creative projects we’ve worked on together and the factors which make them more or less possible, about the need for diversity in literature and art, and even about the ignorance of certain authors who don’t understand the value of authenticity reading or even what it is. Proud to be woke on Outlook, it’s part II of a March Mixed Bag pile of topics, including the FOLD, and sister/co-host Kerry will be attending the online portion next month and sharing more come May.So many books, so little time, but check out more info on The Festival of Literary Diversity, from April 27th to May 4th, by going to their website here:https://thefoldcanada.org
“When I was a little girl, I used to dream as a man, because I wanted to do things that women didn’t do back then such as traveling to Africa, living with wild animals and writing books," said Dr. Jane Goodall. "I didn’t have any female explorers or scientists to look up to but I was inspired by Dr. Dolittle, Tarzan and Mowgli in The Jungle Book — all male characters. It was only my mother who supported my dream: 'You’ll have to work hard, take advantage of opportunities and never give up,' she’d tell me. I’ve shared that message with young people around the world, and so many have thanked me, and said, 'You taught me that because you did it, I can do it too.'"(Jane's quote is excerpted from a 2018 op-ed with Time magazine.)March - It’s a lot of things really. It’s another Mixed Bag, a Mid March Mixed Bag, along with it being a St. Patrick’s Day Monday special when we aired live and we on Outlook are also still celebrating Women’s History Month.We’re looking back and reflecting on what was the five year anniversary of the start of the “stay at home” orders and lockdown and the start of Covid. Speaking of medical things, and spring, sister/co-host Kerry shares facts about the lotus flower and its symbolism of rebirth in nature and science, which leads to celebrating March being Kidney Health Month as she and her dad recall the rebirth and fresh start of the kidney transplant Kerry received from him, a rebirth of sorts. Kerry shares a health update with her kidney and levels being as stable as ever.Kerry in blue and our International Women’s Day edition guest Jane Piper in red, like the Radio Western sign in the background, brother/ally/co-host Brian starts the second half of the show reading the Be My AI image of the two ladies posing in the lobby of the studio after, as we like to take photos with our live and in-studio guests when we are lucky enough to get them, as we look back on the previous week’s episode and the discussion with restorative justice activist Jane. We’ve managed to post the actual photos even with the accessibility issues that come along with social media these days.The second half is dedicated to what’s going on in politics, both provincially and nationally as we share concerns about our premier receiving a third win last month, even with his silence and lack of action on matters concerning the disability community. Last week’s guest Jane spoke a lot about accountability and the lack of it in our society, these actions or lack of that politicians often are modelling and still being voted in by those who don’t consider marginalized populations.Also, we finish up talking about the Canadian Disability Benefit set to come into effect this summer and a federal election on the horizon, we share more about the CDB and provinces like Ontario which has not yet promised not to put in clawbacks and Alberta which has put in the barrier of clawbacks to the already set provincial benefits. Organisation Disability Without Poverty is working to pressure politicians to live up to the promises to combat disability plus poverty across the country.“Green alligators, long neck geese, chimpanzees..We begin the show with a song about these animals, including the ones Jane Goodall worked with, the featured woman in history for the month of March and finish off talking the spring promise of an upcoming baseball season.Today though, we’re unfortunately celebrating St. Patrick’s Day without our Irish co-host Barry and Oyster the guide dog with us live, but they’ll be back, but so we’ve started off the show with a silly song from our childhood - The Unicorn Song, The Irish Rovers version proving that spring is on it’s way to green things up in honour of our Irish connection. We love all things Ireland, but we at Outlook are Canadian and proud to be so.https://www.disabilitywithoutpoverty.ca
“You don’t know what you’re doing, you’re basically recreating your life, and there’s no map for it. I just went through the motions for a long time, I was just a shell of who I once was, but by talking about my experience I realised I could help other people and I began to share my story in front of audiences.”Power, control, empowerment. Rebirth, trauma, healing, and even forgiveness and on finding the places, the spaces to talk about hard things, in life changing communication and accountability terms with our fellow human beings.As spring once more approaches during March is Women’s History Month, with March 8th being known as International Women’s Day, it’s time for another one of sister/co-host Kerry’s annual IWD featured spotlights on a woman she knows who is doing important work in intersectionality and gender equity spaces.This guest can be an ally, but does not necessarily need to be blind or even disabled, but rather a woman that’s making an effort to foster human connection…with conviction for a more equitable world, as it meets the themes of diversity, intersectionality, and interdependence that make up the crux of this show.. This week on Outlook for International Women’s Day 2025, the guest is Jane Piper, (performer, artist, and restorative justice lived experience advocate) local and live in studio.Kerry and Jane look back on how they met in the autumn of 2018, how they very nearly attended a Bernie Sanders rally together, and Piper shares more about what sharing her own story means and does for her each time she tells it. She shares openly about the brutal attack she faced in 2003 and about how she handled the trauma and life afterward, leading her to take on surrigate victim/offender dialogue. Piper runs storytelling workshops with both women in abuse shelters and with the men who’ve been incarcerated for violent acts against women and she talks to Kerry about cultivating empathy for others, even those who have committed unspeakable acts, and on what it means to offer/find forgiveness in a world more divided than is good for any of us.Women’s History Month/International Women’s Day this year’s theme is “The Strength In Every Story” and Jane Piper has both worked to facilitate that in others (like she did when Kerry took her storytelling workshop locally in London) alongside showcasing the same in her sharing of her own, in the work Jane’s done on herself and with/for others such as her work with abused women (as a peer support worker) and inside correctional facilities doing accountability workshops with men imprisoned for violent crimes against women. Jane shares with us what it was like the first time she stepped foot into just such a facility for one of these accountability workshops, what restorative justice has meant in her life, and what it’s like working with these offenders.To find out more about the public speaking she does, as she’s progressing on the book she’s written (Coming Out of The Fog) about her rape survivor experience, check out her website here in the meantime:http://janepiper.com
Heading toward International Women’s Day on March 8th, our guest this week says:“Listening to live music for me is just such an incredible experience because I’m not someone… I don’t personally enjoy the nightclub spaces, that stuff overwhelms me, but when it comes to listening to music, I could do that for hours. That’s good audio stimulus.”This week on Outlook we’re speaking with Amanda Shekarchi, a musician and someone who works in media, about music, perfect pitch and its multi-sensory elements, and community/campus radio stations like the ones all three of us broadcast out of.We talk family and sighted siblings, about working collaboratively with community whether sighted or not, and how collaboration involves everyone, including the essential role a mentor can play.Amanda tells us about her radio experience, including working with Met Radio. (Her university station at Toronto Metropolitan), then onto the CBC with her work on shows like Day 6 and the doc she both produced and hosted “Playing By Ear”, and also her work as a monthly on air contributor and host for AMI (Accessible Media Inc.).It was Family Day, just last month, when both us siblings happened to be listening to the CBC when Amanda’s “Playing By Ear” came on and speaking of family, we’re talking Amanda’s experience growing up in Toronto with hers and so much more on this first of multiple International Women’s Day episodes. So check out her radio show on Met Radio (12 80 AM) on Monday, March 10th at noon in Toronto for a Met 30 Special IWD Show.listen to Amanda’s CBC documentary “Playingby Ear” here:https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/1.7110160Find her interviews with musicians on Met Radio’s YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx_HD2TZjQc&list=PL0t7bx4aRZ25qxBBq1rWly3scN5gl4S6SAnd follow her on social media:https://www.instagram.com/amandarayaofficial/
“For twenty-four years of my blindness journey I wandered around this world pretending I was sighted. I wouldn’t use a cane, I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, I didn’t want to identify as somebody with a disability,” but then Gina Martin says, “In 2015 I met two women who were both confident and blind and it actually blew my mind”.This week on Outlook we’re speaking with Gina with an emphasis on out-of-the-box thinking and the shift” which leads to action which leads to change, leading the disability awareness charge with her company: Diverse Abilities. It’s a disability awareness education program she offers, with everyone from children to seniors, in schools, workplaces, and retirement communities and community centres where she teaches about the diversity to be found in disabilities and the people living life with them.From power tools to axe/dagger throwing, this Canadian is up for it all. This advocate, teacher, and our guest states: Rather than saying “I’m losing my sight,” I refrained it as “I’m gaining my blindness.” She does this by focusing on exploring the other, non visual senses with her audiences, but by also doing it with her partner, friends, and others in her personal life.With some tough words from our guest for Canadian society, it’s a truly international discussion as we learn more about Gina’s months-long blindness skills training in Louisiana and what that felt like and how it has prepared Martin for living her best blind life ever since. We’re, all three, the rest of us curious about how those centres work and we pose the question as to why our guest thinks Canada does not offer structure discovery in the same way.And we hear from Barry, who’s Irish, about the language we use in North America, specifically the word “handicapped” in terms of things like a parking pass or public bathroom, that this word is no longer acceptable or common over there. Gina shares about the language she prefers in her own life and in the work that she does teaching kindness, given and received.Our guest says: It’s IDEAL - Inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility, and language.So check out Gina Martin and more about her programs by going to Diverse Abilities:https://diverseabilities.caAnd follow her on Facebook for such excellent informative posts:https://www.facebook.com/DisabilityAwarenessConsultant/
“It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.”February is birthday month in the family and this episode happens to fall on co-host Kerry’s forty-first exactly so we’re celebrating all things Sister/Co-host with this one.This week on Outlook we’re talking Kerry’s favourite movie (unavailable with audio description), about the trick of FaceTime “Share Content”, along with the boys discussing fantasy baseball and Brian’s continuing work with his swimming lessons. Also, the first week of the month of February was White Cane Week, live on air (clean-up on isle three), and find out why the birthday girl is “troubled,” her words.Nine years till fifty … or halfway till eighty-two as brother Brian likes to say.Check out Kerry’s official website:https://kayconsulting.ca
“I can’t just sit there and watch life pass me by - I wasn’t built for that,” says Keisha Robinson, a Brian Connection with this one.They first met when she ushered him to a seat at an AODA (Accessibility For Ontarians With Disabilities Act) round table event at King’s University College, at Western for International Day For Persons With Disabilities. When, in fact, we have a more personal family/community connection to our first 2025 guest.Our first guest of the year and of February, Keisha Robinson describes herself as a social butterfly, now, but what was it that made her come out of her shell? She grew up with pain, was labeled “drama queen,” and with a diagnosis realised it all finally made sense.Keisha shares about her life lived (before and after) the progressively deteriorating muscular disease diagnosis she received as a teenager, about the umbrella of various symptoms and deterioration predictions and timelines of Muscular Dystrophy (MD, and the philosophy she has gained with her plans with work giving back to sick children in hospital and her study of disability.Robinson is working towards a double major in Childhood and youth studies and Thanatology—which is the study of death, dying, grief, and loss including all sorts of non-death losses. This week on Outlook we’re learning more about her studies and discussing how to demystify loss and grief and normalise the open dialogue on these parts of life we all share.We explore the inaccessibility to be found out there (IE housing design) and hear about how it is to get around Western and King’s University College as a wheelchair user, not to mention around the city she lives in, along with some of her tools for doing that.So while one host says he doesn’t miss a friend he’s never met, the guest might miss ice skating or swimming, while the other two hosts might miss seeing colours or video games and that’s the cross-disability perspective in an example of a non-death loss we’ve been navigating grief over. It’s one really important part of the “Outlook” umbrella we’re showcasing on this show and with guests here, both past and present.
BRAILLE … IS … NOT … A … LANGUAGE!!!Welcome to our final 2025 Braille Literacy Month episode - kicking things off with a poem from a child who loves braille for (Braille200) an initiative by The European Blind Union.Meanwhile, for this week’s Mixed Bag on Outlook, we continue to speak about our new low tech device The BrailleDoodle and its role in making braille more accessible, such as for students and for Barry. (Learn more on this item and hear the unboxing we did on the previous show. It’s like a white erase board for blind message writers and note leavers.)We discuss Braille Literacy and Braille Literacy Canada getting a shoutout on a CBC Radio Morning show (even if they incorrectly referred to braille as a language), about the practical uses for braille, and we dive deeper into the lived experience (what’s known about it) of the code’s inventor: Louis Braille.So airing originally on International Holocaust Awareness Day, we’re talking the realities of DEI (diversity/equity/inclusion) and what disregarding them can point and lead to, along with Ontario’s upcoming provincial election at the end of February and what it might mean for blind voters like us, with braille still being our primary topic on this one: Braille, then and now and in the lives of all of us who need and read it.And so, we say again, for those way far in the back:Braille is a code!Learn more about Braille Literacy Canada:https://www.brailleliteracycanada.ca/en
While sure there are big things, big horrible things happening in Washington, D.C. - on a freezing day in January, we are on air for another Mixed Bag, lurgy filled episode.This week on Outlook On Radio Western we’re finally all back, in-person, together at Radio Western after holidays and illness and continuing the celebration of Braille Literacy Month (Braille200) by sharing an unboxing of a new low-tech braille product.The BrailleDoodle from the TouchPadProFoundation has arrived and we explore its design and uses, live in studio. It is a laptop-sized product with magnetic braille dots and the letters teaching the braille code while on the other side, a tactile grid with holes and magnetic dots pop up with the help of the attached pen or stylus.We discuss the uses of the BrailleDoodle vs the electronic braille displays we use, along with other braille teaching methods. We share about places braille is appearing, on hard cover books, clothing, and Lego, all sorts of novelty braille as well. Kerry and Barry give an update on braille lessons/learning while Brian updates us a bit on his lessons which are of the swimming kind.Who says our Monday must be Blue? While there’s so much nonsense happening in the world, here on Outlook we’re playing with The Doodle and having fun.For more information on the Braille Doodle, teaching device for students and learners using both braille and tactile graphics, check out more here:https://www.touchpadprofoundation.orgAnd purchase one here:https://atguys.com/products/brailledoodle-braille-stem-and-art-for-everyone
Broadcasting live from both Kerry’s office/house and the Radio Western studio, the year and our first show of 2025 begins with the sound of guide dog Oyster’s nails and paws on the floor with our first episode being partially from home as a result of snowy Canadian winter.It’s our first Outlook of a new year and, instead of being all together in studio like we’d planned, two of us are joining from home with co-host Brian there in person.We talk about the previous year of Outlook (Kerry taking her Barbie white cane wherever she goes/regular Outlook listener shoutouts/Others Like Me) including guest totals and new episode numbers, all things Brian loves while talking the holidays and the interdependence a nasty virus or two can highlight between Kerry, Barry, and Brian who avoided the illness for the most part.Kerry shares about being cursed with technology, a fact Barry has arrived at from witnessing it up close as we discuss inaccessibility of modern appliances such as a new air frier, troubles with Kerry’s cell phone and a mysterious lack of data, and more as the love/hate relationship between accessible tech continues in 2025.We discuss how grief isn’t at all linear, Kerry’s recent experience visiting the emergency department on her own and the excellent care she received at her town’s hospital, and about venturing out in the winter terrain as a blind person as Kerry and Barry recently did to go to retrieve their new couple’s Tim Hortons pyjamas from the community mailbox.It’s our first mixed Bag show of the year and on this one we mostly dedicate things to Braille, braille, and the literacy that system/code of communication has in the lives of blind people and this will be our overall theme for the rest of the month on Outlook.
“So after I was injured, all of a sudden I was discovering - Oh, there’s a whole other possibility of how I can use these artistic disciplines I’m really passionate about, but with now this whole new lens on it of being somebody with a disability, somebody who’s part of a community that has largely been marginalised and devoiced and that I think, by putting on stage, putting in the stories, suddenly there’s a transformative element there. So I think it’s something that I rediscovered, post disability, and rediscovered with new purpose,” says our new friend (made in 2024), Regan Linton.Barry’s back, and guide dog Oyster too, joining us on our final episode of the year to speak with Linton to finish 2024 off with a bang.This week we’re speaking with theatre and VoiceOver artist, performer, writer, and educator/advocate Regan Linton about finding one’s voice and using it optimally as she has had to before and since the accident she experienced around her college years. Linton is one of our new pals from the disabled artist’s retreat in Mount Vernon, Maine over the previous summer and together we’re looking back over our time together at Drama Club Camp.We talk cross-disability solidarity, along with intersecting access needs, as Linton shares about her experience living as a wheelchair user. She shares with us about how theatre became a part of her life (both pre and post accident that caused paralysis from the chest down. She tells us about the road trip she took through southern states immediately after this year’s election on her way to Warm Springs, Georgia, a special spot for her study of disabled president Franklin D. Roosevelt, a part adapted/and being played by Regan on stage as we discuss staying locked in our own bubbles vs being more open to other people’s lived experiences which helps us better understand our own overall.We’re looking back at the week we spent together getting to know each other, including the road trip we went on in Linton’s wheelchair accessible van, an adventure from Maine to Boston, Mass, interdependence being key with our friend Regan and a key theme for this show.We’re talking the umbrella of disability and disability experience with social change agent and artist and expert Regan Linton, as she shares about her own internal revolution, on Outlook on the final show of 2024.To check out more about our guest this week, her VoiceOver and educational work plus so much more, visit:https://www.reganlinton.com
Q: What do Lego and musical theatre have in common?A: Our guest for this second last show of 2024 that’s what.This week on Outlook we’re speaking with our new friend Matthew Shifrin, someone we met with the rest of the gang at the drama camp/artist’s retreat we attended in Mount Vernon, Maine over the summer.We spend the first half of this episode talking all things accessible Lego as Matthew shares about how the world-wide children’s activity was finally made accessible for him on his 13th birthday, about his visit to LEGO HQ in Denmark, and how he’s created Bricks For The Blind, a non-profit organisation bringing sighted allies and blind testers/users together to adapt 220 complex sets in its first year in operation, not to mention unthought-of uses for the famous stackable blocks.In the second half of this second last show of ours for 2024, we hear about how Matt’s love of musical theatre began, including learning to play accordion in a week to attend an Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and his work at one time with a gesture coach, Matt being kind enough to share with us and the listeners a bit of his immense musical talents with a few songs from his various performances such as the musical he wrote about his Jewish grandmother.Bonus Material: we’ve included a second song (two-for-one) for this episode of the podcast which wasn’t included for the live airing on Radio Western originally. And, whether sighted or blind/young or simply young-at-heart, go check out Bricks For The Blind to learn more about how LEGO’s being made accessible, one brick at a time, by Matthew Shifrin and friends:https://bricksfortheblind.org
From dusk till dawn. It’s always darkest before the dawn, but what’s wrong with dusk? Where’s the beauty in it?It’s December and nearly are we arriving at the shortest, longest, darkest day/night of the year.. On our International Day of Persons With Disabilities 2024 episode, we are discussing disability within a larger framework of discussion, expanding into age and the changes it brings, including experience with illness and disabilities as we all, inevitably, get older.Through a sudden scare with the sight in his right eye, Frank Bruni goes ahead, in his book, to explore a shifting perspective on themes of vulnerability, ageing, and the perspectives that come from a life turned into life lessons well earned. This week on Outlook we discuss New York Times columnist Frank Bruni’s medical memoir The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found which came out a few years back.We examine themes from the book such as light and dark from the images held in the book’s title referring to beauty found in the dusk and the influence of language and using such words as “affliction” and the negative weight such a word holds for the imagination.We need more thoughtfully written books like Frank’s to normalise disability as a part of all our lives. Co-host Kerry stumbled upon this one and, upon reading, wanted to review it on the show, to explore how those who gain valuable lived experience of disability suddenly, or later in life, can still write about these things from a thoughtful and careful place with sensitivity and wisdom.Find the book available in various formats here:https://www.amazon.ca/Beauty-Dusk-Vision-Lost-Found/dp/1982108576
Co-host Kerry’s back!Sister/co-host Kerry returns and is live in studio after being away for a month. It’s a month away from Christmas on this late November, mixed bag show.This week we discuss what was and what has been, with a badly sprained ankle, Kerry luckily got all her Dublin exploring out of the way, mostly. And Brian has been taking action regarding his mental and physical health. We talk about Others Like Me: The Lives of Women Without Children book release and the unfortunate lack of access in audiobook versions available for those, like some blind people, who would prefer or are best able to read any book in its audible format. Also, Kerry shares about her recent literary and media wins with The Toronto Star and CBC Radio.Kerry is wearing her Poets For Harris t-shirt in protest, while accepting results while Brian broke the pool, referring back and ahead to the 2003 Elf film which is over 20 years old this December. This upcoming Christmas. We’re looking forward but we are also looking back, on Kerry’s time in Ireland this last time, as well as the holidays and traditions of the season, along with recent guests.It was a big deal, having/seeing her writing in newsprint - check out a link to Kerry’s Toronto Star travel essay here:https://www.thestar.com/life/travel/i-m-blind-but-i-still-wanted-to-experience-my-beloved-ireland-through-my-other/article_84ee3c60-983e-11ef-9c6e-ef822316d85c.htmlAnd listen to Kerry on CBC radio’s Fresh Air:https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/9.6567168
In preschool, her teachers noticed she wasn’t hearing and she soon got hearing aids, but it wasn’t until she was in her teens that our guest on Outlook this week had to face that she was losing vision as well.Natalie Shearer is with us, for one of our final interviews of 2024, to discuss her position as an advocate, with her diagnosis of Usher syndrome. She’s telling us about what eventually caught her attention and made her sit up straight, seriously thinking about the necessity of learning to use a white cane, facing blindness head on.From Two Canes Consulting, job as Head of Accessibility and Operations at Lotus (wearable assistive tech), to her position as Usher Syndrome Canadian Coalition’s Ambassador. So with her lifelong experiences with both disability and chronic illness, Natalie Shearer is eager to get back to accessibility and community.And community is built through connections, one of which led to Natalie coming on our show in the first place. Thanks to Anne Mok (Purpose In View) for the intro.Check out the wearable ring Lotus Natalie speaks about in this episode:https://getlotus.com
Words like “childless” and “blindness” are both too harsh for some ears, often diluted by using other words or terms. These are conversations we on Outlook seek to take on and not hide from every day because we’re living it.November 5th is the official North American release of Others Like Me: The Lives of Women Without Children by writer and translator Nicole Louie and this week sister/co-host Kerry is taking a deeply personal dive into the book’s themes.Kerry and Nicole met online six years ago when Louie Was on the end of a years-long search for others like her, in the sense that they were not mothers, could not be, chose not to be in her pursuit to write a book about a subject often shied away from.There are plenty of misconceptions around “childlessness” in society and how we’re less vital to the world because we’re not reproducing for the next generation, but Nicole has pushed back on that message in OLM and in the work she does surrounding the topic. On this episode we hear from Nicole Louie about her first book and why she wanted to have the conversation to begin with, the over-decade long road to publication, and her and Kerry share about the growth of their friendship and collaboration during the writing process, including the book club discussion Kerry was lucky to get to join, at a special spot in Dublin, as one of the featured women appearing within its pages.Nicole shares about things like the research process, her on-the-ground time when she visited Kerry in Canada and when Kerry then visited her in Ireland, and the audiobook narration experience she had in studio, as she comes into Kerry’s virtual Outlook studio for a chat.This is not an anti-natalist position book, but rather the further opening of a discussion on the rights and freedoms of women and a dialogue between women and their partners, families, and communities on a choice for a life, a path different from what we’re taught, as girls, about our sole job being to grow up, get pregnant, and become mothers.Kerry is very glad this book is out, after so long, and she wanted to use her platform with this show to talk about this intersectionality, of the lives of many others, that’s not always easy or painless or certain, but just that her friendship with Nicole and her own search to find community have brought her to where she is and she wants girls and women to know they have options for different paths in life.It’s a book, by one woman, interspersed with the stories of fourteen more including Kerry’s story. To check out more about Others Like Me: The Lives of Women Without Children go to the North American publisher’s website for more information:https://houseofanansi.com/products/others-like-me
While Kerry is still in Ireland and away from the mic, this week there’s a special spot filler in her seat. We’re talking magic and monsters on what we’ve coined our Monster Mixed Bag show.This week on Outlook, the Fab Four return, including sister/co-host Kerry and boyfriend Barry in Northern Ireland and brother Brian and friend Nefertiti Matos Olivares, visiting from New York City, in studio after her first appearance as our guest back in July and the show where we visited Perkins School for The Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts as a group.Nef is visiting Ontario and Brian has been showing her around its capital, around London, and even Kerry’s house (without Kerry herself being present). The four of us discuss the adventures Brian and Nef have been having, including tours of Toronto and its Islands, an accessible art gallery experience at Tangled Art + Disability, and a proper Kijewski immersion around the Woodstock area.While Kerry and Barry share about watching two wildly different retellings of Dracula (both audio described) and tell tales of a spooky ghost bus excursion, in Dublin, along with their awesome hotel find at an historic spot included on said spooky tour during their pre-Halloween visit to Bram Stoker’s Dublin.Sharp and stabby, flaming hot like the fiery depths of hell, this is Halloween on Outlook as Kerry experiences the holiday, Irish style (including trying monster themed snacks) and tells all on the show on this final episode of October.Learn more about Tangled Art + Disability:https://tangledarts.orgListen to the four of us back in July on Nef’s first Outlook appearance:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2024-07-15-scars-the-oscars-the-voice/id1527876739?i=1000664231625And us four exploring Perkins School for the Blind:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2024-09-23-our-field-trip-to-perkins-school/id1527876739?i=1000671209448
Frogs and toads, rubber ducks, and loons - oh my!It’s time for Part Two - this week on Outlook we share the second half of our audio scrapbook of our week in Mount Vernon, Maine this summer for Drama Club Camp.Last week we heard from several of the others in attendance and this week we continue hearing from those from our "cast of characters,” as our host called it.Host Scott spoke with us last time about his philosophy of “one step, two step, three” and this week we further explore the bonds of friendship and collaboration in working toward a theatre piece featuring the blind aesthetic, along with loons on a lake and six blind people jumping in to swim with them.We hear from Scott’s partner, in work and in life, Shannen about his hopes for their inn and artist retreat, plus we hear from Chef Jeanelle and cross-disability friend and collaborator Regan. It’s a fun-filled dive into the week that was.This episode features interviews with Regan Linton, Jeanelle Krawchuk, and Shannon Morrison.It is dedicated to Brian’s longtime friend and drummer Andrew McIntyre (1978-2024). RIP.The clip from “Frog and Toad Aren't Friends” found in this episode is taken from Meaning No Harm by Fowler featuring drums by Andrew. Find it here:https://fowlercanada.bandcamp.com/album/meaning-no-harmAnd learn more about Scott and Shannon at:https://www.dramaclubproductions.com
“This morning, when I woke up, I felt good because the sun was shining. I felt good because I was a frog. And I felt good because I have you as a friend.”Arnold Lobel, “Days with Frog and Toad”We used to do tours of the hotel rooms we stayed in as a family, as kids, and now we’re going to give you a tour of the inn we were invited to this summer, in Mount Vernon, Maine, for an artist retreat.This week on Outlook we’re taking you along on our trip with us, from back in July, as we made new friends, connections, relationships formed with friends we’ve never met and those we’ve known virtually for a while.This episode is part one of two parts, an audio scrapbook of sorts, our guest book entry for our experience at Drama Club Camp.Through interviews we did with the other participants, to a tour of the 100-year-old inn we were hosted at, to the boat rides on the pond/lake, we were there to create something from a blindness lived perspective, with others from the blindness community, disability cross solidarity community, and the broader community of those who’ve experienced feeling like they didn’t fit in - we’re exploring the bonds of friendship and the art made when we’re given the room to explore our imaginations and feel accepted by others.From the hugging area to the community kitchen, we’re hearing from the others in attendance as to what the week ended up meaning to them and sharing what it meant to us too.The themes from the “Frog and Toad” books kept coming up during the week, plus much much more, all of which will be showcased in this two-parter special Outlook.This episode features interviews with Dr. H. May, Dr. M. Leona Godin, Matthew Shifrin, John, and Scott Ihrig.Check out our friend Matthew Shifrin’s Bricks for the Blind: https://bricksfortheblind.orgAnd learn more about Scott and Shannon at:https://www.dramaclubproductions.com
We’re continuing our education series during October, Blindness Awareness Month - BAM!A lot has changed since the summer of 2020, but not the focus and hard work of returning guest and ally, Caroline Karbowski, who joins us this week from the home of Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, Mass. There she will soon be celebrating October 15th (White Cane Day) with blind and deaf-blind students who she’s having a hand in teaching things such as tactile literacy and self advocacy skills.Returning friend of Outlook, Caroline, has been working with the students of this historic educational campus for blind and deaf-blind children for months now. After catching up with Caroline, and for our listeners on her company See3D which produces 3D models for tactile learners, we could have used more than an hour’s time to find out all the work she’s been doing since we first met her. Like the international outreach Perkins does, as we found out on the tour of the school we took in July, Caroline shares about the international outreach See3D is now working to offer through the mission of the organization she herself started back in 2017 as a high school student. Now she contributes, through her own biology background, to making the STEM fields more accessible and inclusive while finding new ways of making the braille she learned, as a sighted person, even more relevant for herself and her students.Since her time in Ohio, from certified braille transcriber to orientation and mobility specialist, Karbowski left her schooling and her work in her home state and moved to Boston, where she’s been experiencing life at the school with the children during the summer camp offerings and now is beginning a new school year on the Perkins grounds.She tells us about the vast array of resources and assistive devices for multi-sensory teaching techniques available to her there and about some of the adventures she’s been on with the kids over the summer, what the year ahead is shaping up to be for her in Watertown where we just visited ourselves, and her continued educational and entrepreneurial goals within various inclusion spaces. Plus, she shares about coming across more “braille in the wild” and shares about A Cubed Design and its ideas for how to make electronic braille machines more able to withstand wear and tear when in use.So from the art and experimentation of tactile map making and the range of communication and teaching tools she’s both making and making use of there in Boston to the continued work back there in Ohio where she’s utilising interns, grants, and other funding and fundraising strategies to continue with 3D printing, Caroline and helpers have been working on making everything from weather guides, to lightening, to the life cycle of a butterfly accessible.And not only is she driven toward all we’ve so far listed, Caroline also tells us about the ballroom dancing she enjoys and how The Terminator showed up for his interest in the activity.From her now going on to attend U Mass, to Perkins, to growing work with C3D, Caroline Karbowski shares it all with us. She is one sighted ally we’ll have back on with us again, but just try to listen to this educational themed episode and not feel inspired to learn something new and be of service to the younger generation. Undoubtedly, as the list of necessary and innovative work she does grows as it has in the years since Covid turned Outlook from strictly a radio show to now a broadcast and a podcast both, we’re glad we met her and, this second time around, we’re sure you will be too.Learn more about A Cubed Design, a startup for braille literacy that is developing a low-cost and customizable braille display:https://www.acubed.designAnd listen back to her previous appearance on the show:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2020-08-31-interview-with-ceo-of-see3d/id1527876739?i=1000489673485
DISABILITY WITH POSSIBILITYThis week on Outlook we’re starting, along with our mission on this show toward recognising intersectionalities and identity, we begin this episode by talking about the date this one originally airs: September 30th.In Canada, the last day of September is known as Orange Shirt Day since 2013 and now Canada’s National Day For Truth and Reconciliation since 2021. We emphasise, during a time of the year when school is generally back in session for local students, how the government and church run residential schools for Indigenous children were less like schools and more like concentration camps. We acknowledge these things while remembering all the innocent children made to suffer within that so-called educational (more like colonial) system.Yet also, we celebrate joy in community and culture, while sharing too about the acts of community and solidarity between Indigenous and non Indigenous people with a story from an Ontario school for the blind and a current act of sharing it participated in bringing together the land and Stewards of both the W Ross Macdonald School for the Blind and Mohawk Institute Residential School now known as Woodland Cultural Centre.In the second half we replay some audio of a recent Disability Without Poverty town hall community meeting put on locally in London we were invited to attend. We keep wanting to become a bit more involved in the things happening close to home and with this set of audio clips, we split up in the group to meet others in the community, we heard so many personal stories of the lives of people living with disability and those who love and advocate for and with them, as we play what we said that day when it was our turn as this country heads toward a promised Canadian Disability Benefit, as imperfect and even minuscule as it might be.It’s the DISABILITY WITH POSSIBILITY edition of a Mixed Bag show. Check out award-winning Indigenous Hip-Hop artist, producer, writer, and multi-instrumentalist Mattmac and their song Still Got Love featured on this episode:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cD0qVjYoeEShow your support for Woodland Cultural Centre:https://woodlandculturalcentre.ca/support-us/Disability Without Poverty has a new podcast. Check out Disability With Possibility:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/disability-with-possibility/id1770063176 And for more on the kinds of things Disability Without Poverty are up to or how you can help:https://www.disabilitywithoutpoverty.ca
Over the summer, we visited Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, outside of Boston.It’s September and back-to-school is on people’s minds so we bring you a special Outlook…into this historic educational environment for blind and deafblind children.What brought us all there together?” Our tour guide asks us.Well, sister/co-host Kerry has known about Perkins for most of her life, which is down to her history with Helen Keller (this episode including a bit of the backstory on the history of Perkins). She wanted to see the place and finally, found herself in the Boston area in July. So she talked her brother/boyfriend/new friend to join her and an adventure they’d never forget.They all had fun in the end, from the playground to the museum, we even came across a giant globe.Of course, the whole museum was so much more accessible and inclusive than most other museums, and the Brailler museum station is the highlight, the machine we used growing up named from the school. Or the tactile map station of the entire campus. It was a specialised learning experience and some of us could have been there all day. You certainly needed it to see and read it all.We wanted to share the highlights of our tour of Perkins School for the Blind - to let listeners know what this place is, what it’s stood for all these years, and what it now means to all of us who were there that day. So come along as we take you back to Perkins with us.Bonus material (Not on original radio broadcast): our farewell to Boston with our friend, State Trooper Steve.Learn more about Perkins online:https://www.perkins.org
Richard Marion knows that: with the political climate threatening inclusivity of society in some ways, it’s even more important, out there, that he only wants people identifying themselves, being proud of their identities.Going with our September theme, we’re beginning this one by talking education for the blind, for our guest. This week on Outlook we’re speaking with first-time guest on the show, Richard Marion, from Richmond, British Columbia, but he wasn’t always living in Metro Vancouver.We hear from Richard about the culture shock of going from the third grade at the school for the blind to a much bigger classroom environment in his local, mainstream school for grade four. He shares about bullying, the white cane and braille skills he was given, while trying to make use of his residual sight.Richard shares about his intersectionalities which include disability, coming out as a part of the 2SLGBTQQAI+ community, and discovering his Metis heritage.We talk audio description not transferring across the border. Marion was the one who got the Vancouver Pride Society to have live audio description for the Pride Parade and then would pass the baton to VocalEye.He applied for Metis Citizenship, in 2019 receiving his Metis Nation British Columbia status card, after childhood summers going back to the Manitoba he was born into. Since he’s gone on to be hired to audit the accessibility of the Assembly of First Nations national general meetings.Finally he talks about his touring with a group of musicians and his recent bucket list train travel from Vancouver to Toronto, sharing about the friendliness of the Via Rail staff along the way.
Every year, when our anniversary for starting rolls around, we like to invite guests on with us who listen to the show. This time, we’ve invited longtime listener and friend Nancy Gill to join us live on air.It’s our Six Mix this week on Outlook with Nancy, all phone troubles aside, and we couldn’t have found a better person to be with us for this one.Nancy has a routine, every Monday morning (as it starts at 8 AM on the west coast where she’s located) Gill gets up, gets coffee, and crawls back into bed in her pyjamas to tune in.So for this one we look back on the last six years, with massive amounts of help from Nancy, as she remembers so many of the guests and topics we’ve hosted and covered and she gives examples better than we ever could.We’re so glad, it’s why we do this show, that listeners like Nancy find what we bring to the program helpful and that Outlook can be a place people can feel at home.So it’s a special Mixed Bag episode, with Nancy Gill, to celebrate six years doing this radio show/podcast, for ourselves and for anyone out there with a perspective (an Outlook) to share.And this isn’t our first time speaking with Nancy on Outlook. Check out her previous appearance here:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2022-04-25-national-volunteer-week-with-first/id1527876739?i=1000558793185
Trouble with technology, social media, and yet we come on air laughing, asking ourselves one question:Next step - should we get a billboard?This week on Outlook it’s another Mixed Bag and one of the final summer shows.We hear about Brian’s night out and Kerry’s, Blind Barbie, and the 2024 Paris Paralympics are here with braille on the medals, being that France was the home country of its inventor.So with the end of summer on the horizon, here’s to looking ahead and good luck to all athletes competing.Learn more about the blind Barbie:https://shop.mattel.com/en-ca/products/barbie-fashionistas-doll-in-partnership-with-the-american-foundation-for-the-blind-hrh17
August is half gone and “back To school” will soon be here. Our returning guest this week, Mitch Kidd, knows about the butterflies on the first day (both as student and as educational worker) speaking with us about the new teaching program they’re starting this fall.This time we two are back in studio and speaking with Mitch all the way from their home on Canada’s west coast once again. This episode discusses taking breaks between guide dogs, “now celebrating a year with Mitch’s third guide dog Mario”, on always traveling with a white cane in their backpack (as a backup) to be able to explore their surroundings tactually, and on the cross-animal relationships and interaction as Mario met Mitch’s miniature horses and on hiring an animal translator for guidance.We’re glad to have them back to hear an update on things such as self employment services and training, on musicianship and accessing braille music, and their feelings on traveling on Vancouver’s Sky Train now and on asking for assistance through the station.We talk a recent ADHD diagnosis, being able to access time out in nature when you have a disability and on speaking up about hiking with others not being wrong (with some of the judgments within the disability community), and the relief of travel to Victoria being made easier by the knowledge of what having ADHD means for them. For Mitch (over stimulation as their brain would go off-line), knowledge is certainly power/empowering.So going from South Africa to Vancouver Island, we’re reflecting with return guest Mitch on the passage of time and on living our truths. It’s an honest discussion on intersecting identities as we work to make this show a place where such open conversations are made more commonplace. We at Outlook congratulate Mitch on their recent official name change.And, when it comes to identity and gender and politics, Mitch says: “It’s my life you’re talking about.” They tell us, “It’s been a mixed bag really,” as Mitch shares about misgendering, making taking hormones accessible, and on those who just won’t try vs people who do.Live and let live we say, the mixed bag of intersectionality being what Outlook’s all about, with returning friend of the show, Mitch, and first-time guest Mario too.Find Mitch's previous appearance on the show here:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2022-11-14-blindness-and-gender-intersecting/id1527876739?i=1000586296318
It’s still summer and the summer months often include summer camp which is where our guests this week first met as teens.To begin with, the three things we have in common are our differing levels on the blindness spectrum, all four of us were integrated into the public school system, and we now record our respective podcasts in studios, them at the studio at Perkins School for the Blind and us at Radio Western.On this episode of Outlook we’re speaking with Lina Coral and Juna Gjata from the 2024 debut - “Blind Girl Chat” podcast about their first impressions of one another when meeting at Perkins summer programs, the conditions and syndromes which led to their blindness and to them coming to the States as children, and some of the best and worst things about being blind, even in a progressive state like Massachusetts, all of which they have open and honest chats about.We chat about the lack of truly funny blind jokes, having a sense of humour about our daily disability moments, and deciding when or if to take advantage of the perks of being blind, of which there are plenty.Diversity, identity, intersectionality - just like Outlook’s accessibility, advocacy, and equality are the themes of our show and of theirs as we have a chat with the girls from “Blind Girl Chat” on all this and much more.Find them wherever you get your podcasts or at the following link:https://blindgirlchat.podbean.com
Picture it, Maine and Boston, 2024 …A loon on a serene lake and six blind people are hearing its call from a boat in the middle of said lake, as the sound reverberates the way only sound can on open water.Fans cheer for their favourite baseball team and the sounds of their excitement echoes within one of the Major League’s most famous ball parks.Co-host Kerry wins the award for the best sound leaping into the water.And a night full of crickets are in the audio foreground as a loon once again calls out, but from the lake out there in the background.This Outlook is Barry’s last one live for a while, but he and guide dog Oyster will be back with us.But first, on Outlook this week, we’re talking Maine and Boston, which is where we all were, for a week in July, and we’re sharing a bit about our time away.We discuss the Drama Club Camp week together in an old inn in Maine, just what we did all week, and some about those whom we were there with.We also discuss duck tours, fresh sea food, and visiting Perkins during our 48 hours in Boston as we share (using some soundscape clips to break up the talking over one another because it was just such a meaningful experience for all of us). From the hugging area (a no sorry zone) to access checks, many so-called “coincidences” happened to us all while away. (Stay tuned for a deeper dive, like the one you could make off the side of a boat, into the creative and collaborative work we did in Maine.)This episode is dedicated to Toad and his recovery. So glad he’s doing well. So pleased for Scott, Shannon (our hosts for the week),, and Toad’s brother Frog.Check out more about Brian’s band Fowler and the song “Frog and Toad Aren’t Friends” which was one of his “coincidences”. We each had them:https://fowlercanada.bandcamp.com/track/frog-and-toad-arent-friendsAnd learn more about Scott Ihrig on his official website:https://www.ihrig.com
Right before our end-of-the-month group trip to Maine and Boston we wanted to meet and speak with Nefertiti Matos Olivares, who describes herself as using her “voice” in the creation and narration of culturally competent audio description as a first-generation brown-skinned American woman, for another Disability Pride month chat on the podcast.This week on Outlook we’re talking with Nefertiti (audio describer and member of The Social Audio Description Collective), whom we meet virtually for this recording and then in person soon after, about her work with Descriptive Video Works (Canadian company and North American leader in audio description) and about her independent work in the field..Nefertiti tells us about low expectations within the crisscross of her specific intersectionalities, medical trauma and career change (scars and The Oscars), and having someone impartial in her life for some of these things along the way.Reality being just that life happens (particularly when talking disability and chronic illness), we discuss the need for and value in going to therapy, possessing true empathy, and the things which are considered to be universal truths. We talk waiting lists and second times around with transplant as we discuss our similarities and differences in chronic illness conditions and experiences including something known as “sleepy kidney”, as we hear about Nef’s own transplant story,This episode, recorded on July 15th, happens to be Brian’s transplant anniversary so we figure this could be a place of connection with this particular guest from which to begin the conversation, as Outlook isn’t all about blindness but about the intersections between disability, chronic illness, and everything else.We four talk resilience like during episodes living with disability and chronic illness (whether it’s long Covid or kidney disease or blindness) and Surviving vs thriving (both emotionally and physically).As we leave another Disability Pride July behind us - check out more about Nefertiti’s group, The Social Audio Description Collective for a more equity based group of audio description professionals:https://socialaudiodescription.com/And learn more about Descriptive Video Works:https://descriptivevideoworks.com
What is the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame? We talk questions like this and more in the first show of an important month for the disability community which we’ve marked for a few years now on air.Happy Disability Pride Month everyone!We celebrated Canada last week by replaying an episode with a fellow Canadian: Anne Mok’s Purpose In View, but we’re back, live, on Outlook this week with the three of us and Oyster the guide dog.And we’ll be taking Outlook on the road this month, doing lived experience work, with a group of blind friends to celebrate disability pride together.We’re talking PRIDE today - on this week’s Mixed Bag show we discuss the upcoming trip to Portland, Maine and Boston and what we’re doing at an inn in Maine for a week with other blind creatives, the three tourist experiences we have planned to meet each one of our interests, and we discuss why “pride? In the first place.Also, The National Federation of the Blind is one of a few organized blindness movements having their annual convention at the beginning of Disability Pride Month so we go over some of their 2024 resolutions to see what they’re up to and these matters in the resolutions, we choose to discuss a few which we have something to say about, including their motion that Perkins School for the Blind should change their name because Perkins was involved in the illegal opium trade and in enslaved people.Between the two halves of our live show this week, our commercial for Outlook was chosen to air by the computer system at the station and it ends with the sound of a Perkins Brailler. It’s always been Perkins to us, we’re going on a tour of that historic school for blind children later this month, but we acknowledge the collective trauma caused by the honouring of men like Perkins and his hand in perpetrating lasting damage. We’re exploring all the issues which matter to blind people where and how and when we can.So happy Disability Pride from us at Outlook On Radio Western. And why call it pride when Pride Month is June for LGBTQ2S+ just the month before?There are blind people in both minorities so we’re honoured to follow, (the very next month) their path toward greater representation and inclusion.Check out our past episode featuring 2024 Canadian Disability Hall of Fame inductee Penny Bennett here:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-06-28-deafblind-awareness-month-with/id1527876739?i=1000527431020
“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” - Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) said it and he was right, most especially with our Mixed Bag Monday shows at times.Check out Outlook this week as we review Forrest Gump on its portrayal of disability on screen, since the 90’s when it was released. We also discuss rainbows (June being 2S LGBTQ Pride), along with more examples of audio description and using AI for image descriptions.So while life can be a lot like a box of mixed chocolates, this episode, the above is our way of giving those chocolates names as we strive for further inclusion and pride for all people, as LGBTQ Pride turns into July’s Disability Pride.
In retirement, Paul Martz has discovered his love of writing science fiction and blogging about technology after a career in software development. Recently he's asking:What role can fiction play in educating society about climate change?Martz is doing all this by writing for the blind user's AppleVis website and now as co-editor of the "Without Brakes, Fingers Crossed" anthology. He's with us on Outlook this week to promote this project as we're all experiencing record-breaking high temps on the brink of summer.Paul shares a bit of his own writing and reads an excerpt from the anthology featuring a river, about his interest in making the Rubik’s Cube accessible, and more on his reasons and experience as the first Rocky Mountain Books/Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers co-editor of an anthology (which they release every two years) who happens to be blind.Science fiction author, technology blogger, and former punk rock drummer which co-host Brian ends the show asking about being that he also does his music show, Chin Music, every Friday on Radio Western - you can find out more about all these topics by going to Paul's own website along with how to order the "Without Brakes, Fingers Crossed" anthology:https://paulmartz.com/blog/
I am blind!Next month, July, is Disability Pride Month and our guest this week is Doris Belusic who is a poet, nonfiction writer, magazine editor, recent university graduate, and now children's book author.We speak with Doris about meeting her through The Canadian Federation of the Blind, what it was like to go back to school as a mature student, and about the children's book she's written with plain language and for educational purposes to teach children that blindness is just another way of being in this world.In an article she was featured in last year, she was described as "unstoppable”, but the point of this book is that she and we must speak it loud and proud:"I Am Blind" - put out by Beech Street Books in British Columbia and through Saunders Books in Ontario, for librarries and schools across the country.Check out the article quoted above by going here:https://www.seniorlivingmag.com/articles/unstoppable/
First show of June, and with it begins the next few months of “Pride,” such as for LGBTQAI+2S and next month, Disability.This week on Outlook, we are missing our third co-host Barry and guide dog Oyster, but we begin the show Speaking with host of the show right before hours every Monday morning for the previous few years - From Bach To Rock host Bernie joins on the third Mike and we find out a bit more about his story, including his early experiences with radio, what brought him to CANADA from our neighbours to the south, And more on his love of music.In the second half, just us two sibling co-hosts discuss our weekend away in the countryside and the soundscape of that environment. We all enjoyed, celebrating 40th birthdays, not to mention the futuristic possibilities and our first ride in a friend’s Tesla.So as we look back on the annual, end of May National Accessibility Week (NAW), we look ahead to the second half of 2024 and we will hear more on travel when our third cohost joins us again this summer for some additional weeks.
"Love is sweet, have a treat."This was the verse written on the wedding favours, pairs of homemade shortbread cookies by all our plates at a recent wedding we attended in the family and our third host, Barry, he made it into the photos and is back with us, for another mixed bag show, to share about the experience.A wedding day or living with a disability, so many things in life are about learning to roll with it. We three share on Outlook this week about being blind in such a crowded, hectic social situation and how we already have some authority, being unable to see, when an unexpected part of the evening was when the power went out and all the guests were forced to find their way in the toilets in the dark.We also discuss the tiresome infantilization of us by uneducated sighted people, including those running carnival rides, as Barry and Kerry once more discovered at a May 24 traveling amusement park when they were forbidden from going on a ride together on their own as a couple.When do you speak up and advocate and when do you let it slide?And in our second half, we revisit the early years of the life of Helen Keller along with Barry who knew very little about Keller's life. Brian and Kerry rewatched the 1962 film version of the meeting of Helen and her teacher and companion Anne Sullivan, while Barry experienced the story for the first time.We and he give our thoughts on the title "The Miracle Worker" and its problematic connotations, about how films based on true events sometimes embellish and alter their true life timelines, and Barry gives his take as an Irishman on how well Anne Bancroft did with the accent her character would have had.If you're like Barry and never really knew much about Helen Keller or her teacher, or even for a reminder of the lives the two lived beyond that one big, important year on which the movie was made, check out the Outlook episode we once put out on the full life of Helen Keller and stay tuned for a similar show on a fuller picture of Anne Sullivan's life story still to come.https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-12-13-lights-camera-helen-keller/id1527876739?i=1000545091341
On June 1st, it will be three years since the initial release of the book "There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness" and its author and friend of the show Dr. M. Leona Godin is back with us, with us three live in studio. This week on Outlook, we're catching up with Leona on what she's been up to in that time and more recently, along with Barry as our third co-host, as we three find out some of the latest projects and work Godin is focusing on including storytelling shows like "Sighted People Suck”. We discuss how she navigates a place like New York City where she lives, the responsibilities with having a guide dog at whatever age, and about the internal shame and ranking each other within the blindness community that goes on.Leona shares about her experience with Daniel Kish who is well-known for his lifelong use of echo location, what he's famously recognized for, but how his work as a mobility instructor who knows the lived experience of being blind is much less understood and valued. Also, Godin tells us about what she's currently been reading on the broadening knowledge and awareness of something referred to as sensory studies, her "Scented Stories" performances, and a bit about the accessible tour of the Whitney Museum of American Art, along with the help of AI. Check out "There Plant Eyes" and more by going to her website:https://drmlgodin.comAnd if you missed her previous appearance on Outlook where she talks about her book, you can find it here:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-10-11-there-plant-eyes-an-interview-with/id1527876739?i=1000538623498
Guide dog Oyster turned six on May 5th and we celebrate on this first episode of May with her and her guide dog teammate Barry, returning visitors and co-hosts as a part of our show.This week, on the first half of Outlook and another mixed bag episode, speaking of oyster, Barry and co-host Kerry share about a recent guide dog refusal by a local cab driver in Kerry’s town.On the second half we share three examples of different audio described versions, same scene, of the 1992 film “Scent of a Woman” about a character, who is depressed, and Celebrating one last hurrah in New York City, who was the first big representation of blindness for those of us living with the condition to see ourselves represented by on screen. We three discuss our feelings about the movie, its famous tango scene,and the different styles of audio description, UK vs North American.
“Tempus fugit” - Latin proverb meaning “time’s a wasting” or “time flies” as we on Outlook discuss disability and endless other things.Our third co-host Barry (and guide dog Oyster) are back with us today. Times flying for Barry here in Canada, but this week we hear more from him about his life after blindness, in Ireland, and as he broadened out and began to travel on his own.How he learned to be blind?"It can be done."We'll hear more about adventures with Barry and Oyster, her adventures in discovering for herself, as we talk guide dog vs white cane and other tools in our tool kits.Why don't you have another guide dog?We discuss Kerry and Barry ice skating and its similarity to tandem cycling, dealing with continued inaccessibility with our electronic braille devices and Bluetooth on our iPhones, and we finish off discussing a recent FB post from a blind person which had some in the blindness community talking. Thanks to Connor Scott-Gardner for their thoughtful words.You can find their Facebook page with so many insightful posts including the one we covered on this show here:https://www.facebook.com/p/Connor-Scott-Gardner-100082294361791/
“Top of the morning to ya,” says friend and boyfriend of co-hosts and siblings Brian and Kerry.We’re here on Outlook this week with visiting guest hosts Barry and his guide dog Oyster, fresh from their journey all the way from Ireland.From acquiring a pet passport to a fit-to-fly letter, Barry shares with us the process for travel with a guide dog and both of them are with us for the next few months on air.Alongside talk of travel with a guide dog, we touch on last week’s Canadian federal budget announcement about the proposed Canada Disability Benefit, long promised by the Liberal government, but now the news is out that what they are offering is far less than was expected and what would put people with disabilities above the poverty line. So now Canadians with disabilities are not happy and not having it, speaking up where possible and we here are joining the chorus of voices, in a marginalised group often overlooked.In the second part of the show, we speak with Rebecca Singh of Superior Description Services, who we’ve had on the show last year to learn about what Superior Description does and since then what co-host Kerry has been working on as accessibility consultant.This time Rebecca is back to share with us all about next month’s Junior Festival, for children five to twelve, on the campus of the Harbour Front Centre in Toronto. Junior is an arts and creativity festival for young people, running during the weekend of May 18th to the 20th. Sunday, May 19th is set aside as Enhanced Accessibility Day for children with disabilities, blindness and all kinds. There will be offerings such as touch tours, sighted guides if needed, and plenty of audio description available on site and online at the Harbourfront Centre website, described by Rebecca and reviewed by Kerry as consultant.Singh also shares with us another upcoming arts and creativity event she’s working on, including podcasts as supplements to the in-person events, this June in the GTA and around Toronto, known as Luminato.So if you’re in the area in the coming months, for either one, check out the festivals and events on offer by going to their websites, contacting them by phone, or by email at the links, number, or email address below:harbourfrontcentre.com/junior416-973-4600info@harbourfrontcentre.comhttps://www.luminatofestival.comhttps://superiordescription.comListen to Rebecca Singh’s previous Outlook appearance:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2023-03-06-international-womens-day-with/id1527876739?i=1000603364184
“Every time I look at you, I go blind.”Solar eclipse, 2024 and the big topic around it all was eye protection. Thus the above lyrics from the Canadian band 54-40 song to start off the show.It’s another Kerry Connection this week on Outlook as we look back on last week’s eclipse with Dr. Sheri Wells-Jensen, Associate Professor of linguistics at Bowling Green State University.As the 2023 Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/LOC Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation, we wanted to get her thoughts on, and her experience with the eclipse. We also talked being blind and her philosophy with it, being a kid, and being curious about science, and being steered away from the sciences as a blind student.Co-host Kerry, as a young girl, watched Bill Nye the Science Guy and was fascinated by and drawn in by outer space. Sheri now works to make it more accessible for people of all abilities in space with her featured story on the Radiolab podcast, experiencing zero gravity and recording the findings of that experiment.Going from not wanting to make a fuss to advocating, for the next generation - we talk possibility, perspective, and wonder, as we agree, it would be fun to be able to fly, but with all the things, that’s what space can provide. Check out Sheri’s official website:http://sheriwellsjensen.comFind the Radiolab episode “The Right Stuff” featuring Sheri here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpe6azxvQpMAnd give a listen to the quartet Grande Royale Ükulelists of the Black Swamp she plays with and their covers on this YouTube playlist relating to the recent eclipse:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UksPZJJ9JY&list=PL_FJ_lKHsX5ENvB3uCIKZ1kPeAuJ7eBDf
Temperature change. Animals acting out of the ordinary. These are some non visual signs of an eclipse.It's the day of the total solar eclipse, April 8th, 2024. We're here, on Outlook today with our Eclipse Soundscapes app with its rumble map, to discuss how we plan to join this giant party, an astronomical event we can and should all be able to share in.We talk an accessible eclipse experience, co-host Kerry plays a little Be My AI game of "what's the same in these two pics?" and April 7th was Green Shirt Day and co-host Brian reflects on what would have been his 25-year kidney transplant anniversary this month. From nephrology to ophthalmology and with themes of darkness and light, as the moon starts to obscure the sun's light and the threat of looking and damaging one's sight - all of this is our bread and butter on this show and we'll have a follow-up episode to follow this one where we discuss all of this with someone who definitely knows the subject.To check out the accessible app, search for “Eclipse Soundscapes” on the app store or learn more on the official website:https://eclipsesoundscapes.orgCheck out more information on Green Shirt Day:https://greenshirtday.ca/about/And listen to the ophthalmologist we both grew up seeing, Dr. Phil Hooper, on the CBC speaking about the dangers of staring at a solar eclipse without proper eyewear:https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-158-london-morning/clip/16053698-staring-solar-eclipse-without-proper-eyewear-damage-eyes
WAKE UP AMERICA!As we wrap up Women's History Month, co-host Kerry shares about a recent panel put on by the Paul Longmore Institute On Disability Studies featuring black and brown disabled women and co-host Brian shares about March also being Epilepsy Awareness Month, started by a young girl right here in Canada. And, of course, don't forget about the upcoming solar eclipse in April.This week on Outlook it's story time and we're reading March's featured spotlight on a deaf-blind woman in history, someone we can spotlight to tell the stories of more than just Helen Keller.Thanks to Peggy Chong, The Blind History Lady, for letting us know about Helen May Martin.Believe it or not.For more fascinating stories like this one delivered directly to your inbox, email Peggy Chong: theblindhistorylady@gmail.comCheck out her official website: https://theblindhistorylady.comAnd listen to The Blind History Lady when she joined us on Outlook back in 2020: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2020-08-10-interview-with-the-blind-history-lady/id1527876739?i=1000488226679
CAUDES stands for Certified Audio Description Specialist.This week on Outlook we’re speaking with Lolly Lijewski and Kim Charlson about recently released draft certification guidelines and criteria open for public comments until March 31st. Kim is Chair of the Academy for Certification of Visual Rehabilitation & Education Professionals/Subject Matter Experts Committee and Lolly and co-host Kerry met originally when taking some AD training and have since gone on to form a group of blind and sighted members who practice the art of crafting audio description together because we believe the collective collaborative team makes for a more authentic and representational finished product. Now we have some thoughts and some questions about these proposed and drafted certification guidelines and Kim is with us to lay it all out. Everyone involved only wants the best quality product in the end for blind consumers and we’re happy to have this discussion as we look ahead to next steps in audio description’s evolution.You can download and read the CAUDES Draft Certification Criteria by clicking this link:https://www.acvrep.org/resource/docs/DRAFT%20Certified%20Audio%20Description%20Specialist%20certification%20criteria%201-2024.docxPlease consider sending any questions or comments on the criteria to comments@acvrep.org(include CAUDES in the subject line)If you’d like the document sent directly to your inbox, you can email Kim at kimcharlson@acb.orgAnd find the Audio Description Project here:https://adp.acb.org
Co-host Kerry wears her (diversity includes disability) Aille Design braille T-shirt to remind us of the roles of disabled women throughout history.This week on Outlook it’s another mixed bag, as we celebrate World Kidney Day on March 14th. Co-host Brian shares a recent healthcare scare he experienced, we run into someone who understands in a hospital waiting room, and we discuss a particular inclusive art exhibit from Vancouver to Ottawa. We are (drawing on our history) for the remainder of Women’s History Month.If you’re interested in a braille t-shirt for yourself or a friend, check out Aille Design:https://ailledesign.com/en-ca/products/braille-t-shirtAnd find the VocalEye Almost Live event “Drawing on Our History” here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh2TLAgcCBI
Spring is on its way and an April eclipse is coming. Greater inclusion being the order of the day on Outlook this week. In honour of March’s International Women’s Day, co-host/sister Kerry is back in studio to share more stories from the rest of her time in Ireland this last visit to celebrate her 40th, with brother/co-host Brian with a Monday Mixed Bag alongside a shout-out to some of our regular listeners and some other women to mention. Stay tuned for another mixed bag Monday next time, part two of our IWD 2024 series, hopefully with a more inclusive eclipse on the horizon.Find the VocalEye event with Leona Godin “Sighted People Suck!” that we discussed on this show here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVcjeD3bQJs
Co-host Kerry met Anne through a public speaking workshop and then at a telling our mother’s story workshop. This week on Outlook we speak with Mok about her purpose and her view on life as an Asian woman who is blind and living with Chronic Daily Headache.Growing up on the Canadian West Coast, she struggled to fit in and in school. Since then, she’s been working and raising a family, while living with the chronic illness and disability, and has found her voice in her purpose and in her view, which is what this show is all about.Learn more about Anne Mok and find a link to her excellent TEDX TALK on her official website:https://purposeinview.comCheck out her Instagram for examples of some excellent image descriptions:https://www.instagram.com/purposeinview/And check out the VocalEye event “My Mother’s Story” featuring Anne Mok, co-host Kerry, and loyal listener Nancy Gill:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m8qdoM0CM4
Co-host Kerry met Jen Violi at a writing workshop in Mexico back in 2017 and has gone on to take many of Jen‘s classes ever since. With the option of online, they can live across the continent from each other and still get so much from getting to know each other better through writing.Jen Violi is an author, mentor, elemental writing facilitator, and editor. This week on Outlook we talk about her experience with loss, grief, and chronic illness because everyone has one or knows someone and has been through such things. We also discuss the elemental writing classes Violi teaches over Zoom that Kerry has been apart of over the past few years.If you’d like to sign up for her Elemental Writing mailing list, click the following link:http://eepurl.com/iv4ZA6And for more, check out her website:https://www.jenvioli.com
It’s never easy to lose someone we love. This week we’re celebrating best friend and drummer Andrew McIntyre.On this first Mixed Bag Outlook episode of February, Kerry’s back in Ireland and Barry joins the co-hosts from Ireland too.We’re together, the three of us, for another one where we’re reflecting on what Andrew meant to us, along with discussing some of the accessibility obstacles Kerry and Barry have encountered together while Kerry’s visiting Ireland this time. Barry’s also starting to learn braille and Braille Lego is assisting in the learning process, visiting Braille Town for a multi-sensory experience.We on Outlook will never forget. Gone too soon but forever in our hearts. We’re dedicating this one to our dear friend Andrew:https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/30531234/andrew-james-mcintyreListen to some of Andrew's drumming on the Riker EP from 2020:https://rikermusic.bandcamp.com/album/descending
Benchmarks along the way on the journey to the end of sight with author of “The Country of the Blind: A Memoir At the End of Sight” Andrew Leland.Andrew joins us on Outlook this week to discuss feeling like a tourist in this particular country and a little about the H. G. Wells short story his title is based on, on eye contact as a visual communicator, and he even has some dating advice to pass along to one of us as we discuss his “Male Gaze” chapter.Leland’s journalistic approach to this work of nonfiction, along with the right mixture of his personal story as he goes from sighted to blind make this memoir crackle with life. And Andrew’s laidback vibe makes his foray into, what’s for him and most people the unknowns of stepping into this particular country, well it makes his perspective one we wanted to share.We highly recommend you read his memoir available as an eBook, audiobook, or Hardcover. To learn more about Leland and to purchase his memoir, check out his official website:https://www.andrewleland.org
“This is the first time in history we’ve had authentic representation,” says “All the Light We Cannot See” lead actress Aria Mia Loberti, standing with her guide dog at The Golden Globes. “It was my honour to represent my community and my culture; it’s never been done before.”We kick off this week’s episode of Outlook sharing this clip, mid way through Braille Literacy Month (2024) teasing about an interview we recently prerecorded which follows this week’s Outlook On Radio Western, the last live in studio with us both until next month. It’s another Mixed Bag show, our second MBM (on Martin Luther King Jr. Day) on this Monday, the third Monday of January.We preview some of the topics we'll touch on with “The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight” author Andrew Leland, including some of what he’s written about learning braille later in life. We then go on to tie this topic, this month where braille is featured, in and along with Andrew’s inclusion of the discussion on the sort of economical and familial situation people with disabilities will be born into, economical marginalization and the struggles of the unhoused population which often incapsulates elements of disability in the mix.And so around here locally, it’s the first cold weather alert of the season and we’re recognizing the privileges we have and this platform we have on Radio Western. We’re talking about advocacy for increases to social assistance in London, Ontario and across the country, along with the winter weather Canada often deals with this time of year, finishing off the show with talk of upcoming travel for us both.
B R A I L L EThere are a few topics co-host Kerry finds are so important, she will bring them up over and over (no matter the day or month), as often as she can. Braille is one of those.This week on Outlook though we start by paying our respects to the loved ones, and Western University students, lost on Flight PS752 which took place in January, 2020, in recognition of the families still searching for justice.We discuss co-host Brian’s accessibility trouble choosing a seat when ordering a concert ticket online, nephew Max getting a soundboard like his Uncle Brian for Christmas, and we’re talking Braille Lego - all while returning to a bunch about braille and its mythology and history to celebrate January 4th being World Braille Day.We hint at an upcoming guest and their new memoir with the author’s descriptions of learning braille in middle age. as we are back, live in studio for the first time in 2024 and ready to celebrate the legacy Braille left. Happy Braille Literacy Month and check out Braille Literacy Canada for more on braille in Canada:https://www.brailleliteracycanada.ca/enAnd treat the lego lover in your life to some LEGO® Braille Bricks:https://www.lego.com/en-ca/braille-bricks
Woody, warm, and smoky - this could very well describe our now yearly Ketchup On Pancakes (our pre-?Outlook podcast project) which we now produce around this time of year for our “By The fireside) annual series.This year it was back to our roots with “family, creativity, and humour” in a sad way as we dedicate our 2023 look-back to our Uncle Mike who we unexpectedly lost in April. Uncle Mike embodied all three of these things all rolled into one man and we discuss his death (a low) along with some of the highs of the year that just was including longtime goals achieved and the question of travel (after our “By The Fireside 2022” episode predictions on whether we’d travel again post pandemic or not.All this, along with a special find, a related clip with some facts about firewood and Canadian fireplaces to also go along with our themes around this time of year.As featured on this episode, find “The Jo Firecast: A Yule Log Jamz Watch-Along with Jo Firestone” here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4gHfw_Ag2ATravel back to 2018 and revisit episode 11 “The Earth Tongue Wiggled (feat. Liam & Crystal of Wildlife Gardening)”:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ketchup-on-pancakes-e11-the-earth-tongue-wiggled-feat/id1527876739?i=1000633132769
“Tis the season to be jolly/tis the season to be brother”Outlets and outlooks. We’re ringing in the new year (goodbye 2023 and hello 2024), here on Outlook, from down in sister and co-host Kerry’s basement.We’re discussing trends that made an impression in 2023, for blind people, including things like Be My AI in the “Be My Eyes” app, the celebrating of our 200th show and 5th year in 2023, and sharing on the losses experienced in the disability activist community over the last twelve months.Co-host Brian is back with some stats on our year and we examine the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa and its themes we on this podcast also try to highlight.So Happy Kwanzaa as we continue to broaden all our outlooks in the months ahead.Be sure to check out co-host Kerry's recent appearance on the CBC podcast Now or Never sharing her love for the winter solstice:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/how-to-brighten-up-the-longest-night-of-the-year/id1169422760?i=1000639359566
Sheila’s three questions in problem solving and in life:Where am I? Where am I going? And how am I going to get there?Sheila Dinnin is an Orientation & Mobility specialist (O&M) with Vision Loss Rehabilitation Canada. How did she learn about the job she now has and what did it take to get into this type of work in the first place?This week on Outlook we’re speaking with brother/co-host Brian’s long-time instructor Sheila about just exactly what O&M is for those who do not know and the kinds of canes there are, her thoughts on levels of acceptance about needing one as a tool, and about all the different hats Dinnin wears in her job.She works to offer low vision and blind people whatever resources, services, or techniques they might need to orient themselves and to be as mobile as possible and she is one of only three live, in-studio guests with us this year.Image description taken after show: Three people standing side by side, smiling towards the camera. They are indoors, with a wall behind them featuring various posters and signs. From left to right: - - Kerry, a woman with shoulder-length brown hair, a dark cap, a black hoodie, and blue jeans is holding a white cane in her left hand.- Brian, the man in the middle has short brown hair, is wearing a dark green jacket over a grey shirt and light grey pants, and is holding a white cane in his right hand- Sheila, the woman on the right has long brown hair, is wearing a maroon jacket over a light blue top and black pants.They are standing in front of a door with a sign that reads "JUST COME ON IN." Above them, there are signs that include the words "MEDIA HUB" and "RADIO WESTERN. The words "RADIO WESTERN" are part of a larger sign that says "RADIO WESTERN @ THE SPOKE LIVE ON AIR," which is partially visible in the background.
John, AKA Mac The Movieguy, has a degree in Cinema Studies and has been critiquing movies since the 90s and before he went blind - his YouTube channel has over 1000 videos all about movies and audio description in film.This week on Outlook we’re speaking with John Stark and getting his movie critic expertise on audio description (AD) in film, including how watching a movie with sighted people is made better by a more accessible movie going experience for all. John, as someone who was sighted and then went blind, is able to offer his perspective from both sides of the issue.Speaking of multiple sides of things, John shares about his placement and history working at the cinema (as most movie theatre employees unfortunately know very little about AD), more about his first experiences and memories learning what audio description is and how it works, and the struggle to be taken seriously as a film critic who’s blind, but his specialty focusing on AD only makes his videos all the more well rounded and interesting.What does John look for in a film as far as good quality audio description goes? He answers this question and much more, along with giving examples of shows and films he’s found with it because he’s done the work and knows the lay of the land, putting his thoughts on his Mac The Movieguy Youtube Channel. Plus, he shares his pics for the best paired films with their AD of 2023.We discuss audio description all the time on this show, as a way of getting listeners familiar with what it is and why it’s important. So check out more on AD and on Stark by visiting his website, YouTube channel, and The Audio Description Project:https://macthemovieguy.comhttps://www.youtube.com/@macthemovieguyhttps://adp.acb.org/
Stories from a scientific life, on a snowy Ottawa morning.The International Day of Disabled Persons (IDPD) promotes people with disabilities being a part of life in all areas, including in science, which is everything all around us and involves everyone. This week on Outlook we hear from Lawrence Gunther, a storyteller with a love of being by or on the water. He got a degree in Environmental Studies and his perspective as a blind person means he’s had to adapt the activities he’s done ever since, with guide dog by his side and without.we’re speaking with Lawrence Gunther of the podcast Outdoors With Lawrence Gunther and hearing dispatches from his outdoors accessible life on everything from an early childhood out in and exposed to nature, converting boats and navigation, and his perspective on the tactility of fishing which means sight ceases to be a requirement.He offers tips to blind people on how to find others with similar interests (not necessarily blindness) to spend time outside with and how we have just as much to bring to the experience as anyone else.Gunther offers lessons, through example, on how there are so many non visual ways to explore, work and play, in the outdoors so hopefully on another international day for disability in the future, scientists with disabilities won’t be such a needed and longed for visible minority.Lawrence does work to promote the natural world and the environment through multiple forms of media, all of which he provides in a laid back, easy to digest way. Check out some of that, including his podcast, and read more on his website below:https://lawrencegunther.com
With “The Politics of Blindness” he’s looking to plant the seeds.This week on Outlook we speak with Graeme McCreath whom we met through The Canadian Federation of the Blind about his book and about his dual British and Canadian perspective.We hear about his early years in England and the unique opportunity he got to study physiotherapy there, his coming over to Canada and Victoria, British Columbia specifically, and what led him to write “The Politics of Blindness” more than a decade into the 2000s.Why aren’t blind people getting the opportunities they deserve to find a place in public life? How can blind people in this country take a greater control back of our own lives?Graeme shares some of the experiential lessons he’s accumulated, how blind people are regarded in the broader society, all after more than 100 years with the control and wide audience the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) has impacted us - how it has held onto blind people in Canada and on how sighted Canadians think of us in cultural, economic, and social life.McCreath has been a leader in the CFB and in putting together a piece of the historical record of blindness in Canada and hasn’t given up on the work it takes to obtain equivalent human rights which any other Canadian has.So check out more about the book here which we highly recommend you read because this story is the broader story of autonomy and human rights in Canada and beyond for more people as more of us speak our truths as Graeme McCreath does in “The Politics of Blindness”.:https://thepoliticsofblindness.com
Then - our friendship with this guest goes way back to when he and Kerry got their first and only guide dogs in Quebec in 1998 and how he shared an apartment with Brian in Toronto for a few years between 2009 and 2012.And now - this week on Outlook we’re speaking with our friend Erik about how, in the past five years, he’s found love and gotten married, had two kids during a pandemic, and is raising two kids (between zero and three years), and about his recent promotion promoted to Access Technology Analyst with Shared Services Canada.what the co-host’s longtime friend Erik Burggraaf says of his life now and over the last five years: “Couldn’t draft it up, dream it - don’t know how a person gets that lucky”.And we’re lucky to be speaking with him again, third time appearing on this show, to talk blindness advocacy, the bonds of friendship with others who understand, as he shares his new-found experiences as a parent who is blind and educating the public along the way.Check out the last time Erik was on the show with his sister during our blind siblings series in April of 2021:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-04-26-siblings-series-part-4-erik-burggraaf/id1527876739?i=1000518765532And travel back in time to 2018 to hear him on our other podcast, Ketchup On Pancakes:Part 1:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ketchup-on-pancakes-episode-13-pell-mell-claptrap-part/id1527876739?i=1000633134054Part 2:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ketchup-on-pancakes-episode-13-pell-mell-claptrap-part/id1527876739?i=1000633134239
SIGHTED PEOPLE SUCKWell, let us explain further.This week on Outlook we discuss our friend Dr. M. Leona Godin’s new live performance piece “Sighted People Suck” along with discussing what that statement is really all about for us and other blind people in a mostly sighted world.Also, we discuss Brian’s experience speaking to a group of greeters from across the globe. So what does it mean to be vulnerable, a familiar thing for blind people, just as it is to stand up on a stage, like Leona, and stand behind the somewhat sarcastic statement from the start of all this?For more info on “Sighted People Suck” including the Be My AI Image Description/Conversation mentioned on this episode, check out this post on Godin’s official website:https://drmlgodin.com/2023/10/sighted-people-suck-november-8-solo-show-image-backstory-be-my-ai-description/And consider reaching out to London Greeters if you visit the UK:https://londongreeters.org
Shortwave 1310…This week on Outlook we’re reviewing the November Netflix release of “All the Light we Cannot See,” adapted from the 2014 novel by Anthony Doerr.We share the audio described trailer and about what it means to have representation in storytelling and in media with ATLWCS having a lead actress who is blind, playing the blind character in this series, along with the important part an accessibility consultant played on the set.What would we do if we found ourselves in a position like Marie-Laure, the main character in “All the Light We Cannot See”? We ask ourselves, put ourselves in that position of being caught up in a war we did not choose and much more in this one.So be sure to check out the series for yourself streaming now on Netflix! You can find the audio described trailer here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7E0PStA8YEFor further reading, check out the following articles referenced on this episode:https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/18/arts/television/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-adaptation.htmlhttps://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-aria-mia-lorbeti-audio-introduction
Bit of a rocky start to this Mixed Bag episode, down one mic to start the hour, but Brian is taking us on an audio tour of Ireland.This week on Outlook we go from a Belfast pub, to on board on Dublin tour buses, following a traditional Irish trail with co-host Brian. Also, we discuss our recent time visiting an old friend in St. Catharine’s and we read more AI generated image descriptions from our new favourite tool on the Be My Eyes app.And don’t forget Aille Design’s big “Fashion For All” Jeopardy moment, which we share, along with hearing about Brian’s upcoming association with the World Greeters Association on this pre-Halloween episode.
As three pals do, giving each other a hard time but having fun in studio with good friend/boyfriend Barry Toner visiting from Ireland.While he’s appeared on our show many times before, Barry is back on Outlook for the first time live in studio to have some fun with us as he tells us what he’s been doing and how he’s been getting along during his stay back here in Canada. Brian is also taking us through his visit to London, England, including sharing some of his adventures through audio and soundscape and filling us in on the cliff hanger he ended off with last time with a story of his adventures an an unexpected encounter riding the Tube transit system.This, along with a Thanksgiving story of the blind boyfriend busy being the photographer for his girlfriend, co-host Kerry, at a recent family gathering with the help of AI photo descriptions. So thanks to Barry for joining us and being a good sport with us on this edition of Outlook.
Have the conversation.Following September 30th, National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, and ahead of Thanksgiving it’s another Mixed Bag with a mixture of topics we discuss on Outlook this week as co-host Brian makes his return to the show live and in person.This week we discuss co-host Kerry’s command of things in studio while her co-host was away in the UK and catch up on all Brian did on his trip, including using the new Be My AI app to get visual detail on the world around us. Brian tests out the app, right there, live in the radio studio to demonstrate what it can offer those of us who cannot see.Kerry is glad brother Brian is back and he’s brought back with him long-time friend and now Kerry’s boyfriend Barry, for the month. Barry’s been on Outlook several times before, who came up with the name for the podcast originally, and who will be appearing live on an upcoming October episode. So tune in for that on the next one and also to find out the details of Brian’s cliff hanger from at the end of this week’s show.
Her one woman show is premiering, in London, England this October and we’re pleased to have returning guest Jasmine Thien back to discuss it, along with recent insights on adjusting with a second prosthetic eye after having the first one removed in response to childhood cancer.This week on Outlook, Jasmine is here to share about her upbringing and family history and her lifelong journey with retinal blastoma and the cultural ideas on disability which led her to creating “I Dream In Colour,” a show on Thien’s grandparents who left China years ago, her parent’s ways of handling a threat of vision loss in their child, along with how Jasmine has grown up and come to acceptance and pride in herself.She describes navigating her new main residence of London, England in preparation for the performance happening on October 15th, the things she tries to instil in the young people she runs educational workshops with, and we even talk disability and sexuality and some of the misconceptions people have about the lack of the latter when it comes to people with the former.Actor, performer, and educator Jasmine Thien is back with us with her big news and if you happen to be in the UK on 15 October, you should definitely go to this show. You can grab tickets here:https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/i-dream-in-colour-by-jasmin-thien-tickets-660403463537
Chippy or chipper and what, exactly, is a Belfast bap? Fries, chips, crisps - from England to the north of Ireland to Canada, differences are everywhere when travel calls.This week on Outlook, sister/co-host Kerry is alone in the radio studio once again (only a handful of times has she been in there on her own), without brother/co-host and board operator who’s still away in the UK. Kerry is speaking with him and friend and Irish friend who’s hosting him, Barry.We discuss cultural variations, the food and drink tour they went on, and a particular accessibility barrier when Barry tried to show Brian the sites of Belfast.(More with Barry, travel soundscapes, and Brian’s adventures on October shows.)
In September of 2018, Outlook was born and first aired and here we are, five years on, with more than 200 shows full of discussions from a wide variety of perspectives.This week we spend time and have fun reminiscing on these last five years, with us two siblings as the core of what Outlook has grown into, while, all the while, enhancing things by speaking with an array of fascinating guests with all sorts of lived experience with disability and blindness. Along with allies and friends who’ve supported us along the way, we reflect back and look ahead with two of our favourite past guests: local London, Ontario friend Katie Morgan (sighted ally) and Joanne Beckford, living one Canadian province over and newer to the blindness community — both joining us on this one for a bit of camaraderie and kinship.We both can’t think of a better way to ring in five years doing this show and so glad these two could be with us to mark this milestone.Listen to Joanne’s prior appearance on the show here:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-08-16-new-chapter-open-book-with-joanne/id1527876739?i=1000532188125Find Katie guesting on our 4th year anniversary show:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2022-09-12-celebrating-4-years-on-air-with/id1527876739?i=1000579476340And travel back in time to where things all began with the first episode of Outlook from September of 2018:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2018-09-10-debut/id1527876739?i=1000488226695
This week on Outlook we speak with Kelly Evans, an audio description script writer, but this time the script has been reversed.Last time, on her first appearance as our guest, we asked her about how she got into the field, learning about the impact she hopes to have in the world of audio description, to make the visuals of media more accessible to blind viewers.This time, Kelly interviews Kerry (big AD user) and sibling co-host Brian about what makes decent audio description and on some of their best and worst experiences with it, whether guidelines on the art and technique of audio description are in everyone’s best interest, with the ultimate aim of improving audio description from start to finish.To learn more about Kelly, check out her appearance on the show from 2022 where she was the interviewee:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2022-11-28-the-art-of-audio-description/id1527876739?i=1000588173721
Once co-host Kerry, as a baby, climbed all over his shiny oxygen tank. They first met in the mid 80s, he born premature, and have known each other all their lives, including all sorts of camp experiences throughout the 90s. Steven Potter is back, his third time with us on the show, and he brings his ear for audio and impeccable memory to this lighthearted summer subject.It’s a summertime children’s pastime, camp of all kinds, both day and overnight and this week on Outlook we’re talking camp, camp, and more camp.We share about our early childhood adventures going to the day camp for blind kids in our area and then the overnight camp, the CNIB Lake Joe Centre, we all three went to together, including old cassette audio tape sound clips from those days. Also, we end off with talk of one for patients with kidney disease and their families.So join in with us as we, three old chums, reminisce on summer camp in these final summer days.Find Steve's first appearance on the show from 2018 here:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2018-11-26-discussion-with-steve-potter/id1527876739?i=1000488226639And the second time he joined us back in 2019:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2019-12-30-2019-wrap-up/id1527876739?i=1000488226652
Cow themed festivals and giant sand hills.
It’s a late August Mixed Bag and we’re returning with a slew of topics and we have our return guest, from last week, to join in on the conversation.
Laura Bain is back on Outlook this week as we discuss finding data plans for travel, our family beach day and using our white canes to climb the giant sand hill at Sand Hill Park on Lake Erie, and about some camp experiences to highlight next week’s theme for the podcast.
How can a white cane also be used as a hiking pole? What does camp provide for children with disabilities and from all backgrounds?
Co-host Brian shares about some recent interactions he’s had with Ukrainians who’ve recently come to Canada as we have a dialogue about how to have a dialogue with others around the help they offer for which isn’t always so helpful, with Laura sharing a specific interaction with a sighted so-called helper on the street.
And speaking of having a dialogue (or not as the case may be), in the second half of the show we let listeners know about a situation between the Triple Vision podcast (exploring the past, present, and future of blindness in Canada), Accessible Media Inc. (AMI), and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) and how necessary dialogue was shut down.
While we were climbing a big hill of sand, visiting third co-host Laura Bain attended the Art of Disability Festival put on by Independent Living Nova Scotia. Life’s a day at the beach, at least can be for the day in summer. It’s August for a few more weeks and we’re talking summer activities and so much more as we look ahead to fall.
And for more on the Triple Vision situation with AMI and the CNIB, along with so many other history of blindness in Canada topics, check out the new independent home for Triple Vision’s podcast here:
http://triplevision.team
Note: The episodes we refer to involving CNIB/AMI include TV 32 - CNIB Governance with Kate Bahne from Charity Intelligence and TV 35 - Entrepreneurship by the Triple Vision Team. Triple Vision is also available wherever you get your podcasts.
Find the Charity Intelligence page on CNIB here:
https://charityintelligence.ca/charity-details/70-canadian-national-institute-for-the-blind
Back in 2021, we had guest Laura Bain on Outlook, a reunion between Bain and co-host Brian after meeting twenty years earlier training for guide dogs in Quebec.
This week, we welcome Laura Bain back to the show after two years of a program she’s been studying in, a Masters of Socialwork and we’re checking in on how school, for her once more, is going.
We discuss school, but we spend a lot of time hearing about Laura’s recent travels in France, as a person with low vision, and her sighted partner. She shares with us an audio clip of the church bells in Avignon recorded from the window of their Airbnb. While photos can still be important to have for those who are low vision or blind, audio recordings are more accessible. We hear about levels of accessibility in that country and Laura’s issues traveling in new destinations as her level of vision slowly changes, as she shares about her 2018 solo trip to New York City which taught her important lessons, as Kerry relates with her recent Ireland travel experience and Brian looks forward to his UK trip coming up.
Laura also shares about her choice to leave AMI to start her Masters program and her drive and pressure throughout life, being low vision, to obtain and hold onto paid work, with the high unemployment rate for blind and low vision people. Plus we hear about her feelings on dating, specifically online dating as a low vision user.
So check this one out for an update on school, to find out if she had success trying online dating, along with lots of travel talk and tips and we’ll be back/Laura will be back, next week, to join in for a Mixed Bag show.
Also you can hear, for more background on Laura, the show where she first appeared:
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-07-19-20-years-later-with-laura-bain/id1527876739?i=1000529853429
Since our last mixed bag, back in May the proposed federal disability benefit (Bill C22) finally passed Royal Assent on June 20th, 2023. It’s a mid summer Mixed Bag episode of Outlook this week as we cover topics from social and entertainment to politics.
With this one we share about the recent Radio Western station social gathering we attended and Brian’s time lately with the station’s Systems/Web Developer Navaneeth Mohan (who designed our logo), collaborating to solve a problem with an accessible online music library for the radio station.
Kerry shares the one big way she related to Sarah Polley whose book of essays in memoir she’s been reading and Brian about his recent concerts and out with friends locally.
We talk things all the way from Kerry’s latest brush with reminders of inaccessible touch screens when she needed to give out her bank number when she shouldn’t have had to and Brian tells us what he discovered about those who attended London’s Rock the Park earlier this summer, those whom found little thought put into accessible seating for people with disabilities by planners.
And we will be back with another mixed bag show in August but we end this week’s episode with a teaser mention of what we’ll spend a lot of the next one tackling, what happened with the Triple Vision podcast, AMI, and the CNIB because we, as blind Canadians, have thoughts.
First, you can check out Kerry’s latest appearance elsewhere, on another podcast, this one called Stories of Vision Loss with Charlotte Simpson which released this past Friday, August 11th:
https://www.storiesofvisionloss.com/podcast/episode/78cf379d/kerry-outlook-from-ontario
Find more info on Bill C-22, the Federal Disability Benefit on the Disability Without Poverty website:
https://www.disabilitywithoutpoverty.ca/bill-c-22/
Check out the CBC article referenced on this episode regarding accessible seating at Rock The Park:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-ontario-rock-the-park-disability-seating-1.6908964
And find the new home of the Triple Vision podcast which we will be discussing in greater detail on our next mixed bag here:
http://triplevision.team
“I’ve never felt so free,” says Kerry about her time in Ireland recently, which is what we’re talking about for one more episode in a series, Kerry’s travel series, before we move along to Brian’s upcoming vacation.
This week on Outlook we’re wrapping up co-host Kerry’s Ireland stories with a show full of audio clips she collected on her travels. From the waves at Spanish Point to kick off the show, to water lapping by the seaside to end it - with sounds of the ocean, a sheep farm, and the train (please mind the gap) and rain, a common enough Irish sound. Plus, she’s included a blurb of her mapping out one of the hotel rooms and hotel layout when finding breakfast with the tour group.
Kerry loves her soundscapes (where photos do no good to capture memories for you when traveling blind) and so this one’s sprinkled with them throughout, along with a discussion on mental mapping and maps and accessibility when traveling, both independently and interdependently.
So before Brian’s off on his own UK adventure in September, join Outlook and take an audio tour of the trip right along with Kerry.
Anita, travel agent with The Travel Agent Next Door, met co-host Kerry, back in 2017, when Kerry walked into the travel agency where Anita was working to book travel to a writing workshop in Mexico. They’ve been friends and traveling, together sometimes too, ever since.
This week on Outlook we speak with Anita Paton about her years of experience as a travel agent, the challenges she came up against when she lost her driver’s licence because she was diagnosed with a genetic eye disease, and about her adventures together with Kerry in New York City and now, having just returned from touring Ireland with an all female tour group put together by Paton herself.
There was something meant to be in how they met. So from a stick-it-to-the-man mission (a possible story idea for Kerry’s budding short story collection) stopping by Trump Tower or walking up the steps into a castle, Anita and Kerry have gone on many interesting adventures, but this week we’re hearing specifically about the all female Ireland tour they recently returned from, and the seaweed and forest bathing for example. So, check it out for more stories like those, and for a bit of a discussion on Kerry being alone but with the group, traveling, as a blind person, and for Anita’s reflections looking back on last month’s trip.
Check out Anita’s website:
https://www.anitapaton.thetravelagentnextdoor.com
Find her on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/anitapatontravelagent/
And on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/anita_travelagentnextdoor/
We cant have a Disability Pride Month go by without the subject of sensitivity reading coming up.
This week on Outlook we speak with debut author Rachel Kelley Stones about her book: “Love Unseen”.
It was the Summer of No TV - Rachel grew up, her and her twin sister on a farm in Kentucky, when one television-free summer books became her entertainment and an immersive reading experience.
“It’s right there in the beginning of the book,” she says, “but I wanted readers to connect a little bit with the character, sighted readers, before they realize what sets her apart from themselves..”
She did the research, read their blogs, and wrote the book “Love Unseen” and we talk about what she learned throughout her research process writing a main character who is blind, how she decided to have a sensitivity reader for the book, and what it was like working with Kerry.
Find “Love Unseen” as an ebook/audiobook/paperback here:
https://www.amazon.com/Love-Unseen-Rachel-Kelley-Stones/dp/1524422991
Follow Rachel Kelley Stones on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/p/Rachel-Kelley-Stones-Author-100076948935534/
She grew up on the mountain, on skis from an early age. Shelby Perry grew up with good working vision and never gave any thought to the alternative. So when the accident, “When it happened, I was really at a loss and I didn’t even know what a prosthetic eye looked like or how people lived with one. So it was a very challenging time when that first occurred to get a grasp about how I was going to continue to live my life.”
Outlook On Radio Western is based on the various perspectives of its guests, and this week is no exception. The same goes, as always, for its two hosts - While siblings Kerry and Brian were both born with blindness, their stories are not the same. Kerry has a prosthetic eye while Brian does not and this week we’re discussing a topic many are unfamiliar with until they face it themselves.
On Outlook this week we’re welcoming Shelby Perry. Shelby was always a highly active person (volleyball/yoga/hiking/an avid snowboarder) and suddenly she had to figure out a future with only one working eye, after a snowboarding accident damaged her right one, along with navigating the prosthetic eye process.
She didn’t initially know anyone else going through this until she started to reach out on social media and discovered others going through it, living with it, and this has led to the founding of Eyehesive, a community of those living with prosthetic eyes where experiences are shared and support is given and received for how to take back power with the realization of what’s still possible for a full and confident life after the removal of an eye.
It was the late 90s when Kerry’s left eye was removed after a mysterious virus destroyed it. She was barely using the Internet at that time, long before social media and is only now discovering a community of others finding acceptance with themselves and finding the kind of group understanding on such a unique experience.
Eyehesive is that place so check out what it’s all about, the work this week’s guest has done to build up a safe spot found nowhere else online:
https://www.eyehesive.com
Join the Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/eyepowermentprogram/
“It is a special place and I always feel a real kinship when I’m here” says show co-host Kerry during her travels across the pond. Brian is live from the studio solo, but is joined by his sister and co-host over Zoom currently enjoying her final week in Ireland. We’re talkin’ travel this week on Outlook.
Kerry discusses the first 2 weeks of her trip spent in Dublin and other regions of Southern Ireland. This is her second time visiting, though since her first in 2011 she has lost more vision. For someone who was born blind but used to see a little more than now, the brain still tries to process sight seeing when it isn’t easy to focus anymore. This can be mentally draining at times, but yet allows for a different unique perspective. While people may assume traveling and going on tours when you can’t see wouldn’t be interesting, there is so much you can still gain from an experience without sight. Kerry has been recording audio diaries on her travels since she decided not to bring her laptop or Braille display. SHe’s also been recording sounds throughout her trip for memories. Not being able to see, this is a substitute for photos, though she also made sure to get people to take pictures because even though someone is blind, they may still want photos to show others.
Kerry’s trip began with a 9-day all women’s tour in Southern Ireland through CIE Tours, organized by Anita Paton, a travel agent Kerry has become good friends with since 2017. While she was traveling solo, this was the perfect opportunity because it allowed her to balance her independence while still being in a group with someone she knows well. Kerry talks about how others on the tour got to learn from her perspective which spurred great conversations. In return, they were able to help her out describing certain things that were more visual. While independence is important, we do depend on each other in a group situation to achieve the best experience for all. Though sometimes it’s also worth staying back from the group if something they’re doing doesn’t seem as accessible which is what Kerry did one afternoon when she came across someone playing the fiddle. An instrument she’s been learning the past few years, this gave her the chance to strike up a conversation with someone new. She talks about dancing on the spot to the music with her cane, the tool she uses to get around Ireland, providing her the power of independence.
Kerry then talks about the second part of her travels spent with friends who live there. After a few days with her friend Nicole, Kerry meets up with Barry, the guest who joins us on the second half of the program and they travel to Northern Ireland where he lives. Kerry is speaking with us from Barry’s living room, chilling with his guide dog Oyster. We talk about how grocery shopping seems to be more accessible there where delivery is more common and cheaper. Kerry mentions how medication boxes there have Braille on them, something we’ve never come across here in Canada. You even get to learn a couple phrases in Irish including “Pog Mo Thoin”.
“Persevere”, “Rise”, “Flow”, “Connect”. These are the titles of 4 paintings Vera Popovic created for an exciting art project in British Columbia..
We’re back this week with Part 2 of our look back at “Your Eyes, My Vision”, a program in B.C. where blind adults were paired with sighted facilitators to encourage, create, and showcase “visual” art. It consisted of an online VocalEye event where some of the artists got to show and talk about their creations. There was also an in person show in Victoria where some of the participants had the opportunity to display and sell their artwork.
On part 2, we meet Vera Popovic who shares first about her background and long time love of art. As a preschool teacher for 40 years, Popovic discusses the importance of getting away from rigid structure and providing more freedom when creating art. Like Delores Thompson in part 1, Vera chose painting as her medium. The similarities end there as they each come from such different life experiences which in turn changes how they approach painting. Vera was able to use a moulding medium which gave texture to the canvas, something she’d never used before. When painting, Vera points out how the facilitator would tell her she didn’t need to use as much paint at a time, while for her having low vision, she wasn’t able to detect such detail and it didn’t feel like she was measuring out that much. This is another example of facilitator learning from blind artist and vice versa. She was even able to sell three of her paintings at the art show in Victoria, the first time Vera had ever had that chance.
From painting we move to something completely different with Ruth Bieber. Ruth enjoyed art in school, but when she suddenly became legally blind at the age of 7 she adopted the attitude that “blind people and the arts didn’t go together” even though she knew deep down she was an artist. Years later Ruth was introduced to a program in New York called “Art Beyond Sight” which completely changed her assumptions. For “Your Eyes, My Vision” Ruth wanted to try something she hadn’t done before, 3D printing. While the process of designing the files to 3D print isn’t very accessible, Ruth was still able to be very creative and come up with a sculpture that’s quite tactile, even makes sound and has lights woven through it. Ruth’s facilitator drove her to the library so they could print off different pieces which were then glued together for the final creation. Her example shows how the process itself can be the focus and often it takes you somewhere you didn’t envision in the beginning, even better than imagined. It’s all about flexibility and problem solving.
We conclude our 2 part series with the project coordinator, Laurel Dundee. Laurel didn’t create any art for the program as she is sighted, her role as coordinator involved sending emails, matching artists with facilitators, promotion, organizing financials, and providing detailed image descriptions at the VocalEye event. She explains her approach to image descriptions, first describing the artwork as a whole and then going through the piece methodically by giving more detail without too much which can be overbearing. As an artist herself, Laurel works primarily in a digital format through drawing comics, book covers, podcast cover art, and album artwork where her art isn’t very accessible. She hadn’t had experience with blind people before her involvement in this program and it has allowed her to feel more passionate about accessibility and the topics we talk about on Outlook every week.
Thanks to Vera Popovic, Ruth Bieber, and Laurel Dundee for their contributions to this episode.
Here’s the VocalEye event where Bieber shows her artwork:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CymeLjq60KM
Find Laurel Dundee’s website here:
http://laureldundee.com
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Everybody can do it, if they set their mind to it.” Delores Thompson
This week on Outlook we feature the first part of a two-part special episode we’ve been working on for a while. We’ share about a project in British Columbia called “Your Eyes, My Vision” where blind artists were paired up with sighted facilitators to learn from each other and show the world and the artists themselves that art is for everyone and should be accessible to everyone too. “Your Eyes, My Vision” was introduced through the Victoria Society for Blind Arts and Culture in the spring of 2022 with funding from Disability Alliance B.C.
We start by discussing the importance of this program as “visual art” isn’t necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when people consider those who are blind or low vision. We each share our own experiences with art growing up as Kerry used to have more vision and enjoyed drawing while Brian was more into tactile options like Play Doh. Similar to physical education, visual art was a subject that didn’t remain as accessible for us in the later elementary grades and into high school which is why this topic needs to be talked about more.
Our own experiences with art are followed by discussions with 3 people who took part in the project. Amy Amantea shares about creating her art through the medium of glassblowing along with a poem she wrote as a companion piece. Vincent Atkins and Delores Thompson are featured next as a pair who took part in the project, Delores as the blind artist and Vincent the sighted facilitator. Delores talks about the paintings she created and Vince shares some of the insight he gained from his experience working with her. In many cases, the process itself is focused on more than the final results. It’s all about providing blind people with opportunities they might not normally have.
So check out this discussion on creating “visual” art as people who are blind and stay tuned for part 2 where we feature 3 others who were involved with “Your Eyes, My Vision”.
Thanks again to Amy Amantea, Vincent Atkins, and Delores Thompson for their contributions to this episode.
Find the VocalEye event from earlier in 2023 where some of the artists involved in the project were featured here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CymeLjq60KM
The original event from 2022 when “Your Eyes, My Vision” was pitched to the community:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHqaFM-YWQU
Check out the podcast Amy Amantea hosts “Accessing Art With Amy”:
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/accessing-art-with-amy/id1535042180
Find Vincent’s music/art on his Bandcamp page:
https://vincentatkins.bandcamp.com
This is our submission for the “INTENSE INTERIORS – 2023 Architecture and Film Symposium”. It was hosted by Toronto Metropolitan University’s Creative School’s Interior Design department on May 6 & 7, 2023. Our piece is in the form of an experimental audio paper.
“Outlook - A Multisensory Installation” explores the concept of mental mapping: a term blind people use that defines the ability to picture or imagine things in the world around us or us and where we are located in a space. Throughout the experimental audio paper, we explore the idea that the visual isn’t the only best way of getting a clear picture of where we are in space, that tactile maps are one way of understanding an interior and out into the exterior world.
The audio paper was presented alongside an in house installation including tactile maps, accessible Purdys braille box of chocolates with legend, iPhone for touch screen demonstration, and 3D printed models during the symposium on May 7, 2023.
It was an honour to be included in this symposium, to share our perspectives as two blind Canadians. Thanks to co-chairs: Lorella Di Cintio, PhD and Vahid Vahdat, PhD.
Learn more about “INTENSE INTERIORS – 2023 Architecture and Film Symposium” here:
http://architectureandfilm.org
Credits: Joanne Beckford speaking the name of the exhibit, Penny Mary LeclairBennett (Outlook 2021-06-28 - Deafblind Awareness Month with Penny Leclair), Mitch Creedy (Outlook 2022-11-14 - Blindness and Gender Intersecting with First-Time Guest Mitch Creedy), and Patricia Elgersma (Outlook 2020-10-05 - Perfect Pitch and Mental Mapping with Guest Patricia Elgersma).
Thanks to the companies who contributed to our installation:
https://www.purdys.com
https://see3d.org
https://ailledesign.com
Image description: Kerry and Brian are standing behind a tall podium as part of their exhibit showcasing their tactile maps. Brian is wearing a charcoal grey pinstriped collar dress shirt and Kerry is wearing the Aille Design braille blue dress with white braille beading. Kerry is holding in her hands a box of Purdys Chocolates that has accessible braille packaging.
National AccessAbility Week takes place from May 28 to June 3, 2023 . This year the theme for National AccessAbility Week is “Disability Inclusion: From Possibilities to Practice”.This week on Outlook we’re speaking with returning guest and friend of the show Christine Malec, about what else? Accessibility.Accessibility and the arts and culture. It’s time for Luminato!Specifically, we’re speaking to Christine about this year’s Luminato Festival, taking place from June 7 through June 18, 2023. We discuss her role in the festivities and fun, what she’s learned about herself regarding features of this year’s festival such as puppetry and dance, and on what is gained by putting herself out there to play music for passersby in the Toronto subway system.It’s always great to find out what Christine Malec is up to. So check out more about this year’s Luminato festival here:https://luminatofestival.comDon’t forget to tune in to Radio LUMI online during the festival where you can hear programs hosted by Malec and others:https://luminatofestival.com/event/radio-lumi/Listen to the most recent episode in the Radio LUMI podcast series featuring Malec:https://www.buzzsprout.com/1793756/12912775-podcast-episode-4-joyAnd support Christine on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/ChristineMalec
It’s been a wild May month so far for Outlook and we were off doing some cool things earlier in it.This week on the podcast, we share the details of our May weekend in Toronto as a part of the Architecture & Film Symposium, 2023, which took place on May 6th and 7th, hosted by Toronto Metropolitan University Creative School’s Interior Design department. The theme this year was Intense Interiors and our exhibit was titled Outlook - A Multi-Sensory Installation, all based around the concept of mental mapping, a way of understanding and navigating one’s surroundings and of spacial awareness for blind people. And, in our exhibit, we displayed a number of tactile maps of interiors and exterior city layouts, a box of inclusive and accessible mixed chocolates with a braille legend to help demonstrate the point of our Outlook installation, along with a number of 3D objects and other materials explaining the real life lived experience of blindness, with a focus on other sensory modalities for understanding the world around us, to counteract the misconceptions of blindness which can be found in one of this event’s supplemental films: Blindness, 2008 (book authored by Jose Saramago).In this episode, we describe how we traveled to and within Toronto for the weekend and how we navigated the hotel and other accessibility features such as braille on doors and in hotel elevators, our Friday night spent with the founder and assistant of accessible braille fashion company Aille Design after Kerry decided to rent the Blue Braille Dress, a bit about some of the keynote presenters and panels on the Saturday at The Ace Hotel, and about our installation and discussions we had with interested parties who stopped by to find out more about us and our maps and other assorted accessible items; along with the showcasing of inclusive companies such as Aille Design, Purdys Chocolatier, and See3D.Thanks to the co-chairs of the symposium: Lorella Di Cintio, PhD and Vahid Vahdat, PhD.This event was a year in the making, a few times remnants of Covid made us think it wouldn’t actually happen, and we were so glad to be in attendance. We finish off this week finally airing the audio paper we initially submitted for consideration in this year’s proceedings to wrap up this one. (We will be posting the audio paper (nearly 10 minutes in length, as its own segment in this podcast feed in the coming weeks.)So for more on the symposium, check out the link below:http://architectureandfilm.orgAnd make sure to check out and support the companies who graciously contributed to our installation:https://ailledesign.comhttps://www.purdys.comhttps://see3d.org
It’s a new day, it’s a May day, and we’re back for another Outlook Mixed Bag episode.This week we’re finally getting to it, explaining a project we’ve had in the works for nearly an entire year now, but first we share a sudden loss in our family and on our own special memories of our uncle Mike who passed away, unexpectedly last week, moments after doing the thing he loved: playing music live with friends.The much hinted at project is our participation in a symposium taking place on May 6th and 7th in Toronto: Intense Interiors.Ours is Outlook - A Multi-Sensory Installation where we’re exploring mental mapping using multiple sensory modalities to show a range of perspectives, along with clips from guests appearing on this show.We’re showcasing a range of accessible products including braille fashion and mixed chocolates and tactile and 3D printed maps and objects.We discuss this last year and how we became a part of Intense Interiors, we give a demonstration of the symposium’s organizer saying her own name on the website the symposium is using where you can record yourself saying your name so others can hear how it’s properly pronounced, and we tell what it’s been like developing our installation, beginning with the audio paper we produced to illustrate the ideas demonstrated within.Check out this site and record your name which you can add to your email signatures so others will know its proper pronunciation in any situation:https://namedrop.io/And to learn more about the symposium, go to:https://architectureandfilm.org/Mike Kijewski: 1952-2023
Well we made it!This week Outlook celebrates our 200th episode and we’re doing it with a special guest, with an interview/discussion on the issues which are central to what we do here: accessibility, advocacy, equality.This week we welcome the first person to really discover our show back in early 2019 when he first reached out to us, our very first phone guest.Anthony Hodgetts from Alberta joins us as we reflect on 200 shows and we learn a bit more about one of the hosts of fellow radio show Bumping Into Walls. Anthony tells us about the bus adventures he goes on to travel from his home in Calgary to visit relatives in Alberta’s capitol city of Edmonton and co-host Kerry shares about once being left behind when attempting to take a bus home from Toronto.Anthony tells us about the SCORE computer camp he attended here in Ontario, put on for teens by the CNIB, something hosts Brian and Kerry never experienced even living in the province. He shares how he discovered Outlook, a little about his own show which is in the works again on university and community station CJSW, and related is the subject of how to find guests for shows like ours.Hodgetts was given oxygen at birth which caused his blindness and tells us about being integrated into the mainstream school in the 70’s and still being segregated in a classroom for students with disabilities (separate but equal as they say) for the first several years of school and then being thrown out into a regular classroom in the later grades. He tells us about the skills he acquired early on (braille and orientation and mobility) and his experience of feeling on display to the sighted kids when finally included among them.We discuss how heavy manual braillers were, cupboards to the head and chairs in the way, and about Anthony’s feelings on guide dogs (we all agree that women seem to like a guy with a cute dog), as he explains the types of transportation he uses in his province as well as the reactions drivers have to blind riders. We get into comparing assistive device and accessible equipment support programs between provinces, a little on Anthony’s work as an accessibility tester, and we finish off hearing about his interest in a number of hobbies: bowling, choir, and being a member of the Lions club.Happy Birthday to guest (co)host) Anthony Hodgetts and Happy 200th episode to us!You can find episodes of the radio show/podcast Bumping Into Walls here:https://cjsw.com/program/bumping-into-walls/(also available wherever you get your podcasts)
“If you rely on you're eyes only, you’re gonna miss a lot,” says Donna Hudon who, at age six was wearing glasses and at eleven she was using a cane at night. And by age twenty-three this guest was totally blind. Nights and days, she now has issues with her circadian rhythms like some other blind people (known as non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder), impacting the sleep-wake cycle which makes night shifts doable for her.This week on Outlook we’re speaking with Donna, a personal care worker from Nanaimo, British Columbia, out there on Vancouver Island. She’s one of only a handful of blind people around doing personal care work and advocating, simply by doing this work, for more to follow in her footsteps.Growing up in Edmonton, Alberta, we discuss the role Hudon’s sisters played, in the early years of Donna’s blindness, to get their mother to treat Donna like any other child and the influence this had on the trajectory of Donna’s life.She’s wanted to work taking care of others and children with disabilities of all kinds for a long time. Even with a rehabilitation practitioner diploma and a degree in child and youth care, Donna still had to push to get hired anywhere because employers wouldn’t look beyond the blindness. In the end, however, a little word like “no” never did slow this woman down. And now the Nanaimo Association for Community Living, where she works, is creating policies in their procedure manual: how to have somebody with a disability work to being an independent worker.As she shares with us about her life looking for jobs, raising and homeschooling two children of her own, along with volunteering and being an active member out in her community, Donna shows why it’s important for those of us with disabilities to be tenacious in carving out a space for ourselves - in employment like in the rest of life.And speaking of night shifts: Donna was just coming off of one of those, a twelve hour shift, to be with us this week, but after facing breast cancer a few years ago, not to mention all the discrimination she’s been up against when trying to contribute to her community and to the broader society all these years, she also likes to get away from all of that sometimes. So we finish off the show hearing about her favourite pastime…her kayak out on the ocean and being on a competitive cancer survivors dragon boat team because nothing slows Donna Hudon down for very long.For more info on her work experiences, check out this article: "Blazing New Trails Takes Persistence: My Job as a Personal Support Worker" from the November 2019 issue of The Blind Canadian:https://www.cfb.ca/november-2019-version-of-the-blind-canadian?id=2
On January 4, 2023 something new was revealed; the World Blind Herald went live, choosing that date because that is Louis Braille’s birthday. This week on Outlook we speak with its founder, publisher, and editor in chief Chris Hofstader.We begin with Chris sharing about his life including the early days when he was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) as a child, sharing all the things he was into just like all the other boys. He also shares his time as the vocalist in a punk rock band, lining up stories of his youth with the early, unknown years of the AIDS crisis in New York. From punk to computer sciences, the first half of this week’s Outlook Chris leads us through the years when his RP continued, he searched to find his place in the working and blindness world, seeing adaptive technology evolved from its earliest days.With his background in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics) , writing was a natural next step for Chris who, on the second half of the show, tells us about some of the topics and articles published on WBH since its inception and prototype days through to its publication at the beginning of the year. On the World Blind Herald’s site, find weekly Blindness Briefs with news stories about what blind people are up too all over, featured stories and other resources provided by blind people of all types, and a list of impressive bios of all those advisors and contributing writers on the team and involved in the project in some way.And we can’t complete this conversation without hearing from our guest about the policy of WBH on politics, specifically blindness politics which is something we’ve experienced ourselves since getting involved in advocacy in our thirties. Editor in chief Chris Hofstader is with us, sharing the publication’s mission, which is to include as many diverse perspectives from blind people globally; this being Outlook’s main mission as well.Things like sports, advocacy, business, and crime are just some of the topics you can find. So go here to check out the World Blind Herald and give them a read because they want to support the space for other blind creators and entrepreneurers as they’re just getting started publishing the perspectives of as many blind people as possible:https://www.worldblindherald.com/And, if you’re blind, consider advertising with them or writing for them.
REMEMBER THIs, Jan Karski: “Humans have infinite capacity to ignore things that are not convenient”.We’re back for our final week of Women’s History Month, with another mixed bag show.We wrap up March with a bit of a look back for co-host Kerry’s recent discussion of feeling the stigma of finishing her education late and feeling behind everyone. And reviewing the guests (Rebecca Singh and Daniella Mestyanek Young) who joined us in the first half of the month.But while the quote above was said by a Polish-Catholic man, who found himself in an extreme circumstance and who worked in the underground to warn the world about what the Nazis were doing to the Jews of Europe/specifically in Poland, discrimination anywhere, of any kind can grow if enough people look the other way.the local headline in London, Ontario when advocates and riders are pushing City Counsel to do more to improve paratransit:“Paratransit fails to get some disabled Londoners to meeting about fixing dysfunctional system”, Daryl Newcombe, CTV News, March 6Isn’t that just horribly hysterical?We discuss what paratransit is and a little about our own experiences using it in the past and about some of the resistance the counsel has been showing during the process, but there’s got to be a way and we will share more updates on that in the weeks ahead.We also hear from Kerry’s new phone. Listen to see if you can catch it, along with some signature sibling bickering thrown in there. Also, talk co-host Brian’s early instrument practice on the trumpet comes up plus Kerry’s clarinet too. And about Brian’s draft night/season of fantasy baseball starting on his birthday here, he shares about the strangeness of being into a hubby others are not; though the earlier quote was from World War II, this draft is about sports, not war.So check out our mixed bag of topical goodies here, last but not least ending the show with a tribute to disability activist Judy Heumann (rest in peace), as we wave goodbye to March.Find the documentary Crip Camp featuring Heumann with audio description here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFS8SpwioZ4Listen to our past Outlook episode to hear our thoughts on the doc:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2020-04-20-crip-camp/id1527876739?i=1000488226660Our episode reviewing Heumann’s book:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2020-07-13-being-heumann-book-review/id1527876739?i=1000488226662And the article about paratransit mentioned above can be read in full here:https://london.ctvnews.ca/paratransit-fails-to-get-some-disabled-londoners-to-meeting-about-fixing-dysfunctional-system-1.6301807
In our present world, of capitalism and productivity so valued, this week’s Outlook is about Kerry’s journey. While it’s still Women’s History Month for one more week, this time Brian interviews Kerry on some big changes in her life. It is time to share the incredibly winding path which led her here.From talk of Kerry’s rather ordinary early education to the onset of her kidney failure years in the midst of puberty, this time Kerry wants to explain some things like why high school was so isolating for her and the twenty year journey to get to the end of it, to catch up with herself.Many people have not finished their education including those in our own family we love, and so why is it so hard, has it been this hard for Kerry to talk about the education she didn’t get? Why do we put such immense pressure on ourselves to be everything and to finish what we start and to keep doing more more more?Disability and illness are only a few of the things that make up Kerry’s story and yet she’s been afraid to openly discuss her perceived failures until this moment and she’s not alone in fearing the stigma of being without a diploma. Outlook is about perspective, with what got us all ours, no matter how long it took to get there. “As Kerry’s brother Brian, I’ve been there over the years during her ups and downs and couldn’t be more proud of who she is today. Her brand new website is an example of her many achievements and you can find it here”:https://kayconsulting.caAnd check out this guest blog post Kerry wrote back in 2015, with a slightly different perspective of the times, which also provided inspiration for the title of this episode:https://hastywords.com/2015/08/27/bereal-kerry-kijewski/
We decided to call this special International Women’s Day/Women’s History Month episode of Outlook “Us and Them”, a slight altering from the term us vs them, relating to a chapter in the memoir we’re featuring with this interview Kerry did for a gender studies course she recently took.“Uncultured” is a book by Daniella Mestyanek Young, a writer and scholar who’s studied organizational psychology and group dynamics, specializing in extreme groups. We wanted to put out this show to show that Outlook is about disability, but that it’s bigger than this one single intersectionality we share about and how systems are held together to serve the majority, leaving out the needs and rights of the minority.The book is about the cult Daniella was born into, the most notorious religious sex cult in the world called The Children of God, but in this discussion she speaks mostly about how she then fled that and joined the US military and the extreme sexism she found waiting for her in the army.Mestyanek Young explains the things she expected when joining the military and the things which surprised her. She talks to Kerry about a particular vest that was designed to stop bullets but of which was not designed to save the lives of all its wearers equally, and about her meeting with President Obama and the biases he himself held upon their meeting.Identity. Toxicity. Trauma. This “agent of change” did her part to improve the experience of women in the army, in regulation and in culture, in a place where structure is key and rigid systems harm those who don’t fit the mold. And now her book is making a difference in how we stand up against harmful institutions where change is badly needed. Humans have always needed each other, safety in numbers with a group being protection, but Daniella wasn’t only under threat in war on the battle field. She was under threat every day from the harmful sexism rampant in the male dominated military world she was in, hearing from the very beginning that she should expect to get raped at some point by a fellow soldier because that’s just how it was in the army.This scholar of extreme group behaviours tells us why there’s no us without a them and vice versa. Kerry read Uncultured and highly recommends it. You don’t have to have been in the military or in a religious cult for that matter to see yourself in its pages. Buy the memoir at this link:https://bookshop.org/p/books/uncultured-a-memoir-daniella-mestyanek-young/17856062And for more on Daniella and the book:https://www.uncultureyourself.com
Our International Women’s Day episode of Outlook, first in the month of March and all throughout Women’s History Month, we’re talking with and honouring the intersectionalities of women and race and disability, to name a few.We start the show this week with the unfortunate announcement of the passing of Judith Heumann, so named as the Mother of the Disability Movement. (A fuller tribute to Judy will be included in our next Mixed Bag themed show.)Today for IWD though, we speak with founder and CEO of Superior Description Services, Rebecca Singh, who tells us why she decided to call her company Superior Description and why she works hard to promote and provide the best quality product; in producing audio and image description for blind and low vision users. Of all things possible to describe, for the blind and low vision community. Our guest this week is responsible for setting a high bar for all levels of audio description as paid work with standards for quality in her business and across the expanding Canadian AD landscape.Rebecca has a background in the arts, performing from an early age, going on to act with such parts as one of the aunts in The Handmaid’s Tale, Season Four. Singh’s experience as a performer brings first-hand knowledge and integrity in the work done through SDS, in developing procedures and best practice suggested guidelines.As a mixed race woman, Singh’s known racism firsthand in the entertainment and media industry, and actively works to break down barriers for people of all intersectionalities. This, of course, includes disability and by taking steps to foster an anti-racist environment and incorporating an Indigenous led program, collaborating with arts organizations of all kinds, (institutions such as universities and galleries and Stratford Festival to name a few), this is where companies like Singh’s are moving away from white being the default in all things.Along with our guest’s sharing as a professional in the industry, Kerry always advocating for quality audio description, Brian rounds out the conversation by sharing his own personal experience with a recent movie night with his friends and their young children, illustrating the point that AD is becoming more common and popular, sparking conversations and the normalization of this aspect of inclusive access to the arts. Check out more on Superior Description Services and the on-the-job work Rebecca’s done on media projects of all kinds at the official website:https://superiordescription.comFor even more on Singh’s own storytelling and performance work:https://rebeccasingh.comRest in peace Judy Heumann:https://judithheumann.com/the-world-mourns-the-passing-of-judy-heumann-disability-rights-activist/
Back on the mics again at last with our second Mixed Bag show of February 2023, to finish off the shortest month of the year.In the first half, Kerry shares more about her recently revealed consulting website, Kay Consulting, which ties in to the recent announcement, by Puffin Books in the UK, regarding updates made to the language in many of Roald Dahl’s children’s stories, in order to make them more inclusive for these times. So we discuss the authenticity consulting services on Kerry’s KC and how the work relates with the questions some have with changing a book’s language vs doing better in the current moment when writing new stories and how authors like Dahl was then and the responsibility of writers now. How does Kerry handle these matters on her new site?Also, she’s working on the earliest concept and draft of a book idea all about living with a prosthetic eye since age twelve. During some reading lately for a feminist horror literature and creative writing class, one of the books on the syllabus was Beloved by Toni Morrison. During Black History Month, she began doing research on the ways in which people have lost eyes, specifically when black people have lost eyes or their vision (both eyes or one or the other) do to systemic violence through the years. This includes civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and a decorated World War II veteran in the 1940s.And in the second half of the show, Brian shares details of his latest local London music scene night out, along with some audio from a 2017 trip to Iceland with an old friend, in order to illustrate the point of an article Kerry came across.It’s an article by writer Jennifer Stavros about the benefits of recording sound, instead of the more common act of taking photos when traveling. They talk over the existing impact Covid has had, when lockdowns were keeping us all at home and how we (as blind people and sighted alike) can come to experience the joys of life once more and learn to step back out into the world again (shaking hands again), all things opening wider as the virus slips more and more into the background of our lives with every passing day, week, and month.How to foster greater inclusion and how far to go, going beyond the “culture wars” as war of any kind becomes destructive, and wrapping up this Mixed Bag discussion with the merits of “echoic memory” which you can find more on in this BBC article, “Why We Should Record Travel Moments” referenced in our second half:https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230209-why-we-should-record-travel-moments
As a kid, he wanted to be a race car driver.This week on Outlook we speak with returning guest Ben Fulton about the work he’s now doing as a lawyer focusing on human rights. Ben gives a summary of the events he first came to us about, his experience being arrested when he was standing at a gas station counter, with his guide dog, just trying to get himself a cup of coffee.“Why don’t we go outside and talk about this.” This is what the cop said to Ben after the gas station employee said he couldn’t be there with a dog and Ben explained that she wasn’t a pet. This one has an ending Ben is happy with, which is that those involved in this unfortunate situation have been properly educated on the subject of service dogs and their human’s rights in Canada.Ben is returning to our show to update us on what he shared with us last year, the upcoming May court date in his housing discrimination case, after his experience during law school trying to find shared accommodation student housing and being rejected, more than once, simply because landlords didn’t want to rent to someone who was blind. Fulton shares with us the many experiences he's had in showing up to check out a room for rent, only to be told it’s no longer available, after showing up with his white cane in hand. He has texts to prove discrimination and he’s in court this spring to shore up a loophole in the Ontario Human Rights Code allowing this discrimination to go unchecked.We also hear more about Ben’s law practice, some of the barriers he worked around to get through law school successfully like he did, and his role and goals, as it says on his website: “A Blind Crime-Fighting Advocate Promoting Justice Fairness and Equality”. We’re glad to speak with Ben again on Outlook and wish him the best this May.If you believe you’ve experienced discrimination while looking for housing in shared accommodations, help strengthen Ben’s case by filling out this survey:https://www.cfb.ca/discrimination-in-shared-housingCheck out Ben’s previous appearance on the show from last year for more about his experience with housing discrimination in shared accommodations:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2022-01-17-discrimination-in-shared-accommodations/id1527876739?i=1000548263642And for more on Ben and his work and legal services, go to his website:https://www.benlaw.ca
UNESCo: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Kerry (February birthday girl) just took a course, a geography/tourism course, which covered this organization so should know what this acronym stands for, but can’t remember as we mark a favourite day around here.This week and year, the theme for the 12th edition of the World Radio Day, to be celebrated on the 13th of February 2023, is " Radio and Peace.We are approaching our 200th episode of Outlook some time in the coming weeks, and we’re celebrating here because radio deserves recognition and we’re thankful )on this day and every day) to air first on Radio Western each Monday morning. We are grateful for the platform and being able to reach a widely diverse audience through this supportive university/community station out of London, Ontario Canada and we certainly work, on this show, to promote peace to be the ultimate goal we all strive for.Also, first week in February is White Cane Week and we’re wrapping it up for 2023 with discussion to highlight the appreciated effort of companies who work for greater inclusion like the one our brother works for, Global Furniture Group, the Toronto company who have shared about this important week to inform the wider public about the white cane and its essential use as a mobility tool for blind people. We want to encourage all companies to do the same by way of educational material, a big step toward creating more inclusive workplaces everywhere.This week on Outlook we also discuss how Kerry spent her birthday weekend and how Brian ventured out to support an old friend’s music locally at Aeolian Hall in London (Now designated a World musical Heritage City by UNESCO), and how accessible his travel experience was. We also mention a resource out of London, “Everyone Can Play: for children with disabilities to have the same access to physical activity all children do and we’re sharing the research out of Western University in this area, not to mention the news that Bill C-22 (proposed Canada Disability Benefit) has now passed its third reading in the senate. We’ve recently heard from someone in Communications at Disability Without Poverty with an update on the status of this bill and this week we happily share their latest press release on its progress moving through the Canadian House of Commons:https://www.disabilitywithoutpoverty.ca/press-release-disability-without-poverty-remains-hopeful-about-bill-c-22/All important ongoing topics to discuss to be sure and which we’ll definitely revisit in future shows, however Kerry tries to move this mixed bag episode along (possibly becoming more and more impatient as she gets older); she must just be eager to announce she has a new website and to reveal it to the world.Kay Consulting is her new business and an old friend of hers generously offered to create this website for her writing, podcast, artivist, and consultant of lived experience work and services:https://kayconsulting.ca/Find out more on the work of Kerry’s friend and website designer here:https://thesidehustle.caAnd all other links referenced in this episode can be found below:https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/world-radio-day-we-are-diversityhttps://news.westernu.ca/2023/02/western-researchers-create-online-resource-to-support-physical-activity-for-children-with-disabilities/https://cyneveryonecanplay.my.canva.sitehttps://www.globalfurnituregroup.com/ca
In January and February of 2022, Kim Kilpatrick was in Ottawa, the place she’d lived most of her life, when the trucks rolled into town. Canada’s capitol city and the “Freedom Convoy” were all over the news, but what was it like to be there during those tense weeks, to be right in the thick of it?This week on Outlook we speak with Kim about what the impacts were on her, being a person with a disability, just trying to go about her life and the specific impediments to simply getting around in her own hometown.We also hear about Kilpatrick’s lifelong love of a good story well told and how she became a traveling storyteller herself, currently in Alberta performing “Raising Stanley/Life with Tulia”, a show about guide dog/human handler stories so people can understand the role of the dog and the role of its human better. So not actually in Ottawa when we speak with her.Check out Kim Kilpatrick, her polished storytelling talents, and even go see her if you’re in Calgary, Alberta, one year after the events in the capitol and there in Alberta too, as she is telling stories at The Lunchbox Theatre from February 1 to the 19th.Purchase tickets for Raising Stanley/Life with Tulia:https://www.lunchboxtheatre.com/raising-stanley/life-with-tuliaAnd find Kilpatrick’s Ottawa Storytellers profile along with her contact info here:https://www.ottawastorytellers.ca/kim-kilpatrick
April 2022 - broadcast on over 20 Internet radio stations - 11.5 hours - over USD$100,000 raisedA few months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Jonathan Mosen hosted “We’re with U, ” an online benefit concert featuring blind performers on his Internet station: Mushroom FM to help blind people in the war-torn country.Radio. Advocacy. Assistive tech. Jonathan Mosen has worked in all three areas in his career and this week on Outlook we speak with Jonathan about it all, though we could have done an entire episode for any one of these three things.Mosen tells us about Norrie disease, the condition he’s always lived with which had him living blind since birth and experiencing increased deafness over time. He talks about his pride in his disability, answering how he personally would react if he could see tomorrow vs get his hearing back, a different answer for each one of us.Broadcaster and podcaster extraordinaire, Jonathan hosts “Mosen At Large” with his knowledge from working at such assistive technology companies as HumanWare and Freedom Scientific, along with his lifetime in radio which began as a young child and young person at the school for the blind in New Zealand.He shares with us about the work he’s done bringing attention to the trauma he worked through from abuses at the school for the blind, tells us more about how Mushroom FM was started and how it’s grown, and about his love of iconic rock group The Beatles.For an even deeper dive into Jonathan’s life and his body of work, check out “In The Arena, the Jonathan Mosen Story” (a 9-part audio documentary), along with his podcast and an article he references on the show with us which he wrote about being blind and the pride he has in that by visiting his website here:https://mosen.org
According to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, 2023 is the year of the Water Rabbit:Starting from January 22nd, 2023 (Chinese New Year), and ending on February 9th, 2024/which will be the day before co-host Kerry’s 40th birthday, (Chinese New Year's Eve). The sign of Rabbit is a symbol of longevity, peace, and prosperity in Chinese culture.Our audio guy (having purchased new mics for himself for Christmas at local business Music City Canada) and sibling co-host Brian just so happens to have been born in another past year of the rabbit.Brought to you by we two, the rabbit and the rat, it’s our first live, in-studio episode of Outlook for the year as we cover a mixture of topics including other online podcast communities and our desire to reach out, hear from, and connect with anyone about disability on the Western University campus. And we share about the holidays (music played by Brian and friends and Kerry’s new keyboard) and on habits and establishing routines as we look to the year ahead.In the second half we celebrate the life of Ontario’s first lieutenant-governor (2007) with a visible physical disability. David Onley lived with the traces of childhood polio and died on Saturday, January 14th and we include here a few clips of him in his own words as he explains his involvement in making change around issues of accessibility. David was instrumental in keeping the AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act 2005 with aims of achieving its results by 2025) in the news, reviewing its progress or lack-thereof, and the importance for visible representation of people with disabilities in society to work on improved policy for all citizens, but specifically individuals of the population living with all kinds of disabilities of which any one of us could acquire at any point. That is why David spoke out about it throughout his life and why we two do what we do.So do check out our first Mixed Bag show - 2023 is predicted to be a year of hope according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Let’s all find out together and check out these links for more on what we discuss in this first of many mixed bag shows to come in this, 2023, the year of the water rabbit.The complete interview with David Onley from Beyond Politics as previewed on this episode can be found here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf0QYIbACIUCheck out the What's Your Excuse? Network:https://wyexcuse.com/shows/The Story Of How Braille Wound Up On Wine Labels:https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/the-story-of-how-braille-wound-up-on-wine-labels/
“See the flaming log. Drink the tasty nog, by the warm fireplace.” (Eggnog aka milk punch.) [lyrics quoted from Warm Fireplace by Kibble])Around the end of one year and the start of another, we look back on the year that just was and on toward the next on the podcast that started it all with us.On KOP 2022 we return to our spots by a warm fireplace, this time with wine, and this year fire is even more of a running thread through things here.We toast this time of year (with our friend The Stoker) with a brailled bottle of wine, (Kerry’s favourite, red), as we discuss highlights (and lowlights) from 2022.These included Kerry’s 25-year kidney transplant anniversary which she spent hosting a new friend visiting from Ireland (the one who told her about the wine with the braille on it), one collaborative musical project which came to an end in 2022 for Brian while he continued to play more music with old friends as the scarier bits of life and reality came a little too close for comfort, and Kerry’s year of online elemental writing classes including water and air (class on fire for 2023).From convoys to Covid, every year has its ups and downs. And while fire can be comforting, it can also be destructive. Still, we are grateful, after another year, that everyone involved is okay.On this one we begin with a catchy parody tune about a warm fireplace, share a brief musical composition Kerry came up with on her new keyboard, and end with our annual “cassette clip” plus an additional clip: RIP Al (1955 to 2022).Support the song Warm Fireplace by Kibble featured at the start of this episode by streaming or purchasing here:https://alexreed.bandcamp.com/album/warm-fireplaceLearn how braille ended up on wine bottles:https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/the-story-of-how-braille-wound-up-on-wine-labels/ Order a Purdys Braille Chocolate Box:https://www.purdys.com/braille-box-18-pcAnd check out Brian’s friend Matthew Martin’s song mentioned in this episode which was awarded second place in Aeolian Hall’s inaugural songwriting contest:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrRBMTy9eso
This week’s show, where we’re speaking with Utah author Macy Lewis, is being brought to you by the letter P.This brings us to the middle of January, Braille Literacy Month, as we speak with Macy about braille and how it and literacy brought her to the writing she does now, as she describes the 26 Days of Braille she’s been doing all month long on her social media by using a muffin tin and tennis balls to show what braille letters look like. As this airs live first, this one on January 16, this puts us at the 16th letter of the alphabet: P.With braille letters, they can stand for entire words to make the best use of space and in the interest of time.P is people. Perfect pitch people.On top of a loving nod toward Sesame Street, this week on Outlook we discuss Macy’s school years, first at a school for the blind and then mainstreamed into a public school for the rest of her education. Lewis shares about the time it took to become fast with braille and her love of writing collaboratively when creating characters and plot lines for everything from romantic suspense to children’s books about a blue dragon and an octopus by the name of Octie. Macy collaborates with everyone from family and friends to her local aquarium, planetarium, and the zoo when writing about animals. So from TBR overwhelm to her wanting to communicate about braille to show people what it is, in her words to share what braille “is, what it looks like, what it means.” - Macy Lewis opens up about where on the blindness spectrum she is, her years of anxiety over reading out loud, and her love of music, her and sibling co-host Brian being “perfect pitch people.”Macy Lewis and sibling co-host Kerry bond over writing and the big questions, for writing and as a blind writer in particular. Stay tuned for new words from Lewis, “Weathering the Storm”, her first time writing featuring blind characters, slated for release later this year. In the meantime, follow Macy on her socials and by checking out her Amazon author page here:https://www.amazon.com/author/macylewisFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMacyLewisTwitter:https://twitter.com/MacyLewis6
They’ve been Kelly and Company, on AMI Audio up till now, but for our first new episode of the new year, they are now Kelly and Ramya, now on AMI TV, and we speak with them both this week.This week on Outlook, we welcome in the month of January, with first guests of 2023 Kelly MacDonald and Ramya Amuthan. They are announcing this week’s premier on AMI TV of Kelly and Ramya. We speak with them for a conversation with the hosts together, after having them come on with us individually in the past.Being that January is Braille Literacy Month, we begin the discussion hearing from them both on their own experiences with braille and how it’s fit into their lives. We also learn about how they became a team on air, on AMI Audio in the past, and how the pandemic impacted them and their show, coming out on the other side with the addition of AMI TV to the audio, becoming the new version of the Kelly and Ramya show.It’s launching this week and we hear about what it’s been like, moving from audio into the visual realm, and how it feels to be adding a visual format element, as the hosts who are blind.Catch Kelly and Ramya live on AMI TV week days from 2 to 4 PM EST. Find a listing of the satellite/cable channels AMI TV broadcasts at here:https://www.ami.ca/channelsYou can also catch the show at the same time simulcast on AMI Audio:https://www.ami.ca/listenliveAnd if you missed them the first time, check out both Kelly and Ramya’s first appearances on Outlook:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2020-12-07-accessible-media-in-canada-with/id1527876739?i=1000501639876https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-03-29-discussion-with-ramya-amuthan-from/id1527876739?i=1000515098520
Outlook for 2022, all wrapped up with a beautiful beau. On this final episode of 2022, right before Christmas, we acknowledge that it’s not a joyous time of year for all of us equally and also we discuss the impact all the beautiful wrapping on gifts this time of year has on the environment. Outlook is about tearing off the fancy wrappings on issues, to get to the heart of it, the contents of an issue involving anything disability.In the second half of this week’s show, we talk music, inclusive products, and audio description, reviewing a few recent guests (out of all 42) including new friends, one of which we had sit in with us to mark Outlook being on the air for four years back in the fall. We discuss some of the disability inequality and examples of how people who are marginalized have been struggling with things like inflation and poverty, at a time of year when A Christmas Carol (traditionally watched with Kerry and her dad on Christmas Eve) holds lessons for how the world treats the haves and the have-not’s. Plus we’re remembering some of our shared/individual Christmas memories growing up, from gifts not wrapped to red and green construction paper loop chains made to count down to Christmas. We share about what traditions we had and have, with Kerry remembering the colours of Christmas and Brian never having seen enough for that. And we cap things off with a few hints of what’s to come next year.Also, reviewing the last twelve months, on a show like ours, often includes tributes to those we’ve lost. And this week we have a loss in the blindness community to announce, along with how the year began with the sudden passing of disability activist John Rae back in the spring. It was last week the announcement shocked many of us in the blindness community (especially in the US and with the National Federation of the Blind), Scott LaBarre passed away on December 10. We had him as National Rep for the Canadian Federation of the Blind’s convention with us as convention MC’s when he attended and gave the banquet speech, all virtually in the middle of the pandemic in 2021. Larger than life, Scott was a lawyer with a family, a leader and mentor to many.Those like Scott and John are a part of the history of blindness, both in Canada and in the States and we can’t forget why that matters. So RIP to Scott and to all those we’ve lost this year.And so Happy Holidays and all the best in 2023 from us at Outlook. Cheers to you all and we’ll be toasting 2022 with a bottle of wine with braille on the label we found recently. Please enjoy unwrapping these gems by checking out a few fun and informational links we’re including to round things out, podcasts we were invited on, along with accessibility and art topics we covered this year with our guests.Check out our recent appearance on the Limitless, Blind Beginnings Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/episode-127-lets-meet-brian-and-kerry/id1518892826?i=1000589083990Read the story of how braille ended up on wine bottles:https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/the-story-of-how-braille-wound-up-on-wine-labels/Remember John Rae by listening back to his appearance on the show from earlier this year:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2022-03-07-think-global-act-local-with-john-rae/id1527876739?i=1000553477466And pay tribute to Scott LaBarre through revisiting his appearance at our CFB convention in 2021 on this 2 part episode:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-06-07-cfb-choices-goals-2021-virtual-convention/id1527876739?i=1000524699528https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-06-14-cfb-choices-goals-2021-virtual-convention/id1527876739?i=1000525501448
We found this week’s guest (final guest of Outlook 2022) through this other recent guest Kyle Kiper, both from Arkansas.This week on Outlook we’re speaking with Cindy Scott-Huisman about art, creativity, and ingenuity.We discuss Cindy’s journey with her son’s and her own Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON), Cantrell Gallery which has been in her family for half a century and the pride she has in her work there, and about how Scott-Huisman took chances on a continued happy life post LHON diagnosis.We at Outlook always like to learn, through another’s self description, what they still can and do see, but we love discussing art (in all its forms) with those who also love it.To read more about Cantrell Gallery, check out their website here:https://cantrellgallery.com
PWD - people with disabilitiesDWP - Disability Without PovertyDecember 3rd of this year marks 30 years since the United Nations adopted this date as the International Day for Persons with Disabilities (IDPD). The theme for IDPD 2022 is “Transformative solutions for inclusive development: the role of innovation in fuelling an accessible and equitable world“.What is Disability Without Poverty (DWP)? What is Bill C-22 (the Canada Disability Benefit)?This week on Outlook we speak with Janet Rodriguez – Disability advocate; Ontario coordinator for DWP about Janet’s international perspective (speaking of coming from Peru to Canada) and then what it’s been like living here in this country with the push for Bill C-22 as 2022 comes to a close.Janet tells us about this organization and this bill as the three of us have an open discussion about our own, individual experiences with disability and the connection between disability and poverty in Canada specifically, both before and since Covid-19 came along, contributing to so many societal cracks, all of which were already forming before the pandemic but of which have only widened more vastly since.When Covid hit, the government snapped into high gear for Canadians when they were unable to go to work. The Canadian government created the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit or CERB, but with cost-of-living on the increase, those living with disabilities (both visible and invisible) have fallen further and further below the poverty line. This ends up harming society more, in the long run, but with disability there’s always been stigma and feelings of being a burden, on the system, in the capitalistic culture we’re all living in. We wanted to speak with someone who is doing something, as part of a group of Canadians living with disability, to engage with policy makers and fellow stakeholders to make life better for pwd, a group any one of us could join at any time.“Transformative solutions for inclusive development: the role of innovation in fuelling an accessible and equitable world“.This may be a global truth, but it must begin and end in the country in which we live, and Janet Rodriguez is our guest for this broad strokes discussion broken down. Those of us with disabilities in Canada (PWD/DWP), we must have a highly visible seat at the table for all consultations on the creation of a Canadian Disability Benefit and that’s just what Disability Without Poverty and Rodriguez are doing by pulling up a chair for human rights here at home.And as we wrap up 2022, on this first Outlook of December, we promote Disability Without Poverty’s webinar taking place Thursday, December 8th beginning at 9 AM PT/12 PM ET. It’s a year-End review of the Canada Disability Benefit. Together with hosts Michelle Hewitt, national co-chair) and Rabia Khedr, national director, DWP will be discussing "how far we've come and the challenges that lie ahead in making Bill C-22 a reality.”Register here: https://plan-9.hubspotpagebuilder.com/reg-dwp-year-end-townhallYou can also register by phone at: 1-877-775-6652Read more about what Disability Without Poverty are all about by visiting their website where you can sign up for the DWP newsletter for updates in your inbox:https://www.disabilitywithoutpoverty.caAnd find them on Facebook:http://facebook.com/disabilitywithoutpoverty
The world of audio description is still new and it can be hard to know how to break into the field, for anyone wanting to write it or engineer/mix it or voice it, even do quality control on it. As we’ve said, it’s all a collaborative process or should be anyway.On this week’s episode we welcomed author and audio description writer Kelly Evans for a frank discussion on how she got into this work and how audio description and related accessibility are showing up in more and more places, even as many still get it mixed up with closed captioning, and how something that helps the blind can also be handy for anyone. There’s still no real set of standards and so AD production requires devoted parties at all levels.Evans has gone from working in project management and IT, in investment banking and in museums over in England, and back here in Canada writing historical novels, being an expert in the black death and plagues in general. She writes about historical women, in the renaissance period, requiring lots of research. These skills transfer over into how she moved into doing AD script writing which also requires plenty of research into the subject matter of any show needing description. We talk about the value of feedback and including the blind community in the collaborative process for the audio description to be the best it can be. Kelly, as a writer herself, she knows why quality matters and how valuable feedback is.This latest guest on Outlook is a Canadian writer of audio description Kerry met in a Facebook group for those doing just such work, an excellent place to go to for like-minded people striving to describe shows, films, plays, and so much more as time goes on and the AD industry continues to evolve.To continue the ongoing discussion on audio description, join the Facebook group where Kerry and Kelly met here:https://www.facebook.com/groups/AudioDescriptionDiscussionAnd check out Kelly's writing on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Kelly-Evans/e/B0187JGTOQ
It’s been several years since both of us had our one-and-only guide dogs, in our teens and twenties, but that doesn’t mean it’s been so long that we can’t identify with another guide dog user around the impact of the end of a guide team partnership. Our guest this week made it on with us, even as he’d just recently experienced the loss of his German shepherd guide dog companion, a difficult loss for so many.
On Outlook this week we spoke with first-time guest Kyle Kiper, originally of Texas and now living near the Oklahoma/Arkansas border, about the big question guide dog handlers are often asked after they lose a dog guide: will you be going for another guide dog then?
On this episode we discuss all three of our positions on this question, along with a conversation spanning the array of other topics there are to speak to this particular guest about.
Kyle tells us about his family of mostly blind people and the retinitis pigmentosa diagnosis running throughout his life, his early career as a paramedic and how he had to pivot once the RP got in the way and how he moved into his next field which was rehabilitation counselor requiring his adventure going to school in England, and about his life with his wife as travel agents.
- 51 countries visited and all 7 continents.
We hear about the benefits of cruises for blind travelers from his lived experience perspective and about the obstacles he faced when biases about the kinds of jobs blind people can do presented themselves in his path.
Kiper is open to sharing so much of his life with us and our listeners, making this one an impactful one to begin to wrap up the year with.
RIP Uma and check out Outlook with Kyle Kiper and his own outlook on life.
Blind people, well all people to a certain extent, but specifically blind people are either constantly told we cant do things. Or else we’re told we can be/do anything we want. This week on Outlook we relate over this position, and over the barriers that feel hard to surmount without support.
It’s that time of year again when snow’s making an appearance, but we’re glad to be speaking with our guest for this one, talking the reality of vulnerability.
This week on Outlook we speak with Mitch Creedy about growing up in South Africa and what they noticed after coming to Canada, about anxiety and vulnerability, and they share about their intersecting blindness and coming out as transgender and non binary, how they feel about learning to advocate in the healthcare system during their recent gender affirming surgery..
We touch on a plethora of other topics too, from forest bathing to kitchen gadgets.
You can connect with Mitch on Facebook and ask to join their group for entrepreneurs with disabilities here: https://www.facebook.com/michelle.creedy.7
We’re back this week for another episode of Outlook, another Mixed Bag Monday, Home Edition this time as colds, flu, and Covid pile up.
We’ve been off and on air these last weeks, since Covid finally caught up with us both last month, and as we’re transplant patients we’ve had to give ourselves the time to recover slowly.
Happy to be back on air though, since our last live in studio show in early October, to catch up on all that’s been going on with us and also all that’s happening in the world. That’s what Mixed Bag shows are all about around here.
With this one we talk Covid up close and getting a better view of the state of Canada’s healthcare system, highlight some good things for past guests of the podcast, and Brian’s cough was our only guest on this one. Hopefully not for long as we’d rather not share the airwaves with such visitors.
In the second half, we talk audio description (an ongoing theme) as Kerry recently worked on a political ad for Vote Now Oregon and their Roe Rage campaign. It makes for a nice brief example for AD critique purposes as it’s all a never-ending learning process for those who do it.
So tune in to the episode and you’ll find the ad Kerry worked on that we’ve been discussing. Or else you can find it below. During this week where the States holds their midterm elections, we’re sharing this ad with AD:
https://www.votenoworegon.org/videos
Plus go to the following two links to check out two-time Outlook guest, musician, and mental health advocate Heather Hutchison’s recent CBC appearances:
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-93-all-points-west/clip/15935735-musician-author-nanaimo-takes-social-media-share-experiences
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-52-radio-active/clip/15934515-what-blind
From old episodes of Perry Mason on AMI to the 2011 Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate on CBC to Love On the Spectrum on Netflix. Our latest guest has described it all.
This week on Outlook we speak with Ruth Barrett, who attended the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art, who started out as a performer, in the theatre, as a voiceover artist, but she eventually found her way into the world of doing closed captioning work first and then audio description.
She loves English and history and her curiosity, all helpful interests and qualities for a describer to have. We speak with Ruth about how her previous skill set was applied to becoming an audio describer and writer, for Accessible Media Inc. and other networks, which led to her doing this work for live performances at the Stratford Festival which began offering selected audio described shows around 2012.
Ruth loves to speak with users of her live theatre audio description and shares how she likes meeting with them after the show and receiving their feedback.
With terms like forced naming, Barrett tells us what she’s learned about best practices over her years doing this work and how she’s loved getting to do more work collaboratively on a team along with the others over at Descriptive Video Works based in BC, but virtual has allowed people, like Ruth who live all the way back over in Stratford, Ontario to be on that team.
Our guest this week explains how she works diligently to provide the best possible audio description experience for the users of the service that she can.
Shawn Marsolais learned about her Retinitis Pigmentosa at age twelve and started attending a summer camp for blind children shortly after that. It was there, for the first time, Shawn finally felt like blindness didn’t have to be a big deal and meeting her blind peers made coming back every summer a thing to look forward to all year. At Camp Bowen, blindness was irrelevant because all the kids lived with it and got to just be kids.
Growing up, Shawn dealt with internalized ableism and the fear that if she didn’t do things for herself, she wouldn’t be seen as successful or capable. So whether it was in school or when becoming a parent, her drive to be independent was strong and accepting help was avoided wherever possible.
Describing herself as someone with a chip on her shoulder for a long time, this experience is what led her to starting her nonprofit, Blind Beginnings, which offers parental support groups, relationship and confidence building activities, and involvement of the whole family (including siblings) in outings and events for fun and for developing skills for a limitless life and so hopefully future generations of blind children and youth don’t have to go through what she did.
Of course, we all have limits, but this week on Outlook we speak with Shawn about the limits we put on ourselves when the world tells us that blindness is not as good as sight and being sighted.
Check out all discussed on this week’s show including their Limitless podcast and the Limitless Beauty Fashion Show, taking place Sunday, October 16. The show will include fashion by inclusive fashion and clothing companies Two Blind Brothers and Aille Design with their new braille beaded blue dress. It is also being described by Descriptive Video Works and being made into a documentary by Accessible Media Inc. to be released sometime in 2023.
Find more info on Blind Beginnings' official website: https://www.blindbeginnings.ca/
The blind leading the blind. One of our guests this week on Outlook says: “That is like the best idea ever!”
On our first episode of October’s Blindness Awareness Month (or what we like to call BAM) we’re speaking with Alex Jurgensen and Jessica Gladysz from the Canadian Organization of the Blind and Deafblind (COBD) - Alex is director of operations and community engagement with the Camp Bowen Division and Jessica is Director of Programs and Student Affairs for the Pacific Training Centre Division and has been of the Camp Bowen Division in various roles.
Out on the west coast, a short 20 minute boat trip off west Vancouver there is an island, the home of a community of blind Canadians for over 100 years since the CNIB was there. They created a camp for blind children and Camp Bowen on Bowen Island is where many blind children, including our guests, met and discovered friendship and common ground. There, they weren’t isolated or blocked by barriers. Instead, they were welcomed and found out, many for the first time, that it was okay to be blind.
And on the show today, we learn about the history of Bowen Island and Camp Bowen and the impression it left on so many, about how the Pacific Training Centre for the Blind in Victoria and Camp Bowen (Camp Bowen Working Group) came together with their programs for teaching blind Canadians the skills they needed, in many cases for the first time, for success, and the kinds of programs offered as the Canadian Organization of the Blind and Deafblind was formed and is rapidly and over time expanding.
Now Camp Bowen and COBD offer summer camps, braille literacy camps for kids, and music camps for children and adults and provide a glamping situation, alongside activities such as horseback riding, swimming, boating, self-defense, boardgames, camp fires, and movie nights.
They have received federal funding for a 4-year plan, access to a beach front with 11 thousand square feet on 2 and a half acres, and will offer 8 camps in summer and are now running a 10-month intensive independent skills program (eventually for up to 38 people) where students are taught cane travel, braille instruction, assistive tech training, cooking and home skills, and employment preparedness.
We’re no longer being taken care of (by CNIB or others) - the program is Blind People In Charge and they really are, including (for the first time in Canada) the Deafblind community right there in COBD’s name. Blind and Deafblind Canadians have been a major part of Bowen Island for a century, a solid part of the culture, and have big plans for the future.
So check out everything they offer on their website, including 21 programs, (some virtual), a tech loan bank, and blind hub with lots of resources. Also consider making a donation if you have the means as these programs are all so important here in Canada and require funding to continue.
https://cobd.ca
She noticed something was going on with her son’s eyes one year while he was making his list for Santa and was only writing on the page’s right side margin, but there was a lot more going on, underneath the surface, in the Owens family.
He loved skateboarding and skimboarding and was an excellent student, but this mother was about to have no choice but to teach her son how to advocate for himself and work toward a radical acceptance of her own.
Kim Owens is a blogger, wife, mother, author, and advocate. First she taught her son how to advocate for himself and now her blog shows people how to do the same, offering a place where mentoring happens for many other families.
This week on Outlook we spoke with Kim about chronic illness and disability, hers and her son’s, and about the ways they’ve found to navigate blindness with Owen’s blog Navigating Blindness.
While still newly navigating her own autoimmune disease, after years as a busy career woman in the marketing field and her own massage therapy business, Kim Owens started noticing personality changes in her always adventurous younger son. Known as No Fear Kai since he was little, and always trailing after his older brother on adventures, Kim started noticing his anxiety, requiring visits with several specialists to pinpoint just what was going on. As a mother, she had no doubt that something was happening.
On the show this week we discussed the long road to proper diagnosis, the freedom to adapt and thrive her son experienced once he received the tools for owning his blindness diagnosis and adaptive technology and braille, and the battle for access and accommodation they fought for against the school district.
Kim Owens has received a national braille certification, runs Navigating Blindness which is a resource for others newly experiencing blindness, and is working on a book about her family’s story while Kai is off, at university with his first guide dog, a young man out doing the things he loves most.
Check out the blog here: https://navigatingblindness.com
Last winter, Kerry took a virtual program called Speaking With Confidence, since it had been years since she practiced her public speaking skills. Plus, anything she learned she figured she could apply to sounding more confident on the air for the radio show/podcast as well.
This week, on Outlook, our guest was Nasreen Bhutta, (Consultant and Trainer- Helping folks to launch or relaunch their Careers), and one of the facilitators of Speaking With Confidence. It’s a 10 to 12-week program for (as the name suggests) speaking With more confidence and developing a stronger presence, as blind people, when speaking for any occasion. We wanted to hear a bit more about how this program got started and about the approach Nasreen and the other 2 co-facilitators take in structuring things, as session 6 begins next week.
In session 5, Kerry worked to further develop her public speaking muscle, in getting more comfortable speaking on the spot, and had fun and picked up some advice along the way, as well as learning with and from the other participants.
On this week’s episode, Bhutta shares about how she adjusted to the ever evolving spectrum of blindness after her RP diagnosis, the kinds of speeches each SWC participant is required to give, and on the work she’s also doing for the fashion, style, and confidence-building website and brand Bold Blind Beauty, including its new Up In the AIR (Access, Inclusion, and Representation) podcast.
If you think you might be interested in signing up for session 6 (Starting the final week of September), email Nasreen Bhutta: nasreenbhutta@gmail.com Join the Speak With Confidence Training Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312584286892626/ Check out the Bold Blind Beauty On A.I.R. podcast which features Nasreen as a co-host: https://boldblindbeautyonair.buzzsprout.com And if interested, you can sign up to the virtual LinkedIn webinar happening on October 6 here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAof-CgqDstGNajYzf-zGXOSAeGUMAX3yZi?fbclid=IwAR0O9m3hhoymR1fT0lTe_IMQrOqfbkOD4B-AkKXdLHCg1mFS2w5SsbkXdy4
Katie Morgan says she feels like she knows us, even though we only met each other in person when she appeared on this week’s anniversary episode of Outlook. Even her family now know about the program she tunes in for, every Monday morning at eleven.
This program is Outlook On Radio Western because it first started as a radio show, airing on 94.9 CHRW Radio Western, before the pandemic happened and it evolved into both a radio show and podcast. We first aired on September 10, 2018. Now having recorded 173 episodes and with Katie, our 92nd guest, we’re thrilled to have her join us live in studio, taking the hour to look back.
We try to keep this episode light and fun for the most part, while discussing some of the themes we like to cover, along with Morgan sharing some of what she’s learned from listening to our lived experience of blindness here.
Kerry shares an interaction she had with her white cane and someone on her way into the studio before this recording. And Katie shares some of the techniques she uses to manage anxiety, tells a story of ADHD and misplacing her glasses, and how utilizing all our senses can only be a benefit. Accessibility, advocacy, and equality - Outlook is all about the diversity in perspectives, thus where the name of this show comes from.
Morgan has lived in London, in one way or another, since she was young. Since then, she is active in her local community, including sharing details with us of her previous experience with the station, first helping out a friend who has the show, Music Is The Medicine, airing in the morning shortly before we come on. Brian and Kerry really appreciate the freedom of community radio and are grateful to Radio Western for giving them a platform to be themselves and sharing that with listeners.
Whether it’s the lessons Katie learned from travel and the open mind that helps broaden or her advice about being curious, not assuming what others might need, how it comes down to asking others what it is how they feel about things. We discuss lessons in making a new friend by reaching out, how it’s okay to ask for help, or shaking things off and accepting what is.
As we celebrate four years of this show, we thought it would be fun to invite on with us a long-time listener, to sit in, to thank them for supporting us all this time.
Long-time listener turned life-long friend - we dedicate this week’s episode to Katie Morgan and to all the support we’ve received from so many.
Check out Music Is The Medicine, a favourite show of Katie's that lead her to discovering us: https://radiowestern.ca/program/music-medicine
During the pandemic and lockdowns, Kerry started attending a weekly Wednesday evening virtual space, on Zoom (where else) where art and accessibility came together with the help of a friendly, welcoming host.
VocalEye is a non-profit society, registered charity and the first live descriptive arts service for the blind in Canada describing theatre, arts, and culture for the low vision and blindness community. They’re now making the arts more accessible for people who are blind and partially sighted, online and in-person and this week on Outlook we speak with its community outreach coordinator, Amy Amantea.
We start by hearing about Amantea’s early years including the family’s traveling life with Amy’s father working in the shopping centre industry and about her early childhood diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. Outlook may be hosted by two siblings who were born with blindness, a show where they regularly speak with other blind people about their lives, but (as both hosts live with other chronic illnesses), the aim is to discuss more conditions and disabilities than blindness alone in future and this week’s guest experienced blindness as a result of her underlying chronic disease, rather than being born with it.
From a doctor’s prediction of blindness at twenty-four to the reality of that, our guest shares the path she was on, involving precious gems, into an artist’s life (acting/photography) Amy Amantea likely never would have had otherwise. This guest looks at life with chronic illness (neurodivergence) and disability as things that make one wonderfully rare (like a gemstone) and unique and we tend to agree.
Check out the extremely valuable work of VocalEye, including the custom jewelry designed by Amantea herself as The Blind Beader, with proceeds going to this nonprofit’s cultural offerings: http://www.vocaleye.ca
Hear some of the arts and cultural activities they describe on the VocalEye YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/vocaleyeful
And take a listen to Amy’s AMI podcast, Accessing Art with Amy here: https://www.ami.ca/Accessing-Art/recent_episodes
For custom jewelry orders by Amy you can email: theblindbeader@outlook.com
Toy Story was Rebecca Odum’s first introduction into the world of audio description, movie night at a camp for the blind. Born premature and becoming blind from Retinopathy of Prematurity ROP, even when reading large print and screens was still possible and before becoming a screen reader user, movies and television have been a part of Rebecca’s life.
What is audio description, AD QC, or quality control? This is the field our guest is training in. What constitutes good audio description anyway?
This week on Outlook we speak with Odum about how audio description AD can benefit not only blind people and why it matters and about Odum’s writing background and early vivid imagination. Rebecca also shares about studying ASL or American sign language and being a member of an all sign language choir.
And we discuss the documentary one of our co-hosts and this week’s guest recently trained on, for the art and specialty of audio describing and quality control, a beautiful doc about musician and composer Grace Fisher who acquired a childhood virus in her teens. Fisher is now quadriplegic and has started The Grace Fisher Foundation.
Check out more information on Amazing Grace and what Grace herself is up to with the foundation: https://www.gracefisherfoundation.org
Follow Rebecca on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rwritesfantasy
And take a listen to her podcast, Spirit of Avalor, about her favourite Disney series: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spirit-of-avalor-podcast/id1463065687
It’s been a few months since our last purely Mixed Bag Monday episode of Outlook, but we’re back, in the middle of August, as summer begins to wind down with a mixture of topics we’re discussing.
Kerry’s been writing and taking classes in writing and the natural world and then reading her words, in community with others. Brian’s been having a rather creatively productive month, practicing with other likeminded musical friends he’s known and performed with for years. Sometimes, it’s nice to work on our creative interests, outlets in a tough world where there’s always something serious happening in the news and around the world, and art helps us be able to let loose a little.
Whether it’s the stress on the healthcare system in this province and across the nation, abortion rights for women and other pregnant people being at risk and how this issue in the States finally gets us to study up about the issue in our own country, or August 15th being exactly one year since western countries pulled out of Afghanistan which leaves Afghan people and especially women behind to face oppression and other dangers, human rights of all kinds are threatened and this impacts everyone around the world. It’s important we talk about all this on our show, hosted by two disabled siblings in Ontario, Canada.
From saying farewell to a friend or opening beans when you meant to open lentils, it’s truly a mixed bag of topics. We are spending the week with family, celebrating our nephews and their birthdays in August, and talking Blue Jays baseball, a super summery subject.
And last but certainly not least, to round off the show this week, we’re sharing promotional material sent to us by Cheryl Green, on behalf of Green and project partner Thomas Reid on the survey they’re launching. With support from the Disability Visibility Project, they’re putting out a survey collecting information from Deaf and disabled podcasters and consumers of podcasts on building a network or community of Deaf and disabled content creators and consumers of said content. We’ll let them explain all this further, but we then go on to discuss an article Reid wrote for DVP on the discussion around whether giving an image description of oneself is necessary, in meetings and in workshops for example, and if there’s equity or discrimination in the practice or in the resistance to it since the pandemic and Zoom made us all faces, in little boxes, on a screen.
Fill out the survey for Project Project or Podaccess as it’s being known as here: https://bit.ly/PODAccess
Find Thomas Reid’s article (Making a Case for Self-Description: It’s Not About Eye Candy) on the Disability Visibility Project’s website: https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2022/04/12/making-a-case-for-self-description-its-not-about-eye-candy/
And for more background on Green and Reid, give a listen to this captivating discussion on the podcast Down to the Struts on the episode Disabled Podcasters Unite!: https://www.downtothestruts.com/episodes/season-4-episode-6-cheryl-green-thomas-reid
From one president to another. Doug Lawlor has become President of the Canadian Federation of the Blind. This week on Outlook On Radio Western, we speak with Lawlor about this new position and the responsibility that goes along with it, including his recent first-time experiencing a National Federation of the Blind national convention where he had an introductory meeting with the NFB’s president Mark Riccobono.
On the show, we hear about all this, but we begin by hearing about Doug’s childhood in Newfoundland, the trauma of being sent to a school for the blind in Halifax at just six years old, and how it was for him to go from integration to segregation and back again.
From Newfoundland to Halifax, and from Kingston to Louisiana. Doug Lawlor has traveled, using his skills and available technology and he joins us on Outlook in his newest role, always willing to figure it out as he goes.
President of the Canadian Federation of the Blind is no different, but what is next for this Canadian blindness organization?
To learn more, check out the official website: https://www.cfb.ca
We’ve known of this particular guest for years, through a friend, but now we welcome Victoria Francis as a friend of ours on the show after meeting her in an airport flying home from Orlando, Florida.
This week on Outlook we speak with Francis about her experience coming here as a little girl, her parent’s determination to give her and her twin brother every possible chance as blind people, and their time in both the integrated and segregated education systems once they arrived.
Victoria shares with us about her first snow experience as a child, after being born in Qatar and the benefits and drawbacks of a school for the blind like the one she attended in Brantford. She also shares about her college experience and now life in the working world.
Her ongoing work learning as much independent cane travel as possible has continued to challenge her, but her story is one of part of a close immigrant family and she has come a long way since coming to Canada in the nineties and now living on her own in Sudbury, the largest city in northern Ontario.
Jewelry isn’t only about what visually glitters and sparkles: both jewelry and braille are tactile experiences.
Our latest guest tells us about her more than a decade in the accessible jewelry and accessories world, after studying music and theatre and working in assistive technology roles, leading to the role of accessibility advocate alongside.
Laura Legendary is the founder of Elegant Insights Braille Creations and tells us about what true accessibility means to her, along with her road from grief and the special braille keepsake someone gifted to her when she was going through loss, and now we speak with Laura to highlight the connections in losing a loved one and losing a sense, both things we can learn to adapt to with time, support, and the right tools.
Along with descriptions of some of the products she creates and a few upcoming seasonal promotions, Laura tells us about how she sparkles and assists others in how they can find that sparkle for themselves. Legendary is a people person, businessperson, and our guest on Outlook this week.
To shop Elegant Insights Braille Creations: https://elegantinsightsjewelry.com
Check out the Fashionability Channel (blog and podcast) where Laura has teamed up with UK fashion blogger Emily Davison to share their fashion and style tips for all: http://www.fashionabilitychannel.com
For more jewelry education, design, trend, and style information, you can find Laura’s Sparkle On Blog here: http://elegantinsightsjewelry.com/sparkle-on/
Or else there’s Legendary’s other blog, the Accessible Insights Blog, which provides information on products and services for individuals with low or no vision: https://accessibleinsights.info/blog/
Find her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Elegant.Insights/
And on Twitter and Instagram: @ ElegantInsights
On Outlook this week, we’re talking disability pride during July’s Disability Pride Month.
Whether it’s us starting out the show talking about Brian’s recent musical practice with an old friend and society’s devaluing of music as an art and a skill, a skill many people with disabilities have. Or our recent guest, H May, whose short film Awaiting Tiresias highlights discussions of the continuum of both blindness and gender and the illustration of intersectionality with Hannah, a black and enslaved woman who had a disability in the 1800’s.
While we may not have a guest this week, it’s a themed episode of our regular Mixed Bag Monday shows, with an explanation of how Disability Pride Month began. With that, we’re sharing quotes from figures throughout history, organizations, acquaintances and friends, in the wide range of opinions on what it means to feel pride in living with disability or not.
Kerry feels that the opposite of pride is often shame and that’s something she sometimes struggles with. Brian wants us to become comfortable and confident in the use of the word “blind” to describe our disability, as the best way to arrive at feeling pride in who we are, instead of feeling shame for what we can’t control. This is the difference in the medical vs the social models of disability.
Pronouncements aside, disability Pride Month puts a focus on attempts to find pride in ourselves as people with disabilities (marked with a literal disability pride flag first created by Ann Magill in 2019), in how we can be proud of who we are, despite what we’ve been told and gone through. And in all we’ve contributed and continue to offer the world, that we’re valued as human beings.
Throughout this episode, we shared a wide array of viewpoints on whether to celebrate being disabled. If anyone has any feelings on how to better feel pride in being disabled (if you think Disability Pride Month should or should not be celebrated), or if you have any possible Outlook t-shirt design ideas, always feel free to email us: outlookonradiowestern@gmail.com
Check out the article quoted in this episode from The New York Times by friend of the show M. Leona Godin: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/16/opinion/blind-ableist-language.html
And listen to our recent appearance on the AT Banter podcast which we highly encourage you subscribe to here: https://atbanter.com/2022/07/06/at-banter-episode-292-brian-and-kerry-kijewski
“Even a blind pig finds a truffle now and then” —Medical technician from Awaiting Tiresias
Awaiting Tiresias is the short film, loosely based on our guest’s story of disability and gender, this week on Outlook On Radio Western.
Dr. Heather(H) May is a director and professor of theatre at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. May shares from their recognized platform of privilege as a white faculty member on the lands of the Haudenosaunee and on the intersectionalities of disability, gender, and race among other identities.
Who is this Tiresias character anyway?
On the show this week,, we discuss that along with retinitis pigmentosa (rp) and the complicated business of both diagnosis and accommodation, the spectrums of blindness and gender, and how it was to create the audio descriptions for the multiple projects through theatre and filmmaking.
May (they/them) describes themself as: Scholar, artivist, professor, director, collaborator, dreamer, and true believer in the power of theatre to transform lives.
Go here to view Awaiting Tiresias, the short biographical film we discuss on Outlook:
https://vimeo.com/719429242
And to find out more about them, Awaiting Tiresias, and other projects such as a retelling of the classic Hansel and Gretel fairytale and a series of puppetry skits about the 2020 US elections, go to H’s website:
https://www.drheathermay.com
It’s graduation season and our guest this week is a recent Masters of Counselling Psychology graduate at University of Victoria in British Columbia on Vancouver Island.
We met Kyla Berry when she attended the 2022 National All-Virtual Canadian Federation of the Blind Convention in May and invited her on Outlook.
On the show this week, we talk to Berry about how she became interested in counselling, coming from a biology background at home. We hear more about what two out of three on this episode have, an artificial eye. Guess which two.
We learn about Kyla’s years of study, about the options and accessibility at a smaller program and campus, and what she wants to do with her degree going forward.
So much to learn from her and plenty more left to get into on future episode appearances with us. Kyla Berry brings us along on the upds and downs, but we didn’t even get time to go too far into her other medical conditions, but as school is out for summer in most places, it’s important to remember that many students manage to get through their education while living through/with multiple medical emergencies and chronic conditions, no matter how long it takes.
We’re back for a Mixed Bag Part II with all variations of Father’s Day, already halfway through 2022.
This week on Outlook, we talk bat caves and finding braille at the ROM, yet not on university bathrooms, and the complicated business of the travel urge,
Kerry tells of a new author friend named Nicole who visited her and Brian and Kerry together read a statement by Penny Leclair (a guest from last year) on June being National Defblind Awareness Month.
Kerry also shares about some of the presentations at the recent Virtual Braille Symposium put on by Braille Literacy Canada.
Right around what is the longest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere, on seasons and friends, old and new.
Check out Kerry’s Story featured on the Kidney Foundations’ website:
https://kidney.ca/Support/Kidney-Community/Stories/ON/Kerry-s-Story
And check out Nicole’s website for her book:
http://emptyuterus.org
It’s been a while since our last Mixed Bag Monday episode with only us two, but we’re back again with our mixture of topics.
On Outlook this week, we talk unforeseen poles leading to ambulance rides and stitches, reflecting on our experience of kidney failure with a recent study on childhood medical trauma done out of the B.C. Children’s Hospital, and continual election day inaccessibility during Ontario’s June 2nd’s provincial elections.
(Also, there’s talk of Luminato Festival Toronto. It ends after a two week run, but there’s always lots of interesting arts and artist info available anytime.)
All month long, (all of 2022 actually), Kerry will be spotlight celebrating marking her 25th year with a kidney from our father so stay tuned for more to come. While we’re realizing more and more the impact medical treatments have on children, including us at those early ages, organ transplant has made both our lives way better.
Here’s a link to the study we speak about in this episode:
https://bcchr.ca/news/mental-toll-organ-transplant-children-and-families
And check out Luminato Festival’s website:
https://luminatofestival.com
June is Father’s Day month in North America, but this year is a special one - featuring a father/daughter connection like no other.
This week, on Outlook, we speak with our father, for his debut on the show, as June 5, 2022 marks 25 years since he gave a kidney to Kerry when she was a teenager.
We discuss themes of ancestry and family with our father, Bob, whose parents were immigrants/settlers in Ontario, Canada after World War II.
Our father has always instilled in us the value of family and knowing where we come from. This week, we hear from him about being raised by immigrant parents, being the youngest brother and son, and about how the start of his partnership in marriage happened with our mother, how they’ve been a team ever since, like when they discovered their two youngest children had been born with a genetic eye condition nobody saw coming.
So when we were both diagnosed with kidney disease in our youth, both our parents stepped up to donate a kidney and his is still working as Kerry’s kidney, a quarter of a century later.
So join us to hear about the kind of solid man and provider our father has always been and his outlook on what his parental role has been, along with the things that have made him who he is. It’s a celebration of fathers for the month of June.
And also check out this archived interview we did with his other half, our mother, for Mother’s Day back in 2019: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2019-05-13-mothers-day-feat-our-mom-janet/id1527876739?i=1000488226654
Singer/song writer and author Heather Hutchison now, will think of herself during the toughest moments of these last few years, as if it were another girl entirely:
“She’s been so mean to herself for so long. And if we talked to our friends the way we talk to ourselves, we wouldn’t have any.”
It’s been six months since we spoke with Hutchison about her memoir, released a year ago: Holding On by Letting Go.
Since then, the January 28 release of her new EP, If I Could came out, a sort of companion to the book, a soundtrack to the memoir and her experiences in a psychiatric hospital during Covid.
During Heather’s second time appearing on Outlook, we discuss her presence on TikTok since the release of her book, on the creation of If I Could and its four songs (+ one radio edit), and the great need for more self compassion for us all.
At one time, Heather thought she was done making music, but after everything she would go on to write about in Holding On by Letting Go, she would again one day find herself sitting down at the piano. Join us this week with Hutchison as she performs two of the songs found on this EP live from her piano and her Vancouver Island home studio, live into the Radio Western studios.
Find more about Heather, social media links included, by visiting her at her website: https://heather-hutchison.com
And check out Heather's new EP, If I Could, on all streaming services or purchase on Bandcamp. Nothing beats supporting new music and if you buy from Bandcamp you'll receive a sample from Heather's memoir which was the inspiration for the EP: https://heatherhutchison.bandcamp.com
Hanna Leavitt is an author and blindness historian whose life passion is in creating a world with words and she is our guest this week on Outlook.
We met Hanna through the podcast she co-hosts called Triple Vision, all about the past, present, and future of blindness in Canada.
We have a lively chat about the brain tumour that was the cause of the damage to her eyes, the importance of finding out about our own blindness history here in this country and the community and culture of blindness (depending on the decade we’re talking and how blindness was viewed over the years), and end off with a bit of spring gardening talk.
The Disability Experience: Working Towards Belonging, with illustrations by Belle Wuthrich and put out through Orca Publishing in British Columbia, is her book, released in April of last year. It makes an important resource for young people and should be in libraries and schools to share the disability experience with everyone so they grow up with understanding and compassion for just another way of being in the world, one that could affect any one of us at any time. Leavitt aims to reach people to possibly change the prevailing outlook on blindness that still exists out there, addressing questions many are too afraid to ask.
You can find her book everywhere books are sold and online here: https://www.orcabook.com/The-Disability-Experience
Check her out on her website: https://hannaloraleavitt.com
And you can find Triple Vision here: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/triple-vision/id1589475286
Last fall, Kerry participated (as community consultant of lived experience) in a virtual Inclusive Design Multisensory Museum course through Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD U). The instructor of that course was Melissa Smith, who works at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) as Assistant Curator, Access and Learning.
This week on Outlook we speak with Melissa and two students who took the course about what was covered throughout and about the multisensory translation projects the students were tasked with creating from artworks available at the AGO, all while figuring out how to adapt their work during Covid times.
We discuss art as a human right and how inclusivity is different in museums and galleries in different parts of the world, some of the challenges and opportunities of translating the artworks virtually, and Melissa shares some of the guest speakers she invited to present which offer as many diverse perspectives as possible.
We hear from students Parth Shah and Kyrie Robinson about their chosen art piece, a 60s sculpture by Claes Oldenburg titled Ice Cream Soda and Cookie and about all they gained by working, utilizing a multisensory approach to translating this sculpture, along with co-design and collective collaboration throughout.
A sculpture so good, you could almost eat it. What memories does ice cream and a cookie bring up for each of us?
As our show originally airs on Radio Western, we also mention how Melissa got her Masters in Art History from University of Western Ontario and we also give another shoutout of a tribute to recently deceased Outlook guest and longtime advocate John Rae whom Smith knew for several years after he’d reached out to her about accessibility at the AGO.
For more on Parth and Kyrie’s translation: https://ago.ca/events/multisensory-moments-claes-oldenburgs-ice-cream-soda-cookie
And for a wider look at the AGO’s multisensory offerings, check out their website here: https://ago.ca/learn/multisensory-museum
Finally, check out interviews with Melissa Smith and John Rae on an episode of Toronto’s Balance For Blind Adults podcast Living Blind: https://www.balancefba.org/podcast/season-2-living-blind-podcast/
Banter: the playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks. (quips, ribbing, witticisms)
A banter based conversation is happening this week (with more than just the two of us) and we like that - the wittier the better.
This week on Outlook, we speak with Rob Mineault, Ryan Fleury, Steve Barclay and Lis Malone who host the podcast AT Banter, some of whom are blind and visually impaired and others not.
We discuss old timey blind tech from the nineties, how smartphones and other modern technologies have revolutionized things for blind users, and the world of podcasting as it’s evolved, including Lis’s own podcasts from the past few years: Breaking Dishes and Access Point.
Disability advocacy as passion project and/or mission, diversity and intersectionality, and the way all for hosts of the AT Banter crew share in the division of labour for their show.
We hear the inside stories with these four, (Lis the newest to join the bunch), about which of them is nicknamed “Pinball” and why and about the origins of “the Guitar Dungeon”. While they start off with experience and knowledge in the assistive tech arena, this podcast is overall about the witty banter going on between friends and colleagues, discussing serious topics with guests and each other while also having fun.
Check out AT Banter here:
https://atbanter.com
And for more on the assistive tech side of things:
https://canasstech.com
During National Volunteer appreciation Week, held every year at this time in April, we’re pleased to feature one of the kindest, friendliest people we know who’s volunteered for years.
We first met this guest at a Canadian Federation of the Blind convention out in B.C. and we greatly appreciate her support of this show. This week on Outlook, we speak with Nancy Gill, a mother and now newly a grandmother who’s had to learn to manage and adapt to Usher’s Syndrome throughout her life. Usher’s is a condition causing both blindness and deafness.
She tells us about the supports she didn’t receive when she was in school as a child, learning braille in her sixties, and the complicated parent/child relationship. We hear about her love of cooking, gardening, and her new OrCam reader which she can use to do both those things more accessibly.
Disability has, historically, and still does bring with it challenges (barriers society puts in the way), feelings of denial, and feelings of shame. We, as blind people, need to openly discuss it to eliminate it, how we can all feel useful. Gill goes through life with a sense of humour and outgoing outlook.
We discuss the outlooks we have and choose to share and how we learn from others and Nancy’s outlook is one of giving back and getting out there. She is doing this with a new senior’s support group. Check out the following link to learn more about her Blind/DeafBlind Seniors National Roundtables . They have a new intake open right now and are highly recommended for any blind seniors out there who would like to join:
https://cobd.ca/programs/roundtables/#seniors
And for more on Nancy’s story, check out Kerry’s article featuring her in The Blind Canadian magazine:
https://www.cfb.ca/the-blind-canadian-volume-20-december-2021?id=11
We spoke to this guest on a Sunday night/Monday morning, all the way from Australia.
This week on Outlook we hear from author, mentor, public speaker Maribel Steel about motherhood while losing her sight, about her book Blindness For Beginners, and she even gave us a demonstration of a handy little gadget called the PenFriend.
With her guide dog by her side, Steel is always open to the possibilities, acceptance of disability and those same endless possibilities we all want for our lives.
For more info and to purchase her book, check out Steel's official website: https://maribelsteel.com/
We’re back for our first Monday Mixed Bag show, live in studio, since early February.
This week on Outlook, we make sure to mix in the silly stuff, the light stuff, in with some of the more serious, the sad things like the death of a recent guest, John Rae. Just goes to show, don’t put off something to next week that you could do today.
We share a braille alphabet song to kick things off and discuss the upcoming We’re With U benefit concert for blind Ukrainians being put on by the blindness community. And from Brian’s live musical performances to fantasy baseball, and rounding things off with a little old cellphone grab story, there’s no shortage of things to talk about.
We dedicate this episode to John Rae, a tireless advocate who made a difference with the work he did for blindness in Canada and beyond. RIP
For more info and links to stream We're With U, the blind performing artists' Virtual Benefit Concert for blind Ukrainians happening April 16 at 2 PM EST: https://mushroomfm.com/withyou
Listen to John's recent appearance on Outlook: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2022-03-07-think-global-act-local-with-john-rae/id1527876739?i=1000553477466
And check out The Braille Alphabet Song by Jack Hartmann: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT_dD7tEIEg
Alexa was out window shopping during her final year of studying fashion in Toronto when she spotted a beaded jacket and had an “Aha moment.”
Alexa Jovanovic loved fashion as a little girl, but it wasn’t until she studied it in school that she learned about a topic not yet trending on social media, not yet a common thing to see diversity boards and plans factored in everywhere, but she thought braille could both look aesthetically appealing and be functional as well. Her final project became the research and launching of Aille Design, now expanding across North America.
Today on Outlook, we speak with its founder about the reactions she got from people when she first explained what she was doing (the persistent misconception that blind people don’t care what they’re wearing or what they look like), the research and development that went into her braille beaded clothing with consultations from the blindness community itself, and the wider issue of disability consumerism and representation in the fashion industry.
Aille Design, pronounced like “eye” or “I” as in the personal, even has the braille character “i” represented by dots 2 and 4 of the braille alphabet.
Check them out and order some clothes on their website: https://ailledesign.com
And find Aille Design on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ailledesign/
When our guest this week was a child, she’d follow a string her parents had strung up for her, tied to poles on the road between her home and that of her grandmother. She was encouraged to walk the route, but it wasn’t until later that she saw the value in the mobility cane in lieu of one.
This week on Outlook we speak with star athlete Janet Erikson who competed in the Geilo 1980 Paralympic Winter Games.
Skiing and cross country in her mainstream high school, but Janet had grown up in rural Manitoba until the CNIB visited to offer guidance and the family moved out west so she could attend Jericho Hill School for the Deaf and Blind which closed over 25 years ago.
This week we talk of her somewhat sheltered childhood as the baby of the family, about the shock of attending a residential school for blind and deaf children away from her loved ones and community, and we hear how she has taken back her own life and shown that blindness can be empowering rather than demoralizing.
We can all do with a large dose of Erikson’s optimism today. With the years of experience she’s had. We, here on Outlook, are grateful to guests like her, for the sharing of her story with us.
Co-host Kerry was a sensitivity/authenticity reader/consultant on a recent project, a picture book published by Toronto’s children’s book publishers’ Kids Can Press.
“My City Speaks” is a book for young readers, a delightful exploration of a cityscape, through the perspective of a little blind girl. In it, she travels her city, experiencing the sounds and smells along the way.
This week, on Outlook, we’re speaking with the author of the book, Darren Lebeuf and its illustrator, Ashley Barron. They tell us about their author/illustrator roles on this project (and the other two books in the series) and the discussion evolves into one about how blindness and disability have been included (or not included historically) in literature and children’s literature more specifically.
Pick up a copy of “My City Speaks” in either hard cover, ebook, and in print/braille versions, along with the other two books in the series (“My Forest is Green and ”My Ocean is Blue), all available on the Kids Can Press website here: https://kidscanpress.com//
Check out Ashley on her website: http://www.ashleybarron.com and on Instagram @_ashleybarron_
And find Darren on his website: http://landoflebeef.com and on Instagram @darrenlebeuf
According to John Rae, it was 1975 when he jumped, feet first, into the world of legislative advocacy, community organizing, and activism in the blindness community, first with something called Blind Organizing Ontario with Self-Help Tactics (BOOST) which evolved into the Alliance for the Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC).
Rae has lived all his life as a Torontonian, fighting human rights cases, and working as a civil servant, taking early retirement where he’s been able to focus on lending his knowledge, expertise, and lived experience as a blind man to various causes.
Today on Outlook, we talk to John about the importance for blind people to travel and experience the smells and sounds of other places, his educational journey from Toronto to Windsor, and how vital it is to have mentors who can show us the possibilities available to us as blind people as there were multiple career options Rae didn’t feel were accessible to him years ago.
He shares his thoughts on the variety of educational settings he went through, such as his time in both integrated settings and what were known as sight saving classes and at what was then known as the Ontario School for the Blind in Brantford in the 60’s.
We discuss the disconnect between the medical profession and its blind patients, the hesitancy to deal with politicians and how being seen in settings of all kinds is how we’ll finally be taken into account, and John’s issues with the dangers of eBikes.
There’s elections coming up in Ontario in 2022 and our issues need to be addressed, but how do we keep up the energy for advocacy? We look to the years of life experience John Rae has accumulated, the importance of finding balance and planning for the bigger picture.
The recent trucker convoys, taking over streets, this has had a clogging up impact on people with disabilities and with blindness specifically. As the pandemic begins to ease, all around us, John Rae is thinking about how we can “build back better” for everyone going forward here in Ontario, and in Canada and beyond.
Send John an email, thepenguin@rogers.com
And check out an article from 1979 to get a glimpse into some of the history discussed in this episode: https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1979/1/15/the-blind-speaking-for-the-blind
It’s not hard to get this grouping together, to talk chocolate, so we were thrilled to speak with Ramya Amuthan and Julia Cho about precisely that.
This week on Outlook, we speak with Julia, Marketing Manager of Canadian chocolate company Purdys Chocolatier about their newest reveal, the braille box, which was released to massive acclaim back at Christmas. Also, with her second appearance on our show, we hear from Ramya, on air personality and co-host of Accessible Media Inc.’s Kelly and Company about her role as consultant on the product’s development from the visually impaired community perspective.
We learn more about how the braille box was envisioned and executed and speak about the wider issues of universal design. Ramya shares what it was like to give her input on the braille and other features, including tactile markers and the choice to use grade one braille for this special assorted box of chocolates and its accompanying braille legend.
Ramya also discusses what it’s like to be able to pick one’s favourite from a selection of mixed chocolates, when normally blind people don’t know what they might be getting when they choose a piece unless they ask someone who is sighted. Some may like the unknown adventure of that, the risk, if you will, of possibly biting into a fruit filling when that’s the last thing you wanted. Do you spit out the piece or swallow it down and hope for the best next time?
Well, Purdys has produced a solution for that for blind chocolate lovers and that’s no small thing, as Ramya shares in this episode.
From the feelings chocolate can evoke in many of us to what Julia, in her role at Purdys has learned about inclusive design practices and the access needs for blind people specifically, this discussion was a delight and we, on Outlook, are pleased to feature and support the braille box and Purdys, Canadian and an all around beautiful product.
Purchase the Purdys Braille Box here: https://www.purdys.com/braille-box-18-pc
Check out the promotion video featuring Ramya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBEDNQXv62U
And listen to Ramya’s first appearance on Outlook: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-03-29-discussion-with-ramya-amuthan-from/id1527876739?i=1000515098520
Four siblings, left to play together in an empty Canadian hockey arena, while their father guards a net on the ice down below. When the youngest sibling, a boy, sticks his hand up inside one of the candy machines, the three others must soap their little brother’s hand to pry him loose.
From that carefree sibling foursome in childhood to a Family Day celebrated over Zoom - approaching, pushing forty together and we’re still having fun.
They did it once and then agreed to do it again. Celebrating Family Day 2022 with returning guests to Outlook, our two older siblings, Kim and Paul, returning after their debut on the show for Family Day of last year.
We talk bulldog and bunny updates, work/life balance, and the aging that creeps up on you when you least expected.
For even more background on our two older, sighted siblings, check out their first appearance on the show with us from one year ago: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-02-15-family-day-with-the-kijewski-siblings/id1527876739?i=1000509546236
Author of novella Dial E for Endearment, Heidi Gray McGill says, “…When I wrote this story, I purposed in my heart to shed light on blindness in a lighthearted, relatable fashion.”
The heroine of Dial E for Endearment, Everly Johnson, is a radio call-in host in the real life town of Blowing Rock, North Carolina. She’s a daughter and a friend. She may be blind, but she does not get rescued in this sweet contemporary Christian romance story. She does the rescuing, always giving advice on love on air while looking for it in her own life, in learning to let go and forgive her mother, and making friends with Max the dog along the way.
Heidi Gray McGill describes herself as growing up a pk (paster’s kid) to today when being a grandmother is where she finds joy in experiencing things anew through her grandchildren’s eyes.
McGill is now down to five percent peripheral vision with rp (retinitis pigmentosa) and she tells us about what she misses, driving, while finding value in being able to share a simple car ride with someone. She tells us about her life with a white cane, going all the way to China with the safety a cane in the hand provides. We three talk tree-in-the-face moments and wet floor sign encounters.
We speak to Heidi on Outlook this week, during Low Vision Awareness Month in the US and White Cane Week in Canada, about fighting fear, finding faith, and what it means to her to find her joy and how she has Everly seek the same.
During February, when you purchase Dial E for Endearment in ebook or paperback formats, 50% of the proceeds will go to Metrolina Association for the Blind. MAB is the non-profit that provided support, counselling, life skills, and white cane training when Heidi received her Retinitis Pigmentosa diagnosis.
Purchase Dial E for Endearment: https://books2read.com/b/b5XzQk
Connect with Heidi on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorHeidiGrayMcGill
And check her out on her blog here: https://heidimcgill822089357.wordpress.com
From January and Braille Literacy Month to February, the first full week in February, and White Cane Week (WCW) here in Canada - we on Outlook are back, live in studio after January and Omicron.
This week we’re talking about white canes, the shame and embarrassment and also the freedom and safety they provide those of us who use them.
We review the guests we’ve had on Outlook already this year, including the author of a memoir called Love is Blind. We briefly discuss our feelings on common expressions like that.
Also this week, we want to highlight two of the most recent episodes of another podcast we listen to and greatly respect. Talk Description to Me is a podcast created by two friends in Toronto, one sighted and one blind, who discuss the visual world and our world’s current events, focusing on image description for blind people’s benefit. JJ and Christine make a great pair on air and lately they spoke about fire and about the trucker convoy.
So we discuss how we think of fire, from the warmth and romance of candles and fires in fireplaces or outdoors, all the way up to massive and destructive forest fires. One of us has had enough sight, in the past, to see what a candle flame or a camp fire look like, while the other sees light and has only ever seen light and dark.
Being that February is Black History Month, Kerry has a story of a man from history she discovered while doing research for a piece of writing she is doing, a man named George (Washington) Jones, aka George Gravy who came to Canada and eventually made his way to the town of Woodstock in Southwestern Ontario in the 20s and would become our unofficial town crier. So check us and the show out this week, for more on why this relates to Outlook On Radio Western and what we do here.
Not to mention, while we do end this week’s episode on a tough note, with the most recent episode of Talk Description on the upheaval right now in Canadian society, and our thoughts on what it means when the media uses such hyperbolic headlines as “Dancing On the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa.” How when some blind hear that, they may not realize often it’s an expression, a metaphorical action rather than a literal act. Blind people hear the horns of the truckers on the news, but don’t get to see the signs being carried and posted, for example, leaving us out on some of what others are getting. Yet even what one person sees on a story in the media is never exactly the same as the next person.
Yes, here on Outlook we talk about the hard things, as well as chocolate. (Hint to an upcoming episode later this month featuring Purdys Chocolatier, their new braille box, a perfect gift with Valentine’s Day coming up.)
Learn more about the town crier Kerry discusses: https://woodstocknewsgroup.weebly.com/town-crier.html
Give a listen to the recent episodes of Talk Description to Me: https://talkdescriptiontome.buzzsprout.com
And the perfect gift for a blind person for Valentine’s Day: https://www.purdys.com/braille-box-18-pc
Time for another Ketchup On Pancakes annual by-the-fireside lookback on the year that was 2021 and a brief look to what 2022 might have in store, both in the world and in our own journeys.
KOP is the podcast we started out with before deciding to do one on advocacy specifically and we review some of the highlights of last year, Sometimes we record these yearly shows in the final days of an outgoing year. Other times, like this one, we end up recording our musings a few days, up to a few weeks into the new year. This time, we’re into the second month of 2022 and yet we’re once more back, us two brother/sister hosts, along with our always reliable and helpful fire stoker.
In this episode, we discuss standout events from 2021 in the world, specifically the rollout of vaccines for COVID-19 and the dangerous actions of January 6th. In our own lives, we go over such things as the planning and hosting we did (as Outlook) for the 2021 Canadian Federation of the Blind’s National Convention which was all held virtually for the first time, the work we did (Kerry’s writing being published on The Rumpus literary journal) regarding a June book release called There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness by Dr. M. Leona Godin, and the growth and attention Brian’s music radio show Chin Music received.
We look towards the coming year to end the show, capping things off with our regular segment "Cassette Clip of the Week" where we feature recorded messages Kerry and our father exchanged between hospitals across the street from one another in Toronto, in 1997, when Kerry received one of his kidneys. Now, as 2022 is twenty-five years since that momentous occasion, we thought it would be the perfect way to ring in such a special year and anniversary.
The Talk Description To Me episode about fire mentioned at the start of the episode can be heard here: https://talkdescriptiontome.buzzsprout.com/1136756/9969681-episode-88-fire
To learn more about Indigenous cultures, check out this CBC podcast we mentioned called Telling Our Twisted Histories: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/906-telling-our-twisted-histories
Read Kerry’s excellent interview with Leona Godin on The Rumpus: https://therumpus.net/2021/08/the-rumpus-interview-with-m-leona-godin/
And listen to archived recordings of Brian’s radio show Chin Music: https://www.mixcloud.com/chrwchinmusic/
Ruth Vallis once gave a presentation to a master’s degree class studying to be teachers of the blind at Western University: “if you are teaching your blind children to read and produce Braille, I congratulate you! However, if you are not, then you are a failure as a teacher!”
And some male in the audience shouted back: “Controversial, which is why we now mark Braille Literacy Month every January.
This week, we speak with Ruth E. Vallis about her new book Love Is Blind. Ruth was born with a connective tissue disorder, including a type of juvenile arthritis and blindness. From an early age she dreamed of working in healthcare, in a hospital setting, and she went out and made it happen.
Vallis grew up on the hectic streets of Toronto and went off on her own when she was accepted into a program, at a physiotherapy school in England producing blind and visually impaired physios.
We talk the essential need for braille literacy, on her talent as an athlete (skating/tandem cycling/competitive golf), and her experiences in both the working and the guide dog worlds.
An episode about a physiotherapist named Ruth and a woman (a mother) named Peach who taught her daughter how to be strong like her.
Check out Ruth’s website for more info and to purchase the book: https://www.ruthvallis.com
He was our final live, in-studio interview in February of 2020, right before the whole world changed with this pandemic. We had him on to discuss the guide dog discrimination he’d experienced at a gas station in western Canada while on a road trip to celebrate becoming qualified as a lawyer.
Ben Fulton is back with us on Outlook, at the start of 2022, to discuss the human rights case he’s bringing to the Ontario Human Rights Commission on the grounds that he was discriminated against, while looking for student shared accommodations, after showing up to meet landlords. Once they saw his white cane or learned he is blind, suddenly their rooms were no longer available or they were worried it would be a liability to rent the room to a blind person outright. We, as blind people, are constantly having to prove we are not liabilities, that we don’t all constantly fall down stairs.
There is currently a housing affordability crisis in Canada and minorities, students, they are the most vulnerable in such situations. This stuff happens far too often and though Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects minority groups such as those with disabilities, some landlords have found a loophole when it comes to shared housing accommodations where a kitchen and other facilities are being shared.
Ben is working with the Canadian Federation of the Blind (CFB) to put out a call to action, to collect the stories from anyone who has been discriminated against, from any marginalized group whether that’s disabilities like blindness or race, religion, gender, etc.
Fulton is a lawyer who specializes in human rights (a key part of what we advocate for on this podcast). He works with clients, in criminal and civil cases, to deal with minor offences which have baring on both jobs and travel. He works on alternative justice instead of the out-of-date punitive model and, with his own situation, he’s fighting for legislation change for greater access for all.
So tune in to hear his story, to learn from a qualified legal expert what the law actually says, and to find out how you might be able to help him create a more accessible and fair world from here on out.
This episode originally aired on January 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and King famously said: “ Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere . We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
If you feel you’ve been discriminated against when looking for accommodations, please help out Ben’s case by sharing your experience through the CFB website: https://www.cfb.ca/discrimination-in-shared-housing
To find out more about him and the legal services he offers to clients, check out his website: https://benlaw.ca
To watch his presentation on this topic at CFB’s 2021 convention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny0EYPLXxEQ
And to hear Ben’s first appearance on Outlook from 2020: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2020-02-17-interview-with-ben-fulton-on-guide/id1527876739?i=1000488226657
Welcome back to Outlook in 2022. We may be recording from home once again, as COVID-19 and specifically Omicron are prominent right now in Ontario, Canada, but we are nothing if not flexible.
On the first new show of this new year, we begin by emphasizing why we (two blind siblings who’ve had organ transplants) are once again mostly isolating while this latest surge crests. We know what it’s like to be in ICU, to have the other there, and this is our generation’s world war, with the healthcare and essential workers as the soldiers, and we, once more, make our declaration on what we all need to do to work together on this to lighten the load for hospitals.
We share a bit about our family’s Christmas, a Christmas and New Year’s that did not go as planned this year, with Covid finally getting a foothold with our loved ones. We had to alter holiday plans this time and again we made the best of it, but we’re glad to be back for a whole new year of this podcast.
We discuss those who’ve passed away in recent weeks: Desmond Tutu, Betty White, Sidney Poitierr, all legends in the things they achieved and the mark they all made, whether it was speaking out on homophobia in religion or the representation of women on the small screen or racial progress on the big. Right down to the loss of a musician, from PEI and band The East Pointers, Koady Chaisson, co-host Kerry’s own age, gone too soon. From social justice and progress, to the entertainment and music world. In White’s case, we air an old and forgotten commercial starring Betty as a blind woman, explaining to an ignorant cab driver why a guide dog is permitted in his cab, totally worth the listen.
Also, it’s January and we never let this first month of each new year go by without acknowledging braille and its importance in our lives and for the freedom and empowerment of blind people. This past weekend it was the first of four online events put on by Braille Literacy Canada (BLC), the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB), the CNIB Foundation, the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA), the National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS), and the Provincial Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired (PRCVI).
The first of these events to be held was a panel entitled Looking Through the Crystal Ball: Innovations in Braille Technology for the 21st Century and Beyond and those on this panel represented a broad range of ages and backgrounds, but all recalling the braille technologies they remember fondly, those they use most now, and what they’d like to see in the future including more durable devices. Even subjects such as tactile graphics were discussed at length.
So join us as we take Outlook into 2022 to see what we get up to, starting with a blog post/interview with BookNet Canada which was published on January 4th, inventor Louis Braille’s birthday: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/1/4/how-to-improve-braille-accessibility-in-canada
For more information on Braille Literacy Month and to register for the events discussed on this show: https://nnels.ca/world-braille-day
BLC on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTmbEZuyVkV49OOo3SZ4c_g
Check out Wintergreen by The East Pointers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P05YtS75gR4
And the Betty White commercial can be found here: https://www.seeingeye.org/assets/mp3/betty-white-taxi-cab-psa.mp3
Taking a bit of a break at the end of one year and the beginning of the next, but we have some bonus materials we hadn’t planned on airing, but it was too good speaking with author Dr. M. Leona Godin again and we had to share.
On Outlook this week and last, we’re replaying a Zoom interview co-host Kerry did with Dr. Godin about her June 1st, 2021 release of her cultural history, an exploration of blindness throughout the last few centuries, up to modern times. It’s about what sighted people think about blindness, in the tellings in literature and in cultural and historical examinations or lack-there-of and what blind people say when given a voice.
We spoke a lot about her book, There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness throughout the second half of 2021 and we’re ending the year and beginning the next with it again here and now.
Kerry was preparing an interview for online print literary journal The Rumpus and planned to use the Zoom recording for her notes when writing it up. It turned out, the casual yet informative discussion, taking place on June 24th, 2021, would be an audio basis for the print piece.
So check out the conversation between Kerry and Leona, Part Two of two parts. (And check out Part One from last week.)
Learn more about the book here:
http://thereplanteyes.com/about-the-book-and-the-author/
To check out the online literary journal, Aromatica Poetica that Leona runs, which explores the arts and sciences of smell and taste:
https://www.aromaticapoetica.com
And for Kerry's interview in The Rumpus this is all based on:
https://therumpus.net/2021/08/the-rumpus-interview-with-m-leona-godin/
Taking a bit of a break at the end of one year and the beginning of the next, but we have some bonus materials we hadn’t planned on airing. It was too good speaking with author Dr. M. Leona Godin again so we had to share.
On Outlook this week and next, we’re replaying a Zoom interview co-host Kerry did with Dr. Godin about her June 1st, 2021 book release examining cultural history, an exploration of blindness throughout the last few centuries, up to modern times. It’s about what sighted people think about blindness, in the tellings in literature and in cultural and historical examinations or lack-there-of and what blind people say when given a voice.
We spoke a lot about this book, There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness throughout the second half of 2021 and we’re ending the year with it again here and now.
Kerry was preparing an interview for online print literary journal The Rumpus and planned to use the Zoom recording for her notes when writing it up. It turned out, the casual yet informative discussion, taking place on June 24th, would be an audio basis for the print piece.
So check out the conversation between Kerry and Leona, Part One of two parts. (Second part to follow.)
Learn more about the book here: http://thereplanteyes.com/about-the-book-and-the-author/
And read Kerry's interview from The Rumpus: https://therumpus.net/2021/08/the-rumpus-interview-with-m-leona-godin/
We’ve been back, doing Outlook in studio for the fourth quarter of the year, with our final official live episode rounding out these twelve months, second year with COVID-19 in our lives. This one was a musical themed episode to finish off 2021 in style and in creative expression, after recently Brian having Kerry on his music show Chin Music, from music to advocacy with songs from Ski Patrol and recent guest Heather Hutchison.
We review some of what Outlook got up to in 2021, (year of the vaccine rollout) including the first attempt at live music to begin the year, last January, with Sky Mundell playing his soothing piano sounds to help us celebrate 100 episodes of this show which we officially marked back in March with our 100 Episode Spectacular and marking the podcast that preceded this one, Ketchup On Pancakes which turned five back during the summer. We had family time with our older siblings, on Family Day, going on to celebrate all April long with other blind sibling pairs like us, the month of National Siblings Day. And we were the hosts of the first all virtual national Canadian Federation of the Blind Convention, an event months in the prepping and then we gathered all the highlights into a two part convention special.
This year was the year of There Plant Eyes on Outlook, a book released on June 1 and led to Kerry doing an interview with the author, M. Leona Godin, which was published in print on The Rumpus literary journal back from August. (Find multiple episodes of Outlook involving There Plant Eyes discussions.)
This year we spoke about deaf-blindness, about Indigenous disability issues with the CEO of the British Columbia Aboriginal Network On Disability Society (BCANDS), and we spoke with friends, both new and old, to share their outlooks too. What a year, from book reviews to the special accessible Christmas card Kerry received from her yoga teacher to cap it all off.
Outlook in 2021 meant exploring tough topics, strongly needing attention, such as the CNIB’s 100 year monopoly here in Canada, sexual and emotional abuse and misconduct in blindness orgs and at related events and training centres, and mental health and suicide. (More hard but necessary subject explorations to come next year.)
With 45 new episodes this year and 39 guest interviews, we finish 2021 on episode 140 as we produce our wrap up show before a much needed break and we’re tying up loose ends, with a great big Christmas beau.
Outlook wishing for loads of peace and joy for our listeners, over the holidays and into the new year. See you again, for all new shows, in 2022.
Music played in this episode includes “Reason To Stay” by Heather Hutchison who you can listen to and support here: https://heatherhutchison.bandcamp.com “Lighting Up A Dark Season” by Ski Patrol available here: http://soundcloud.com/skipatrolmusic/ski-patrol-lighting-up-a-dark-season And listen to Kerry's recent appearance on Brian's show Chin Music: https://www.mixcloud.com/chrwchinmusic/chin-music-2021-12-17-guest-request-sets-kerry-kijewski/
Recently, after Becoming Helen Keller on PBS American Masters aired for October’s Disability Employment Awareness Month, we asked for thoughts (from sighted and blind friends alike) on Facebook on what they grew up hearing and learning about her and one local friend had a rather intense response; he’s not alone amongst blind people either by the way. Chris commented: “It saddens me that as a community, we don't have any other role models to talk about besides Helen bloody Keller.”
We at Outlook propose that this is not Keller’s fault but many people with disabilities such as blindness/deafness/or deaf-blindness feel similarly to Chris.
As a writer and activist, she did speak out more than many women and other white people of her time when, as a female with disabilities, it would have been so easy for her to stay hidden and quiet on the major issues of the day. So while those were different times in so many ways, in science and technology, we’re still trying to find our voices and be heard in the frenzied chaos of the 21st century.
We wanted to address the woman behind the image that history, media, and popular culture haven’t let be who she truly was, a person with strong convictions and imperfections all at the same time, rather than the virginal, angelic miracle she’s been known as for nearly 150 years.
This show is for those who missed the documentary or if you haven’t seen “The Miracle Worker” or or if you have and you know nothing of her life after age eight - we share highlights from the PBS documentary including the words of Helen herself (in quotes and a recording of her actual voice) and a list of some of the controversial events and stances from her lifetime and her independent perspective and spirit along with our sibling take on who she was and what she meant, to those in her lifetime and in ours.
We are giving Helen Keller her proper dues so we can move forward to sharing the outlooks of a more diverse community of voices in episodes of our show to come.
For more on Becoming Helen Keller, full transcript from the documentary and lists of all those involved in making it accessible, go here:
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/becoming-helen-keller-full-episode-with-extra-accessibility-features/18856/
Over 1 billion people, or approximately 15 percent of the world’s population, have disabilities. While no global data exists regarding indigenous persons with disabilities, available statistics show that indigenous peoples are disproportionately likely to experience disability in comparison to the general population. Indigenous persons with disabilities often experience multiple forms of discrimination and face barriers to the full enjoyment of their rights, based on their indigenous status and also on disability.
In Canada, around 22 percent of the population have disabilities and around 80 percent of us will have a disability at some point and, even if you don’t identify as having one now, disability is the one minority you (or a loved one) can easily become a part of. Indigenous people are living with the continued results of this country’s history and present with colonialism, discrimination and prejudice which continues to touch First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities yet today. This is one thing, but add disability to the mix and the barriers only pile on from there.
The British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society (BCANDS) filled the need, in the 203 First Nations communities in British Columbia for more assistance and awareness. They’ve been addressing the needs of many on the unique barriers Indigenous peoples are up against in Canada and around the world by starting provincially. In 2015 with designating November as Indigenous Disability Awareness Month (IDAm) and they are making a difference and growing the reach of it all.
This week on a stripped down Outlook with no theme music, we speak with BCAND’s CEO, Neil Belanger about how they’ve gone from provincial, to bringing other provinces into the fold, and are even now hearing from other Indigenous communities in places like New Zealand and the Maori peoples. This organization serves Indigenous clients with disabilities at all ages, from students needing the technology to find success in education and employment to the financial needs around Registered Disability Savings Plans (RDSP’s) and other things like housing.
We speak with Belanger about how BCANDS got started, the kinds of supports they offer, and how they are leading the way with human rights for Indigenous people with disabilities by making connections with communities and fostering partnerships with those with disabilities and with allies alike because everyone has a role to play here, for a better reality in the current moment and into the future.
Which additional provinces, cities, or people have stepped up and gotten involved? What is Jordan’s Principle and how does it relate to what we’re talking about on the show this week? How has the pandemic affected the Indigenous communities this organization serves?
To learn more on all this and about things in this country, on this land, and how that expands into a greater movement around the world, check out this episode, in the glow of December 3, United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities. . The BCANDS celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2021 and they offer an individualized approach to the diversity of need that exists. Neil says "we’re often so reactive rather than proactive and change must include us all".
Indigenous peoples deal with so many things including around pipelines and the environment, residential schools, and lack of safe drinking water access and disability doesn’t get enough attention, though it’s intertwined with all these things, and this makes BCANDS an important resource doing necessary work. For more information, go to their website: http://www.bcands.bc.ca
Peter Field has degrees in journalism and English, has worked in government, and is on the board of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC), just one of multiple organizations offering advocacy and support to Canadians who are blind. He grew up in the Toronto area but has retired to British Columbia, just in time for the extreme rain and flooding and “atmospheric river phenomenon” that’s been taking place this fall on the west coast. Not to mention his southwestern Ontario connection, right along with us and our family, he’s got his own family ties to a place called Tavistock we know well.
This week on Outlook, we speak with Peter about the three-pronged project he’s involved in known as the Pandora Project. He joins us to share about the three components: a book on the history of blindness in this country, the Triple Vision podcast sharing diverse perspectives from the past, present, and future, and educational materials for Canadian children and students to learn about the role blind people have occupied in society.
Things we discuss in this episode include Peter’s years of transition as a teenager who was integrated and who rapidly became blind while trying to manage as a young person beginning his life, on his spotty interactions with other blind people (how to find mentors and friends and allies along the way) until later on in his life, and how he eventually came together with four other people (with even a Western University connection in there somewhere) to make the Pandora Project a reality.
Questions we pose: How do we find community and establish pride in ourselves and fight off eternalized ableism? How do we best bring people along who may be isolated or overwhelmed? And how do we best tell an authentic history of blindness and disability to focus on greater diversity?
As is said, once you open Pandora’s box, there’s no stuffing back in all that has sprung from said box. This is no different when it comes to the history of blindness in Canada, of our past, present, and future and is what a team of colleagues, friends, and advocates (including Peter Field) have set out to explore.
Some of the same things, these are why we do this podcast, as two blind siblings in Canada and we at Outlook On Radio Western think it’s about time.
Check out the Triple Vision podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/triple-vision/id1589475286 And learn more about Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians on their official website: http://www.blindcanadians.ca/
Content Warning: This episode of Outlook On Radio Western contains discussions of major depression and talk of suicide. We at Outlook believe these things need to be talked about more, but wish to remain sensitive to possible triggers others may have.
It’s where the ocean meets the sand, where a total lack of control (like during a pandemic) can lead to a moment of clarity and the daily (or overnight) reminders of what truly matters.
This week on Outlook we speak with singer/song writer/musician/author Heather Hutchison about her book “Holding On By Letting Go: A Memoir”.
The journey of one’s blindness is different for everyone, with such varied factors, but this is a story of where one person’s feelings about themselves as being blind, being different than other people, where that intersects with their experiences with anxiety, depression, and suicide.
In the pages of this poignant memoir on mental illness, disability, and mental health and finding one’s purpose, Hutchison shares on her early experiences trying to fit in, in her discovery of her gifts and outlets through music and its associated communities, and following her on her travels to Peru for one year and back to Canada again.
From a hurtful experience on a playground slide at age five to the insensitive comment of an airport official which reminded her why she’d left Canada to begin with. On seeing red, on tipping points and moments of clarity, “Holding On By Letting Go” is an honest revealing look into the work required for a life well lived. With Heather, we talk bullying, the only one guide dog club, and on removing the stigma of a psych ward by sharing her diary of the time she spent in one in the middle of a pandemic.
Find links to Heather’s book, music, and more on her website: https://heather-hutchison.com
Ah, the fun of live radio. No, seriously.
The original plan was to have Peter Field on live, a recent acquaintance who had reached out to us for a change, but the unexpected extreme weather, the heavy rains and flooding on the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, where Peter is located, was hit with this dramatic November weather, making connecting over Zoom to do a live interview impossible.
This is why a backup plan is always needed, the excitement of live radio, and so though Brian and the station manager made a nice effort to get a clear line of communication going, it wasn’t meant to be; this time.
So while Brian and Station Manager Tim worked on things in the background for the first several minutes, co-host/sister Kerry kept the live show going, hinting on the upcoming rescheduling of an interview with Peter Field and about something known as The Pandora Project and the Triple Vision podcast, which we’ll hear more about from Peter himself in an episode in a few weeks.
When Brian returns to the mic, We once more revisit the fact that blindness history in Canada is not as well documented and understood as one might think, a problem we see Americans like The Blind History Lady have addressed, in an Outlook from last year, but that Canada has our own unique history with blindness and disability in this country and we are extremely interested in looking into it further. It is for blind Canadians, such as ourselves, to learn our history, but also that sighted Canadians have no idea either.
We talk Diabetes Awareness and the location of Banting House, the residence of the main name in the discovery of insulin to treat otherwise deadly type one diabetes, often a paediatric diagnosis. Kerry wanted to come to London to check out an open house at the Banting Museum on Diabetes Awareness Day, but we discuss how sometimes (even with our positive philosophy of blindness), it can still pose inconveniences like not having access to our own vehicle, when we only want to zip over to a nearby city for a few hours.
November is halfway done and another reminder that November is National Indigenous Disability Awareness Month and Remembrance Day got us thinking. We read, together, a post from social media about the injustices Indigenous veterans faced after fighting for Canada in both World Wars. Some, perhaps, returned from the fighting without their sight. Our overall mission with this show is to put the attention back on forgotten stories and viewpoints, to recognize the prejudices and injustices and discrimination Indigenous peoples experienced or are experiencing, during times of war and also times of peace. With things like the Indian Act and the CRPD (the Charter for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), we are expecting Canada and our government to do more and do better.
Ending on a possibly better note of future progress, we wrap up this one with Kerry sharing about the OrCam, a nifty little assistive tech device she’s been loaned and the thoughtful and accessible piece of art a friend made for her, and Brian rounds it all off with a story of a sighted cane and travel skills instructor he had during his high school years who works at the school for the blind in Brantford and who lost sight himself in recent years. Anyone can end up losing the sight they once had which we talk about, not to scare people out of their wits, but to show why the things we talk about on Outlook are applicable to anyone because disability is a minority anyone can join at any age.
We’re told progress takes time, but for many of us, this is our life and we can’t afford to sit on our hands and wait for the slow march of progress. Join us for another Outlook On Radio Western as we show you why that’s the case.
Our friend Maxwell Ivey from a few episodes back has introduced us to this week’s special guest for Outlook and we’re talking art and accessibility with this ally. Anthony Saldana has never been to Canada before, but would like to come and bring his documentary with him: Straight Off the Canvas.
Saldana joins us, on Outlook today, from Queens New York where he got his Bachelor’s from Queens College. He was in an art gallery one day when he began to wonder how people who are blind appreciate art, visual art amongst other forms. He decided to do some research into this question and the idea for this documentary began to take shape.
It’s been a long process, over the last ten or so years, but luckily this wasn’t his first, but would be his Master’s Thesis.
Anthony then reached out to an organization called Art Beyond Sight, a nonprofit which we’ll include at the end of these show notes.
In Straight Off the Canvas, Saldana features two low vision/blind art teachers (Elizabeth Castallano and Jessica Jones), with several students including those at the Lavelle School for the Blind in Bronx New York. Throughout this documentary, they were being followed all the way through, as the art evolved starting with the student’s concepts in the fall, returning months later, showing off their art projects at an art exhibition at the end of the year.
The teachers are featured, but really it’s the kids that end up stealing the show. This film is a beautiful display of the value art can bring to our lives, a universal desire to create something, the perfect thing to focus on when the pandemic hit.
Anthony directs, interviews the subjects, and even adds audio description for blind viewers, but…for him…this film’s also really been a “Labor of love.”
Blind people, explaining art and the visions they have for it, along with an art therapist featured, showing off the power of art to transform lives of all children and adults, with or without seeing it with the eyes.
We discuss what it takes to be in the entertainment industry, some of the success of the film so far which includes multiple awards and virtual and in-person screenings, and next Anthony will be showing the documentary at the upcoming Canadian Society for Education through Art conference, November 13th and 14th: https://csea-scea.ourconference.ca
Check out updates on the progress going forward by following along on Twitter: @StraightCanvas On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/straightcanvas
And check out nonprofit Art Beyond Sight for how to make more artistic spaces accessible for all: http://www.artbeyondsight.org/index.php
We’re back in studio, where a few hiccups happened with this one because things sometimes happen when live, but it’s a new month, the month of November, and it’s Indigenous Disability Awareness Month (IDAM).
Also, Radio Western just celebrated forty years on the FM dial, and they were broadcasting live over the weekend. Both of us didn’t make it and we explain why, but we also wish CHRW Radio Western a happy birthday/anniversary and acknowledge the positive influence it, as a community/university radio station, has on the local London community. And now, with the Internet, its reach is global. We at Outlook owe them bigtime for giving us a platform to speak to listeners about our perspectives as Canadians who are blind, along with sharing outlooks from as many others as possible with those with disabilities such as blindness.
On this week’s episode, we talk Halloween and tactile costumes, podcast Monday’s and being stuck in a 90s time warp, lack of sports for blind students who are integrated and a mention of goalball (the Quidditch of the blindness adaptive sports) though played firmly on the ground/no flying involved, and Brian speaks about his newly found hobby of playing fantasy hockey with a group of guys and the accessibility of the app.
And finally, Brian attended most of the 2021 Connecting the Dots CNIB Conference, while Kerry didn’t and kind of regretted it (fomo) fear of missing out. This year had sessions and topics such as coding, micro certificates/micro credentials, and the initial rollout of Lego Braille Bricks, which we’d love to have access to, but currently only places such as schools have them. Lego is one of those things that’s always been more of an accessible toy/game for us and here’s to any integration of products, accessible for all, inclusive product production to becoming the norm one day.
A big theme throughout the conference was mentorship, but we discuss how, until these last four years or so, both of us always had each other. We’ve always just been siblings with a shared life outlook and since we had each other to lean on growing up, we really didn’t see the need for many more mentors, but most people don’t have another blind sibling and children, young people, and those of us at any age can always use more mentorship. This year’s Connecting the Dots keynote speaker was Paralympian Megan Mahon, born in northern Ontario but now living in Alberta and working at the Canadian National Institute For The Blind there, Lead Children’s and Youth Programming which is important for career development and improving employment for the blind.
It was the appearance, at the end of day one of Connecting the Dots, where CNIB’s President and CEO John Rafferty spoke. He said very little, we wonder and we ponder why he didn’t say more, but we have a problem with the CEO of the CNIB being sighted and making so much off the lives of blind Canadians in the first place; at least they have a few women (blind) near the top, in positions of power with him which is something.
And so, as this year enters its second to last month and we turn \the clocks back again here, we review recent Outlooks and give a brief summary of what we’re planning, for both these final months of 2021 (art education for children who are blind/book review/finding community), and for 2022, here before we all know it.
So that’s it for episode 133(Harry Potter references included) where we discussed a bit of Radio Western history and you can find more about that here:
https://radiowestern.ca/about/history
Stuck in the 90’s by Moxy Fruvous:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1W80EOOMEo
We met old friend Emily Trepanier, now aka Starfish, as children, at a camp for the blind in Ontario. Kerry met Maxwell Ivey, now known as The Blind Blogger, online, through a LinkedIn community for writers and bloggers in 2014 and this is his full premier on our show. And how did this fellow Ontario friend/now a BC newcomer and a Texan/prior carnival worker and amusement park ride broker connect in the first place? They met, both participating in something along the lines of Shark Tank or Dragon’s Den for blind entrepreneurs and dreamers of all kinds. Despite both making it to the semi final round of the Holman Prize competition, they both did not win the ultimate prize. And yet, they may just have found something to be just as beneficial for them both.
On this week’s episode, we speak with Emily and Max about how they connected and why, more on the What’s Your Excuse network and what the hope is with that, and Emily shares more on her new podcast on the network, Shredding For Gold, a show about her journey to compete in the Winter Paralympics as a visually impaired snowboarder.
Max has always loved a challenge and some of the things he hopes to do with the WYExcuse network are, for hosts, to give a purpose, to teach marketable employment skills (people with disabilities have barriers to this), and to have a platform or can work to create one, to turn a podcast into a business or tool for one.
Emily explains more about Para snowboarding being added in 2014, while her particular classification (visually impaired) is not yet, though she is in for the fight to get it included with the International Paralympic Committee. She hints at more in the works, can’t say more right now, but, nonetheless, , swears that exciting things are happening in the sport.
Max is already the host of the What’s Your Excuse Show and now, Emily is the brand new host of what she’s named Shredding For Gold, a podcast on her life and goals and activities while training as a snowboarder. As well, with this show she hopes to highlight the work of others in the adaptive sports arena, along with coaches and trainers from across Canada and internationally and to highlight her sport and its inclusion in the Paralympic Games by featuring the hard work of others, both athletes and supporters, with the ultimate goal of creating more awareness of adaptive sports and her love of snowboarding.
So thanks to a blind traveler, adventurer, and dreamer from the distant past, James Holman (1786-1857), the teaming up of Maxwell and Emily is paying off for them both in the 21st century. She may be a Canadian who is not so smooth on skates, but she’s a pro, at this point, on skis and her board. Along with Max’s help, it’s all downhill for Emily now. And that’s a good thing.
You can find the What’s Your Excuse Network and links to both Emily’s Shredding For Gold podcast and Max’s What's Your Excuse? Show here: https://wyexcuse.com/shows/ (also available on Apple and other podcast platforms)
Check out Emily’s former appearance on Outlook from back in September of 2019: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2019-09-02-team-starfish-feat-future-paralympian/id1527876739?i=1000488226516
And to learn more on who James Holman was: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Holman
“Those who expect to reap the benefits of freedom must undergo the fatigues of supporting it.” —Thomas Paine, 1777
We’re back, for round two, back in studio.
We’re in person again for our final live show of October and, when live, you never know what will happen on air.
We talk days of importance and if there’s a point to it. Days, weeks, months: Disability Employment Awareness Month (DEAM), National Day of Action For Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, World Sight Day, White Cane Safety Day/White Cane Awareness Day/White Cane Day.
Eye health is important, but as blind people celebrate it too and the problem of no sight bumps up against the pride we’re trying to feel and show to ourselves and others. Blindness is a spectrum, shades of grey from low vision to totally blind. More resources for blind people to be successful and happy is where we on Outlook stand.
From World Sight Day to White Cane Day. We talk orientation and mobility, stairs vs elevator, and backtracking and accepting assistance. Fitting in vs finding our way. It’s about finding the focus and figuring it out. We discuss tips we’d give to anyone assisting us and helpful apps we can access.
From apps to more low tech tools for independence. We talk unloading dishes from the dishwasher and sorting and washing towels. It’s the mystery of blindness demystified. Finding meaning in the mundane.
Brian will be attending the CNIB’s Connecting The Dots conference this month, to see what they have to offer, and Kerry isn’t happy with them lately and will not be going, but talks her frustration with that organization’s lack of care with their braille translation/production. What makes a book accessible? The CNIB is no longer offering this though they claim they are. Low quality braille is all they offer now.
Lately we’ve been talking about advocacy fatigue. Kerry just the other day attended something fun and positive, something promoting audio description, the Luminato Festival, an arts and culture festival in Toronto. Sometimes we need a break from the advocacy, though advocacy can come through art. We’re still here because it does matter and it’s the small price paid for living as white settlers on this land, privileged as we are, in Canada.
For more info on a few of the things mentioned in this episode, for the Ontario Disability Employment Network (ODEN) and Luminato Festival Toronto and the podcast Talk Description To Me, you can check out:
https://www.odenetwork.com
https://luminatofestival.com
https://talkdescriptiontome.buzzsprout.com
If you could have dinner with just one person who’s not alive today, a famous person from history, who would you choose?
It’s October which means Blindness Awareness Month, October 14th being World Sight Day, and October 15th which is known as White Cane Day, we at Outlook speak with M. Leona Godin, friend of the show.
We’ve been talking a lot about her recently released cultural exploration of blindness and sight - "There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness" since it came out, with Pantheon Books, back in June. And before, since her first appearance on the show in June of 2020.
Again, it being October and with Halloween right around the corner, what is it with the graphic language around the eyes (gouging in works of literature such as in Shakespeare’s King Lear or Oedipus Rex by Sophocles? Godin took a phrase from Shakespeare for a chapter in her book entitled: "Out, Vile Jelly!" It seems to fit the theme and this time of year well, as we discuss the vulnerability of one’s eyes and the forms that takes.
We talk book title changes like hers which occurred in the year since she was last on with us, and why there’s not more of a call for blind pride, but not like how there’s terms such as blind rage, blind drunk, and how love is blind. Instead, why is there a hesitancy for creating a blindness pride movement, as in the other pride movements happening in other marginalized communities?
We ponder out loud an imaginary dinner party with us three in attendance, along with historical figures mightily included in "There Plant Eyes", such as Louis Braille and Helen Keller - 2021 we’re referring to as the year of "There Plant Eyes" on Outlook On Radio Western and this one was a fun, light chat between friends with a little vile jelly thrown in for good measure.
Here’s where to go to find out more information about There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness and the link to hear Leona’s first appearance on Outlook from last year:
http://thereplanteyes.com/about-the-book-and-the-author/
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-on-radio-western/id1527876739?i=1000488226682
Our last live in studio Outlook was March 9, 2020, which was our 64th show. Brian loves numbers and it’s quite the coincidence we recorded exactly another 64 shows from home. But now we return, LIVE, with episode 129.
Back in studio, with a little VoiceOver to kick off the show, back at Western radio.
Still taking precautions against Covid (masks/vaccines/distancing)- on this week we talk September 30th and National Day For Truth and Reconciliation (land acknowledgements and Orange Shirt Day), catch up on what’s all changed (for us and more broadly) since the start of this pandemic, and how radio/podcasts are perfect for us blind people and sighted alike to be on an even playing field where nothing visual matters—for once.
What things are worth doing and having (nails done/traveling/owning print books) for a person who can’t see those things? Glitter point!
From early family Canadian Thanksgiving celebrations that include Uno, wasps, and nail polish to sighted baseball lovers being told to “look at that” from a sports announcer doing the usual on screen game calling over the radio. When you can convince the rest of the world that accessible baseball can be accessible for more people, they tend to pay attention.
Sixty-four shows done during Covid-19, on our own (mostly all interviews), at home and online, which puts us at episode 129 and it feels good being back, even if it’s once a month where we’re live on the mics.
For information on Orange Shirt Day (EVERY CHILD MATTERS):
https://www.orangeshirtday.org
Here we are, having fallen into fall and by sharing a co-host’s love of The Fall (both the season and the band), but we two blind siblings are feeling the advocacy fatigue or, in other words, some weeks it just feels like we’re done AF.
No, seriously, the advocacy fatigue, it’s real, but we push through with a new show this week, now known as Monday Mixed Bag on Outlook.
This week, returning to just us co-hosts, talking everything from cooking and some of the barriers that can arise when cooking without sight (shoutout to the friend who introduced Brian to vegan stew), celebrating three years of this show with a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts (thank you Regoro64), and a look back on where Canada stands post election (along with tales from the voting booth).
So check us out with our third year anniversary, fall/autumn episode, final one of September and into a new season.
Also, check out upcoming guest on Outlook, M. Leona Godin’s recent appearance on the CBC’s Writers and Company show and podcast with host Eleanor Wachtel. Catch it here: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersandcompany/m-leona-godin-on-the-metaphor-and-reality-of-blindness-in-literature-and-in-life-1.6188458
As mentioned on this episode, check out the ACB Sunday Edition podcast where Wayne shares his story in greater detail: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sunday-edition-for-august-8-2021-a-survivors-story/id1531822445?i=1000531400268
Oh boy! Here we go!
On September 7th, 2021 something called the Pan-Canadian Disability Coalition put on a federal leaders debate (on and for disability and Canadians living with one like blindness). This hadn’t existed before and though twenty-two percent of Canadians with a disability, we rarely hear our specific issues mentioned by politicians, on or off the campaign trail.
It’s one week to the next federal election here in Canada and today on Outlook we’re speaking with new friend Owen Parkin, a Lakehead University student living in Thunder Bay, who was born with Norrie Disease and went to W. Ross Macdonald School in Brantford, now studying political science, with hopes of going to law school and running for office one day.
With this first-time guest’s first time on the show, we appreciate the energy of the younger generations like Owen’s, as we as Canadians, of all ages, try to figure out how to bridge gaps, what’s best, and that’s not easy, to sift through party platforms and find the things that most matter to each of us. To push back against the understandable cynicism of a bunch of campaign promises and slow government progress, along with external events in the broader world. From international to here at home, Owen wasn’t even born when 9/11 happened, but we start the show talking about that sad anniversary, the mess the west has left in Afghanistan, and the frantic energy of back-to-school and an election.
Owen shares with us what it meant to vote for the first time, walks us through some of the things each party has in their platform (Liberals/Conservative/NDP/Greens/PPC), the difference between the options of universal basic income/guaranteed livable income/and a proposed Canada Disability Benefit, and the roles and responsibilities of making voting accessible for all Canadians (UNCRPD, Article 29), specifically voters who are blind.
Who’s responsible for holding Elections Canada’s feet to the fire on making voting something we can all do without barriers or interference? Is the CNIB really doing enough for us in this area, if they are supposed to be who speaks for and takes care of us blind Canadians? When really, at least according to the three of us on this episode, we don’t feel represented by them in 2021 and would rather speak for ourselves.
Along with Owen, we discuss what the parties are willing to do for Canadians with disabilities, but it’s more than that because our issues are your issues, as anyone can find themselves living with a disability at any point. Also, those of us with disabilities don’t only care about the things directly relating to disability, but also things like climate change and affordable housing for everyone, things that if Canada does well, should lift us all up.
It’s all connected, everything is political, which isn’t easy for many of us to admit, but Owen is going to school for this stuff, loves a good back-and-forth debate and election seasons in general, and is here to walk and talk us novices through platforms, as we recorded this just hours before last week’s English leaders debate.
So check us out to hear from the enthusiastic former W Ross student Brian met when speaking to a class about audio engineering. And, for all Canadians, remember to vote on September 20th, 2021, to make your voice heard, with the understanding of the power and the freedom that comes along with the right to vote.
So much to say on the book “There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness” by M. Leona Godin and published by Pantheon Books. There’s so much to say that we could have had a seven hour discussion on all the themes and stories about blindness throughout history and in our culture today.
On this special, slightly extended three-segmented episode of Outlook, we were three this week with our friend Barry Toner, Zooming in with us all the way from Ireland and returning for a forth appearance with us on the podcast. We three blind friends had a ball on this one talking Braille and braille (the man/inventor himself and the system of reading he created), about how we’ll never be taken seriously as romantic partners because blind people are thought all to need looking after, and one of us even reveals a new appreciation of the woman Helen Keller was, thanks to Godin’s insightful chapter on the woman’s legacy and the woman she was and wasn’t permitted to be in her day.
From talk of magic mushrooms and the author’s punk style with performing and other art forms to some more academic chapters with literature and science and philosophy - a little something for everyone. And let us, in this episode, tell you a bit about what we thought of the book and its themes, to hopefully entice as many readers to pick up the book as possible.
We talk everything from the chapter “Braille and His Invention” to “Helen Keller in Vaudeville and In Love” and yet what of all us blind people in the middle ground of it all? See us and understand that we are here and the majority of our minority group, while it’s those few famous blind people everyone hears about which makes it harder to live blind in the world. We fight stigma every day more than the blindness itself.
How two of us on this week’s Outlook On Radio Western know and love braille and the third didn’t learn. The Braille chapter shows this divide in the blindness community, but reasons aren’t so simple and often coming from other external sources. There’s more than one way to read, Braille requiring practice like reading print.
Co-host Kerry starts it all off by asking Brian and Berry to use one word to describe what it is that they each see, blackness being so far from the world most of us blind people exist in. Outlooks and perspectives, lived experience is what we champion here on Outlook with every episode we record. And there’s even a Pulp reference thrown in this one somewhere so listen closely, if you just happen to be a fan of their music.
So join us for this pulpy episode, if you dare. So much to comment on, on blindness and this versatile handbook for students and professors, one we three all agree should be required reading on college/university course reading lists, for any and all blindness rehabilitation workers and anyone who’s a part of the healthcare system. Oh, and don’t forget the politicians.
The three of us read it to be ready to record this one and now we recommend you read it too. You should read it if you’re blind and if you’re not. And check out this There Plant Eyes discussion episode for more of the fun we three had at our book club meeting over Zoom.
Purchase the hardcover, audio, or e-book here: https://bookshop.org/books/there-plant-eyes-a-personal-and-cultural-history-of-blindness-9781643589664/9781524748715
And if you haven’t had a chance yet, read this incredible interview co-host Kerry put together with Leona for literary magazine The Rumpus: https://therumpus.net/2021/08/the-rumpus-interview-with-m-leona-godin/
Oh that Friday feeling.
On last week’s Mixed Bag Monday, Part One, we made pleas and climbed sand piles.
This week, in Part Two, we on Outlook discuss what we learn from attending an annual general meeting (or AGM) for Radio Western/reach out to new student listeners, sharing on The Rumpus and the process, and revelations around Strange Gods and sensitivity reading,
It’s the wild west of sensitivity reading and, yet, of social media, but social media does serve some good when perspectives are shared with one another.
And many many things come back to politics. With the next federal Canadian election on the horizon, on this episode we finish off with a story of the perilous floating bus stop/bike lanes/city design that’s recklessly spreading (all the way from the city of Victoria on the west coast to London, Ontario) and the power of social media to explain where the problem lies. It feels as though politicians ignore people with disabilities and we need to make them aware that we are here.
Strange days and strange Gods. From Monday to Friday and back again.
A huge congratulations to co-host Kerry for the work she did conducting an interview with M. Leona Godin on the book "There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness". Check out “Fighting the Weightiness of Metaphors” on the online literary journal The Rumpus at the link below: https://therumpus.net/2021/08/the-rumpus-interview-with-m-leona-godin/
And you can find the novel “Strange Gods” by Alison Kimble which Kerry recently did a sensitivity reading job for here: https://www.amazon.ca/Strange-Gods-Alison-Kimble/dp/1953491146
We begin this one with what we’re reading and how. Oh, and with a plea and a trip to see a giant sand pile.
On Outlook this week, another Mixed Bag Monday discussing a musical gig, guitar by co-host here with band Trusty Fox. Brian reads and plays the same way. Other co-host Kerry is excited that fall is coming, but it’s always apple season for Brian, technology wise.
We mention a few shows we’ve been on which have recently come out, such as the American Foundation for the Blind’s Inform & Connect podcast, a Kerry Connection, and bonus episode of the #onpoli Podcast from TV Ontario. We share the going back with a recent day trip, summer family stories from the old days at Sand Hill Park on Lake Erie, one of Ontario’s natural wonders. And finally, a plea on vaccines and to all that’s going on, from Covid to politics.
We at Outlook On Radio Western stand with the women of Afghanistan and of all those living with disabilities in any corner of the world who feel oppressed or at risk.
Check out our interview on the Inform & Connect podcast here: https://www.afb.org/news-publications/publications/inform-and-connect-podcast/inform-connect-season-two/inform-14
Our segment discussing Canadian library accessibility for TVO’s #onpoli podcast: https://www.tvo.org/video/bonus-stories-you-might-have-missed?fbclid=IwAR3Mg8v_kmpQPRooi9W_Y4rIUYDnnlbryod_v8cumZ31xfK-LnWPpKSZNyo Note: We’re featured in the second story of this clip, around 10 minutes in.
And for more information on this year's Paralympic Games (taking place from Tuesday, August 24 to September 5), and to learn about their associated #WeThe15 social media campaign for greater awareness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHCDvdCaJhI
https://www.wethe15.org
This week’s guest on Outlook describes herself as: “An open book.” Joanne says: “My setback is my setup.”
Our conversation with Joanne Beckford showcases her openness in talking with us, in sharing her own outlook with us and the audience.
Our main goal with this show, showing the world that blindness isn’t the end of everything that was worth living for in life, or certainly does not need to be. Joanne’s positive attitude has helped her along the way on her glaucoma journey and into a future where adaptation is the key.
We discuss her ten years of symptoms, diagnosis, and multiple treatments which brought her to where she is today, accepting rather than denying the reality of her life. She tells us about understanding family, partner, and employers who offered support.
She shares with us her reaction when the ophthalmologist informed her she could no longer drive. It’s not what you might think. And when people would stare at her, when she’d take out her white cane and take steps out into the world, she couldn’t help but notice the stares she got. Yes, blindness isn’t all or nothing, but rather it’s a spectrum and we three are all somewhere on that spectrum, all at differing places along that continuum.
This is, in her own words, a “new chapter” in her life and she hopes to take what she’s learned, along with her long held optimism, to mentor other people going through similar journeys. We met while talking on the need for greater diversity and we are here to motivate each other, a mutual admiration society and a support system of friendship across Canada.
As discussed on this episode, networking and support are key for the blind community to thrive in Canada. Here’s a link to the Facebook group we mentioned for blind Canadians to do exactly these things: https://www.facebook.com/groups/821855574951186
From a recent binaural carwash adventure on their own podcast. To adventures talking space with us and Christine Malec’s dream of one day meeting astronaut Chris Hadfield, from one Chris to the other. You heard it here first, on the latest episode of Outlook.
The two hosts of Talk Description to Me, Christine Malec and JJ Hunt, who we spoke to about their podcast on ours last winter, are involved in a cool new project that we wanted to highlight.
For months, Malec and Hunt have been working with Kim Arcand from the Chandra X-Ray observatory (who has been doing this sort of visual scientific translating since 98), and now these three are creating written descriptions of the data visualizations that are generated from Chandra research into astronomy from deep space.
Malec reached out to us, last spring on Outlook about all of this, wondering whether we’d be interested in interviewing the three of them about the work, including some of the descriptions they’ve generated, and/or a sonification or two.
It’s a type of translation, from data, translated to 3D printed models, into audio sonifications.
From exploding stars to colliding galaxies and galaxy clusters. As a visualization scientist, Arcand is letting NASA know that though blind people may have felt intimidated by the stem fields for much too long now, it’s a new world of expanded forms of audio and image description. It’s time to expand the infinite number of possibilities for making astronomy and all sciences more accessible and inclusive.
All of this work is making astronomy more accessible to people who are blind and low vision. Kim, JJ and Christine are eager to spread the word about these projects, as Christine says, “Mostly cause they’re cool, but partly to show NASA that accessibility work is valued by our community.” And all the laughs and science puns, like the cherry on top of what’s already a pretty special Outlook episode to begin with.
For more information on this accessible astronomy work from Christine, JJ, and Kim, visit Chandra’s website. Check out Kim Arcand’s own site and be sure to check out her TED Talk too. And, don’t forget to visit the podcast page for Talk Description to Me to hear more from the weekly episodes Malec and Hunt put out each Saturday:
https://chandra.harvard.edu
https://www.kimarcand.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kTMr5LqIBQ
https://talkdescriptiontome.buzzsprout.com
From Ski Patrol to Ketchup On Pancakes to Outlook. The podcast that started it all celebrates five years this summer!
Thanks to Kerry for coming up with the idea to start a podcast in the first place. Back on May 14, 2016, when we recorded for the first time, a pilot under the name Ski Patrol, we never could have imagined it would evolve into a show with a focus on advocacy that would air on the radio. But we also never completely wanted to hang it up, so Ketchup On Pancakes returns with episode 20!
We start even before then, back in 2015 and discuss Brian’s accident which resulted in a new outlook on life. From there, we speak casually on the years that followed and revisit the segment we called 5 W’s and an H, wha? How do our answers compare to these questions when asked in 2016 to now? We look back on prior episodes of KOP and discuss many of the highlights over the past five years. We also reminisce on all the other segments we came up with for KOP: Reading, Writing, No Arithmetic; Strings and Strums and Sounds and Drums; Catch Up On the Current, and finish off this landmark episode with our classic segment, Cassette Clip of the Week.
Note: We are slowly adding all Ketchup On Pancakes episodes to our Outlook On Radio Western rss feed. Here are links to the first couple, “Intro to Us” and “Ingredients Listed”. Check back for more, though you’ll have to scroll to the bottom of the feed or search for Ketchup On Pancakes to find them all, as they were uploaded before Outlook began in September of 2018.
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ketchup-on-pancakes-episode-1-intro-to-us/id1527876739?i=1000531526330
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ketchup-on-pancakes-episode-2-ingredients-listed/id1527876739?i=1000531526329
Not a Kerry connection this time (as it’s been coined) but one from the other host of this podcast. It’s a Brian booking! Brian and Laura met, as teenagers, back in 2001 at the MIRA Foundation in Quebec, where they went for training for guide dogs. It’s social media which has allowed them to reconnect, something that wasn’t around when they last met in person and we’re glad they have and that we could have her on Outlook this week.
In her most recent role as an on air personality at Accessible Media Inc., Laura Bane has experienced a varied array of activities, from repelling herself down a three story building to rowing a giant, hollowed out pumpkin across a river, and even circus school over the last five years.
She was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (or RP) at the age of four, but recently (in her mid thirties) has had her diagnosis come into question a little. She has a degree in philosophy and is now leaving the security of her position at AMI to get a masters in social work.
Employment and employability is a subject we like to discuss often on this show, to make people understand that with disability in the picture, finding paid work is not always made easy and once we do find some, it feels like a big risk to even consider giving that up. The three of us discuss the difference it makes to a blind child to have the right supports to be successful in their education, what it looks like when one doesn’t get that, and how to eventually find your passions and achieve your dreams, even when disability can make that more challenging.
As a bonus, Brian includes a couple cassette clips from 20 years ago of Laura and himself at Mira. While conjuring up memories from the past, Laura came across a sketch of him she drew when there which is posted on the Soundcloud page for this episode.
It’s not easy to find others who can whip out their eye (prosthesis) in a crowd, as a Halloween party trick. One of us hosts on Outlook can do this, but doesn’t. Justin Evangelho can and does.
Question is, is he an evil genus, a magician, a childhood cancer survivor?
Answer is, maybe all three, and he’s our latest guest on Outlook. We discuss his evolution from creative writing to audio recording/editing along with education for disabled students in a public vs Catholic School Board. We speak about his talk show Disenabled where he focuses on people with physical disabilities and the skills and techniques they use to foster independence. It’s available both on Trent Radio and as a podcast. We discuss the music review show he hosts on Trent Radio over the summer called Bottom40in40.
We met Justin at an event through Peterborough Independent Podcasters, in March 2021. We were happy to have him at his first ever Canadian Federation of the Blind convention and his perspective, as a young blind person in Canada today, is a valuable one we’re happy to get to share on this show.
Note: The episode of Disenabled we appear on is not yet available online, but be sure to check out previous episodes of his podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-disenabled-podcast/id1549168294
And give a listen to his music review show Bottom40in40 all summer long, Tuesday evenings at 9 PM EST: http://trentradio.ca:8800/hi-fi
June is Deafblind Awareness Month and we finish off the month with Penny Leclair.
This week on Outlook she speaks to us about resilience and accepting the inevitability of change in one’s life.
We learn about her experiences, being born blind and losing her hearing over time. She tells us about her journey with hearing aids, cochlear implants, two hand manual, and interveners.
Penny has never let the things others have told her she couldn’t do be her limits. She wanted to be a mother, she wanted to try online dating later in life, and her advocacy to spread the word across Canada on the necessity of interveners for deafblind Canadians motivates her to speak out.
June is also the month Helen Keller was born and to think of all she did, before most of what is available in these times was even an option. That didn’t stop Keller and nothing stops Penny Leclair from living a full life with a mission to improve services for Canadians who live with a whole new disability, not only blindness and not only deafness.
Check out this week’s episode to hear the story of the first time Penny heard birds and rain and CBC radio after years of increased isolation.
Intervener services must increase for people in every province and territory because it’s truly an essential service if ever there was one.
Getting your first guide dog is a challenging, exciting, life changing thing, as the two of us both know very well. We find out about this and more from this week’s guest on Outlook.
Jinnie Saran has been a youth representative and now mentor, with an organization out of British Columbia, Canada known as Blind Beginnings, along with her work with the Camp Bowen Society.
Today we speak with Jinnie about how she researched and chose The Seeing Eye (the oldest guide dog school in North America), on the lack of representation in literature and media which has Jinnie exploring her options studying English/creative writing/journalism/history/editing, and on matters surrounding diversity and identity as we grow into who we are.
During June and Pride Month, pride and this discussion has us exploring intersectionality, with one of the members on the recent panel, “In Their Own Words,” from our recent Canadian Federation of the Blind convention. Finding pride in living as blind people and in our own abilities takes time and effort, but Jinnie is a part of Blind Beginning’s Limitless podcast and all three of us agree that it’s better to ask “how can each of us do the things we want to do” rather than stopping at “can’t”.
“No” to limits and “yes” to a greater level of representation and accessibility, nothing stopping our latest Outlook guest from doing all the things.
Follow Jinnie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jinniesaran
Learn more about Blind Beginnings and both the Limitless podcast and blog where Jinnie is a contributor on their official site: https://www.blindbeginnings.ca
Find the other Blog posts Jinnie writes for Camp Bowen here: https://cobd.ca/author/pl-6019e53f1304e70012154dd5/
In the month following our 2021 first ever all virtual Choices and Goals Canadian Federation of the Blind Convention, we’ve been hard at work to bring together the highlights of this year’s event.
This week on Outlook, we continue with Part II, with us two, continuing on as the MC’s). From the weekend of convention, finishing off on May 1 where we led a diverse session day, full of insightful speakers (Natalina Martiniello from Braille Literacy Canada, Ben Fulton on housing discrimination, Doris Belusic and Kerry on The Blind Canadian, etc). In this episode of Outlook we share people’s big plans and ideas looking to the future for a better Canada for its blind citizens.
Listen to Part II with another door prize draw with a humorous element (awkward), some truly touching moments of our co-host/sibling relationship demonstrated from over the weekend, and a banquet lineup of speakers (CFB President Mary Ellen Gabias, NFB Rep Scott LaBarre), all highlighting, through shared experiences, the themes of making choices and the setting of/carrying out of goals.
From the awkward moments, to the touching ones, to the truly profound - all this was at the heart of the entire 2021 Canadian Federation of the Blind convention.
To learn more about the people and presentations featured on this episode, check out the convention webpage. Also included are imbedded YouTube videos from the event.
https://www.cfb.ca/save-the-date-2021-cfb-national-convention-choices-and-goals-april-30th-may-2nd-2021#
Videos can also be found directly from our YouTube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/CFBdotCA
In the weeks since our 2021 first ever all virtual Choices and Goals Canadian Federation of the Blind Convention, we’ve been hard at work to bring together the highlights of this year’s event.
This week on Outlook, we begin with Part 1, with us two as the mc’s from the weekend of April 30th, welcoming a diverse two days of sponsoring companies and insightful speakers.
Door prizes (read with the help of an OrCam), accessible tech presentations (Canadian Assistive Technology, HumanWare), and the adrenaline filled few days of panels on intersectionality and parenting..
Listen to Part 1 with the exhibit hall presenters, funny mishaps of an all virtual Zoom convention, all with the theme choices and goals and the diversity we are talking more about across Outlook episodes. We also feature clips from speakers and organizations who have appeared on Outlook in the past (NNELS, Talk Description to Me, CNIB monopoly report).
Find out more about the presentations and speaker’s featured on this episode by taking a look at the convention page here: https://www.cfb.ca/save-the-date-2021-cfb-national-convention-choices-and-goals-april-30th-may-2nd-2021
And we’ll be back, next week, with Part 2 of an extraordinary weekend including news of what the Canadian Federation of the Blind (CFB) and its flag ship magazine (The Blind Canadian) have been up to, about the value of braille literacy with Braille Literacy Canada (BLC-LBC), and a lawyer’s story of housing discrimination towards him as a lawyer with a disability. Not to mention our fabulous banquet to round out the festivities. Stay tuned.
This week, on Outlook, we spend the first half of the show sharing our own, personal thoughts on the recorded presentation from the recent Canadian Federation of the Blind convention we featured last week. In the second half, we feature another inspiring presentation from the convention; a panel Kerry put together called Diversity and Intersectionality: In Their Own Words.
At our 2021 first all virtual National Canadian Federation of the Blind CFB’s Choices and Goals Convention, back on May 1st, Daryl Jones (with expertise in economics) presented a report he’d put together on a topic we’re not so sure Canada is ready to hear but we are done being silent on.
The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) has been around for over 100 years now and has been developing a monopoly all across services and programs and products for the blind, all while we who are blind in Canada feel less heard and more and more misused as charity cases, requiring large amounts of sympathy and even pity toward us, in order to keep the donations coming. We want better for ourselves and our future than being in a parent/child relationship that’s terribly uneven.
The first half of today’s show is us talking about the changes we’d like to see, for all blind people in Canada and how the CNIB has a systemic issue of misrepresenting blindness as a sad state of affairs to the public. We know progress doesn’t happen overnight, but we’re hoping to see a change going forward.
The second half of today’s show is a replay of another session from our recent convention, a diversity panel called “In Their Own Words” which consisted of three panelists who came together to speak about their other intersectionalities, and how those crisscross with the blindness we all have in common. Talking more openly about what makes us “us," as individuals is the kind of progress that makes inclusion a reality.
So check out both halves, both topics as they mean a great deal to us here at Outlook.
With any thoughts on either of these subjects, you can always send us an email. We’re always happy to have an open and honest dialogue with listeners. So feel free to send us a message by emailing outlookonradiowestern@gmail.com.
And along with listening to last week’s episode where Daryl presents the report, you can read the full paper here: https://www.cfb.ca/blind-canadian-december-2020#monopoly
Special episode of Outlook today and we’d appreciate it, more than usual, if you’d listen and then share this one around. This week’s episode is full of facts and figures most Canadians and others don’t realize, many others don’t think should be said out loud.
At our recent, 2021 first all virtual national Canadian Federation of the Blind’s Choices and Goals convention, Mr. Daryl Jones (sighted ally) presented a report he’d prepared. It was one of the highlights of the event, judging by the questions that came in after from conference attendees, but we knew it could also ruffle some feathers.
Titled “CNIB: Canada’s 100-Year Monopoly”, finally, someone has done his research, helped give backing to how it feels being blind in Canada today. Mr. Jones has laid everything out, all the reasons why many of us believe the current system for supporting the blind in Canada is not working. It’s not easy for many of us to say it, to pretty much rock the boat when many do depend on the present situation, but a monopoly isn’t good for anyone this organization is meant to serve.
This report is something too, a glimpse for the sighted population, to really listen and learn how it really is for Canada’s blind population. And so we’re presenting Daryl’s presentation on the report, along with a question period at the end, where several blind Canadians make their own thoughts known, adding to a chorus of voices we hope will be heard.
To read the full report, go here:
https://www.cfb.ca/blind-canadian-december-2020#monopoly
The two of us at Outlook took a week off, for an excellent reason, to MC the 2021 Canadian Federation of the Blind Convention. This year, our theme was Choices and Goals and this theme has felt rather fitting in these strange times, us hosting from home in our first all virtual convention weekend, April 30th to May 2nd.
We’re back, this week with an all new show, as we return to one of our mixed bag episodes, a May Mixed Bag with the two of us, talking our first vaccines and what it takes to plan and execute an online event, with a wrap-up on the first four months of 2021 and what we're both lookking forward to now that convention is behind us for another year.
To quote our sister sibling on this week’s episode of Outlook, to describe her brother, she says:
“He’s the self starter of self starters.”
We like to ask this question, to describe the other sibling, on each April’s Sibling Month shows. We would say that about them both, as we wrap up our month of celebrating sibling pairs who are both blind, as we two sibling hosts are as well.
Maggie and Erik are friends of ours we’ve known for almost twenty-five years, from summer camp to guide dog school in the 90s.
On this episode we talk about our memories of a camp for blind children in northern Ontario, about growing up in a big family with much younger and sighted siblings, and about the stresses put on the two of them, both blind in the family, bouncing around from public school to a school for the blind. We talk bullying, missing home and family, and about how to find happiness and fulfillment in a world where blindness and the blind, both treated with kid gloves most of the time, makes it difficult to find a way in the world.
From fear of dogs to fatherhood, check out this final sibling series episode of April for all this and more and we’ll return with Outlook, again, in May.
Last but not least, consider checking out the first “virtual” convention of the Canadian Federation of the Blind happening from Friday, April 30 to Sunday, May 2. You can read through the full agenda and find more info at: https://www.cfb.ca/save-the-date-2021-cfb-national-convention-choices-and-goals-april-30th-may-2nd-2021
Attending a residential school for the blind and deaf-blind, seeing hide nor hair of your family over nights, until the weekends came.
Check out our third week of sibling stories, tales from pairs of siblings, both blind with our discussion with Rob (second Outlook appearance) and his sister Jackie.
We discuss their age gap and what that meant for their sibling bonding, about their experiences attending W. Ross McDonald School in Brantford, here in Ontario. We talk Rob’s musical instruments and playing through the floor of the same apartment building they both live in to entertain his big sister.
We talk Dharma & Greg, Hamfest and amateur radio, and the many transitions in life and what it means to have a sibling who gets it.
What is too young to send your child to boarding school anyway? Music and TV were important, have been important outlets for these guests we’re speaking to this week.
Follow Rob’s dream for an inclusive musical hub with his website: https://www.themelodychamber.com And his Facebook music page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/robctg
No one messes with my sibling but me!
This week, on Outlook, it’s the second week of April and our Siblings Series shows featuring sibling pairs who are both blind and the above line sums up the lovely sibling bond vibe that our latest guests illustrate with ease.
Jessica and Zoe are Mexican-American, blind siblings, from Texas. Jessica loves tea and Zoe plays a flute on air during our interview.
Also, Zoe shares with us her story of coming out as trans gender and Jessica’s thoughts on what it was like to watch her sibling finding a way through it all.
Fighting one day and “thick as thieves” the next. That is what it’s like to have a sibling and us four siblings have a lot in common, starting with our eye condition. We discover this connection and more in this week’s episode.
It takes two: best sister in the world or a kick in the head in the womb.
This April, on Outlook, we’re doing a series on sibling pairs who are blind such as us two hosts indeed are. April 10th is National Sibling’s Day and our first pair in the series are twins Jessica and Jocelyn Gladysz of British Columbia.
We asked each sister to describe the other and the answers were both sweet and fun, along with their lively descriptions of growing up in a small, remote B.C. town and trips into Vancouver to ride the Sky Train, the creative projects they came up with on cassette as kids, and their mission, as adults, to help other people feel less alone and to realize one’s capabilities and potential.
Growing up, they’d describe themselves as “misfits,” but they know they’ve been lucky to have each other to lean on. They now live on Bowen Island and they speak to us this week about the ways they express themselves with song and the plans, in the works, to provide the kinds of supportive camp experiences that shaped and continue to shape who they are and the work they do.
To register/donate to their virtual talent show, go here: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/pacific-training-centre-for-the-blind-society/events/a-salute-to-summer/
And for more info on Camp Bowen and The Pacific Training Centre for the Blind, check them out at the following links: https://campbowen.ca
https://bowenislandcentre.ca
https://ptcb.ca
She was born in Sri Lanka and came, with her family, to Toronto, Canada when she was two-years-old.
This week, on Outlook, we speak with the co-host of Kelly and Company, Ramya Amuthan, after having her partner on the show, its namesake, Kelly MacDonald on last year.
We talk the best Sri Lankan food in the GTA or Greater Toronto Area where she grew up, about her mother’s choice for her daughter to not learn braille and instead focus on using the remaining vision she still had, and about what she found out from meeting other blind people on her time visiting an institute for the blind in Sri Lanka.
She’s a self described adventurer and found her love of radio after trying a bunch of other paths in life. She has found a rhythm on her radio show, teaming up with co-host and friend Kelly, on Accessible Media Inc. (AMI-audio), weekdays from two to four PM.
Listen live: https://www.ami.ca/listenlive Or as a podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/kelly-and-company/id1235188417
Blaine Deutscher’s motto for living his life: "I don’t want blindness to be the reason I don’t do something”. This matches up with the philosophy of the Canadian Federation of the Blind and National Federation of the Blind: “living the life you want”.
This week on Outlook, we speak with Blaine from Alberta about how he discovered CFB/NFB and related philosophy, the level of assistance he received as a student who was blind, and route learning (which many Canadians learned orientation and mobility were taught) vs structure discovery method of independent travel for the blind.
From navigating transportation with a guide dog to chopping down a tree to taking his son’s temperature, a parent simply taking care of their sick child, he wants to do it all and not have his blindness rule his every move and there are ways, other blind people who are leading others along the path (blind leading the blind) but it’s true. How else do we learn how it might have been for another blind person, for the tips and tricks a new parent who is blind can learn from other parents who are blind too, to use the example Blaine gives in this episode.
And finally, us two, not athletic in the least, got to learn how in the world blind hockey is played. (More to come on the subject in future shows.) Let this Canadian, who loves the sport like millions of other Canadians, explain it all and even provide an audio demonstration of what the adaptive puck sounds like.
After hitting our 100th episode a few weeks into 2021, we’ve put together a demonstration of Outlook and what we are all about.
From the serious to the silly.
So celebrate with us as we share one clip from each episode, one clip from each of our first one hundred shows.
Spring is on its way and we’re back with a taste of our famous Kijewski calmness. Read on and listen to learn more...
After the first few months of 2021 and all the excellent guests we’ve had on, Outlook is back with just the two of us once again for what we like to refer to it as a mixed bag episode - new month, mixed bag March and here we go. On this week’s show we share our newest equipment for making this show sound pristine, discuss Covid and vaccines for a best way out of the pandemic for us all (including we who’ve lived with chronic illnesses), and share brief examples from three different programs that include audio descriptive tracks (movie, nature doc, and primetime drama).
We also get to share a listener review of our recent sighted siblings episode and we always appreciate ratings and reviews on places like Apple Podcasts. Or, you can always email feedback to us at: outlookonradiowestern@gmail.com
Q: What’s it like to have siblings who are blind? A (from one of ours): I don’t know. What’s it like Not to have siblings who are blind?
Around this time every February, we celebrate Family Day and this year, on Outlook, we’re celebrating with our two, older siblings. We, as co-hosts, do this show from the perspective of growing up with blindness that has a baring on how we see the world. Our older brother and sister, Paul and Kim, have a unique perspective, growing up as the two first born, sighted siblings, and we are lucky to have them and wanted to show how we’re mostly like any other family.
We speak bulldogs and bunnies, audio and audio description, from the serious stuff to The Simpsons with a little window onto our sibling relationships on Outlook, Family Day 2021.
Legally blind. Low vision. Blind. What exactly does it mean to be legally blind anyway?
Today on Outlook we speak with Toronto based journalist and AMI audio reporter Meagan Gillmore about being born with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), attending a private Christian school in a city that’s known for its school for the blind and not knowing where you fit in, and how applying for employment is made more difficult because most listings state that a driver’s license is necessary to get the job. From being born in London to moving to Brantford for school. From Hamilton to Whitehorse and from St. John to Ontario’s capitol city, having lived in three Canadian provinces in the last thirty years, she’s now a freelance journalist covering political issues and public policy matters. Meagan wants to be a journalist who has a disability but to be able to explain to the public about others with disabilities and how those stories are universally applicable.
We even talk about growing up, in the same generation of the 80s and 90s, and how our parents first met when we were preschool age and services for families with visually impaired children were missing, our parents having to make their own support group (Child Light) to help fill in the gap and navigate those early years. We talk finding acceptance using a white cane, bullying, and her love of writer Jean Little, authentic disability representation in all areas of media. Also, we talk Sesame Street, Polly Pocket toys, and This Is Us.
Find Meagan over on Twitter: @MeaganGillmore and check out some of the stories she’s done for several Canadian publications and newspapers.
What’s a fire tornado? How do the northern lights appear in the night sky? What does Joe Biden’s wearing of aviator sunglasses represent culturally? Who is The Falling Man? What exactly is a meme anyway? And what do Mike Pence and Grandpa Simpson have to do with one another?
To our blind listeners, for answers to these questions and more, check out Outlook this week where we speak with Christine Malec and JJ Hunt, a blind/sighted team, out of Toronto, who are behind Talk Description to Me, where: “the visuals of cultural events and the world around us get hashed out in description rich conversations”. From one podcast team to another, this episode contains silly moments like our thoughts on how fun goalball actually is to discussion on moving images such as the 9/11 Memorial.
JJ has a background in theatre and draws on that in his work describing images and the sighted world that we, as blind people, can often miss. Christine is a musician and audio description consultant and together these two are making quite a splash in the ever expanding world of audio description.
And for our sighted listeners, could you describe, in detail, the horror and the heroic actions on a day like 9/11 to someone who was unable to see it with their own eyes? Audio description is an art form and a necessary one, like all art is, but it matters to many of us who want to feel included and to have access to what is seen in popular culture and in news and current events around the world. Some blind people have something of a visual memory and others have never seen, but inclusion is thankfully becoming an universal standard.
Find and follow them on social media, by listening to Talk Description To Me on podcast streaming services everywhere (you might even find something that interests you about the world we see and the parts that can pass us by), and find out more by going to their website: https://talkdescriptiontome.buzzsprout.com And you can find Christine’s Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/ChristineMalec
We’re celebrating our 100th episode of Outlook, on this final Monday in January, with guest and friend Sky Mundell and his keyboard.
As a child, our guest begged his dad for a piano and his dad said he’d buy him one if he learned a particular Beethoven song. There’s a timeless quality Sky has. He shares with us his adoption story, mainstream and segregation in education, and he explains his love of music and technology (mostly self taught), capping off our celebratory show with three classic keyboard tunes.
So don’t miss this 100th show, with Sky Mundell, winner of Vancouver Island's Got Talent 2011.
Check out Sky performing live for Vancouver Island's Got Talent here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bapemFdu4cA And his music Facebook page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/skysmusicpage/
Check out the latest episode of Outlook where we speak with Natalie Martiniello and Jen Goulden from Braille Literacy Canada (BLC) as they celebrate thirty years. They discuss the early influence of braille literacy in their lives, how Braille Authority of North America (BANA) made Canada realize we needed something of our own, and what our guests believe is the future of braille in the literacy of Canadians who are blind and visually impaired.
In January, the month of Louis Braille’s birth, Natalie and Jen share their bilingual perspective, while explaining the unique connection to Mr. Braille that French-Canada holds close to its heart. What is Braille Literacy Canada and how is BLC at the forefront of the education into the value of braille in this country?
To learn more, check out the official website at: http://www.brailleliteracycanada.ca
Mixed Bag Monday, though I know when it’s a podcast, days of the week aren’t a part of it anymore. It’s our second episode of 2021 and the first with us two co-hosts back at it, as Outlook discusses what’s in the news, in the world of social media, and what’s happening on this show in the weeks to come. It’s another Mixed Bag Monday show.
Today, on Outlook, we discuss the recent celebrations for World Braille Day and Louis Braille’s birthday, our music making to cheer us up in the midst of this pandemic, and also the latest rumours going around on TikTok with young people needing not only mored education on someone from the past like Helen Keller, but how it’s more important than ever that we showcase the best of the ordinary lives of those of us living with disabilities. We are out here and we are making things happen and disability makes us stronger. https://worldblindunion.org/blog/news/wbu-statement-for-world-braille-day-4-january-2021/?fbclid=IwAR15EcpVqFITrPPTvmTs9z7H7pmiQMjrQmvA1FV5qtHwUFsaZxuTUA7Myjg https://medium.com/@isabellalahoue/the-generation-that-doesnt-believe-helen-keller-existed-e14d5945013c https://rikermusic.bandcamp.com http://soundcloud.com/skipatrolmusic/ski-patrol-lighting-up-a-dark-season
Have you ever seen a children’s picture print/braille book in your local library? Or any braille at all for that matter?
Our first guest on Outlook for 2021 is a public service librarian from the National Network For Equitable Library Service (NNELS). Pikiora Wylie moved to Canada from New Zealand when she met a Canadian and, since moving here, has lived in Ottawa, northern British Columbia, and now resides in Montreal, Quebec where she is learning French during the pandemic.
This episode originally aired on 94.9 CHRW Radio Western on January 4th which is a special date on the calendar for many blind people. Braille is feared by many, but we at Outlook promote it for equal literacy levels as the sighted have at their disposal. On this episode we talk about how Pikiora became a librarian and her mission for helping people get access to information makes her an important ally and resource, with her job at NNELS. And she tells us all about the resources available on NNELS’s website including tutorials and their YouTube page, with those and how to get a Canadian library to sign up as a way of creating greater inclusion for any of its blind patrons. We discuss how publishers can make material accessible from the start and how that makes all the difference, instead of having to redo things later, and our guest lets us know about the accessibility summit that takes place every winter between resources like NNELS and publishers.
NNELS is an information access resource for Canadians with a print disability (low vision, blindness, learning disabilities) and Pikiora tells us all about the needs of blind and low vision Canadians who reach out to NNELS for books made accessible.
https://nnels.ca
We’re Back! Before Outlook, this is where it all began.
Every year, around this time, we at Ketchup On Pancakes sit down by the fireside for a talk on the interesting year we’ve just experienced and the one still to come and 2020 was no exception; far from it. So we may not be recording as many episodes here as we once did, but even though we’re focusing our attention on Outlook and our advocacy on that show most of the year, this podcast still means a lot; it’s where we started our podcast work and the idea for a show about advocacy and blindness came out of this show which is more personal and focusing on family, humour, and creativity, a place where we can discuss any number of things unrelated to disability.
On this year-end-review, we start with the creativity with a visit to downtown London, Ontario just before Christmas where Brian and his bandmates (all COVID-19 precautions seen to) played a bunch of holiday favourites. That leads us right into the crackling fire and we talk about what’s changed (one Christmas to the next), about the pandemic that we did not anticipate interfering with ongoing podcasting projects, and where we are with our music and our writing. We feature the recent holiday themed song (Lighting Up a Dark Season) we wrote and recorded about a terrible accident five years ago and we share a bunch of Christmas memories (along with our cassette clip of the week as proof) of the pancakes with Ketchup breakfast that’s the inspiration behind the name of this podcast. Some family members have taken on the pancake making technique passed down to us from our father’s mother (Oma) and are carrying that tradition into the future.
So check out our By The Fireside episode for 2020 and we will see what we have to say by next year. See you by the fireside.
(Note: we also say goodbye to two beloved pets that passed away in 2020. Rip Dobby and Lumos.)
You can hear the holiday-themed song Brian produced and Kerry wrote lyrics for here: http://soundcloud.com/skipatrolmusic/ski-patrol-lighting-up-a-dark-season And Brian's band's debut EP can be found here: https://rikermusic.bandcamp.com
On this final episode of Outlook for 2020, we (brother and sister hosts) return with another Mixed Bag Monday for a discussion about how Outlook has grown over the past year. In a year where we were made to record from home rather than going into the station, we changed from 30 minute-long episodes to hour long shows where we began a year of interviews that can’t be beat: From mothers with blind children and teachers of blind students to discussions on music braille and perfect pitch. From learning about dangerously designed bike lanes in city design to what travel looked like to blind adventurers, before this pandemic changed all our lives, all travel included. In 2020, we made the move to get Outlook up on all podcast platforms including Apple and Spotify, at Outlook On Radio Western. We continue to consider and feature the outlooks of everyone who want to speak with us and we at Outlook On Radio Western will return for even more interviews and a focus on life with a disability in the world in 2021 and we hope you’ll join us for all that and more.
Here's a link to the song Kerry wrote the lyrics for and I produced: http://soundcloud.com/skipatrolmusic/ski-patrol-lighting-up-a-dark-season And my band's debut EP which was just released: https://rikermusic.bandcamp.com
On one of the final episodes of Outlook for the year, we speak with Judy Robinet, advocate and ally to those of us with disabilities as she shares her own journey with the “D word”. Her father was the major influence in her life, but along the way she met other influences including Stevie Wonder and went on in the fields of child and youth development, special education, and orientation and mobility training. The accident she went through as a teenager made her disabled and “disfigured,” basically being told she was no longer marriage material, that education was beyond her reach, but her father’s words kept her going: “Choose a life worth living” And so she did. And so she created a resource to help people realize that there is life after disability, a life worth living:
https://alifeworthliving.ca
Welcome to December and our first International Day For Persons With Disabilities or IDPD episode before 2020 comes to an end. The interviewer becomes the interviewee, but you can’t totally take the host out of the guest and we three soon find out we have one thing, in particular, in common. He’s on AMIAudio with the afternoon talk show Kelly and Company. Today, he’s our guest. We speak with Kelly MacDonald about the pros and cons of his years at W. Ross MacDonald School for the Blind and Deaf-blind and how it shaped him, how he got the best of both worlds, how he’s worked with Accessible Media Inc. since it was a basic reading service, and how a career in media and broadcasting has given him so much. His radio voice is classic, well practiced, and perfectly suited to spending an hour together. Having an accessible network in Canada like AMI is helping to promote inclusion in media representation so check out Kelly and Company, weekdays from two to four eastern: https://www.ami.ca/listenlive And also available as a podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/kelly-and-company/id1235188417
Someone who is blind has just as much of a stake in a healthy environmental imprint as anyone else. Yet, when you hear a bicycle flying by, when the wizzing sound of the bike’s tires surprises you when it’s most often too late, when this is a dangerous impediment to smooth travel on public transportation, it’s serious and must be taken into account.
On this week’s episode of Outlook, we speak with Oriano Belusic about the recent results of a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal case he filed about dangerous bike lanes and “floating” bus stops in Victoria.
It’s a situation that matters because the environmental issue and the safety of all pedestrians, blind travellers who have no choice between car or bicycle, they are both of consequence. It is one form of city design that could and has spread to other cities around the country and the world. We need to be considered and included before, not after-the-fact.
On this latest show, we discuss Oriano’s early life growing up in Croatia, what he’s built as a life for himself here in Canada, and what he’s seen the need for the Canadian Federation of the Blind (CFB) to be.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-floating-bus-stops-human-rights-tribunal-1.5811152
https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/cycling-guidelines-need-to-be-revised-in-wake-of-tribunal-ruling-advocate-1.24243483
We met him at the Orlando Airport, all coming home from the National Federation of the Blind convention of 2018 and we learned we all wanted to do more to advocate for blindness and disability in Canada. Check out this week’s episode of Outlook where we speak with Patrick Bouchard about finding the best educational environment, working in the online accessibility world, and how he found and took an active role in the Canadian Federation of the Blind here in Canada. Canada could sure use more Patrick’s.
Did you know there’s a way to add descriptions to photos on Facebook now? On this week’s Outlook, we pay tribute to Alex Trebek (long-time host of gameshow Jeopardy) as we discuss the influence and memories that show had and we had with it and Alex. We share a story of the first blind contestant, a big deal for us back in 1999 as he went on to win big, once the accessibility issues were addressed. On the latest Mixed Bag Monday, we discuss learning to play violin by ear and how to do yoga without being able to see the instructor, we do a step-by-step demonstration of how to add the alternative text (alt text) to our Facebook photos, and the recent difficulties over at the Center For Equitable Library Access (CELA) with putting out accurately reproduced braille in their books.
As a sighted Facebook user, to add alt text on mobile so blind user’s can tell what’s in your photo, do the following: After your photo has been posted, click in the top right and select “Edit Alt Text”. Click “Override Generated Alt Text”. Type your own alt text describing the photo. Click save.
For blind users, double tap on the photo. Swipe right until you find “More”. Double tap on “More” and then swipe right until you find “Edit Alt Text”. Double tap and then swipe write until you find “Override generated alt text”. Double tap and then type the text you’d like to add. Locate the save button and double tap it.
This week, on Outlook, we discuss disability literature with the reviews of two books, involving fairy-tales and the story of a blind mechanic. In our first half hour, we review Disfigured by Amanda Leduc, as we recall the fairy-tales we knew as siblings, growing up with blindness and disability. pure goodness and pure evil and how themes of physical or invisible disabilities manifested in fantastical stories through the generations, Leduc's scholarly exploration of the themes of disability in fairy-tales offer plenty of examples of the ways in which inclusion, diversity of thought weren’t always clear. Next, it’s The Blind Mechanic by Marilyn Davidson Elliott, based on her father and his life around vehicles and their engines, how he was able to support his family with jobs in the automotive sector. He was one of the survivors of the worst disaster in Canadian maritime history, losing both his eyes in the Halifax, Nova Scotia explosion of 1917. After you hear our reviews on these works of disability literature, maybe you’ll want to check out one or both books, whether you like princesses or automobiles.
As we say goodbye to another Blindness Awareness Month and enter the final, uncertain, few months of 2020, on this episode we pay tribute to someone we’re naming most famous Canadian blind person, most well-known across the country anyway. Tom Dekker was one of our first guests, back at the beginning. We’ve decided to replay the thirty-minute episode where we were lucky to get a chance to interview him because that chance is now gone. He was known as the iHabilitation man who loved his guide dog companion. He was our fourth episode, way back when, and we’re talking about “blind politics,” a term he used during our time with him. That’s what he engaged in and we’re honouring him, after his recent sudden death from cancer at age sixty-eight. He’d seen and done a lot, including creating the theme music for this show. He will always be part of what we do. RIP Tom! https://www.remembering.ca/obituary/thomas-dekker-1080581601
Happiness is blind is a worthwhile state of being. It’s not all misery is blind as so many parts of society might have you believe. A year of acceptance is what the mother on today’s episode of Outlook describes since the genetic blindness diagnosis of her third child, her only boy, after the Calgary family received the results of multiple examinations and medical testing for genetic markers for Leber Congenital Amaurosis. Since then, she’s gone on to create a blog and social media pages where she can make meaningful connections from sharing about her family’s experience in dealing with what it means to have a child who is blind, the diagnosis journey, in reactions from strangers in public, and in how learning must be altered somewhat and tailored to the child’s specific needs. So check out our interview with Melissa from Happiness is Blind and then go check out her family’s story at: https://happinessisblind.com
Meet local London friend Rob Castrogiovanni in his first interview on Outlook. We talk school days, sharing a disability with a sibling, and music with his newest project: The Melody Chamber! Rob's music page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/robctg And his writing page: https://www.facebook.com/robCastrogiovanniAuthor/ The Melody Chamber website coming soon!
BAM!: also known as Blindness Awareness Month has arrived. October is also Meet The Blind month. We are unsure about such a name as we eagerly await Meet The Sighted Month for November. ;-) October means not only BAM and Disability Employment Awareness Month but World Sight Day was October 8th and we’re back, us two, discussing why WSD seems to include blindness awareness on a day all about sight saving measures around the world. Back to basics and another mixed bag this week, on this Canadian Thanksgiving holiday Monday. We discuss something known as sensitivity reading and accessibility review work, recent Netflix shows with audio description included, and more talk of music braille and perfect pitch which our most recent guests shared about.
From her early rural west coast years to becoming a city girl, our guest on Outlook this week is someone we met in 2019, for the first time, at the Canadian Federation of the Blind Employment-Empowerment convention. On this week’s episode we discuss a musical life with good tone days and bad tone days. Patricia Elgersma speaks with us about perfect pitch, comparing just knowing a note to automatically recognizing a colour. So check out this interview with Patricia to find out how she hears a busy world around her.
Check out our discussion with an old friend this week on Outlook where we discuss music (piano, voice, and violin) along with music braille. From expectations to transitions, Sarah Jevnikar speaks with us about education and employment and the advocacy of speaking up for ourselves and the improvement for all when we’re persistent in doing so.
Did you know Art Garfunkel (of Simon and Garfunkel fame) had a lifelong best friend and College roommate who went blind in 1961 while they were in school together at Columbia University in New York City? On this week’s episode of Outlook, we’ve got a review and discussion with the two of us, and a friend and occasional guest host from Ireland, Barry Toner, of this memoir by Sanford D. Greenberg. It’s entitled “Hello Darkness, My Old Friend: How Daring Dreams and Unyielding Friendship Turned One Man’s Blindness Into An Extraordinary Vision For Life”. It’s about the real and lasting ideas about blindness that persist in 2020, even as we try our best to understand what it must be like to lose one’s sight in the middle of college, at a time of such change and growth in any young person’s life. It’s difficult, for those of us who’ve been blind all our lives, to hear how the book frames blindness as a “scourge” that must be ended. "We stumbled over a blind beggar. He was sitting cross-legged on the sidewalk. He was lanky, hunched over in soiled and torn clothes, wearing oversized and disintegrating shoes, and holding a metal cup. His unfocused eyes were milky with small black spots, his teeth misshapen and decayed. Anyway, that is how I recall him, and from that moment to today that is the form in which he has been a regular visitor in my dreams." "Will Ludwig, an old blind man would stand and “watch,” too. No one knew what he did or where he came from. He just stood there in his white T-shirt and gray slacks hiked up on his hips. He was creepy but benign, like a friendly ghost. If he wasn’t there, you wouldn’t notice his absence.” If these were the only images of blindness you’ve been exposed to, you’re not getting the whole picture.
As we move into our third season of the show, we discuss the pros and cons of a singular disability rights movement in Canada with two opposing points-of-view and their published articles in The Globe and Mail newspaper. We also spotlight the newest issue of the magazine from the Canadian Federation of the Blind known as The Blind Canadian, with articles on subjects such as the challenges blind Canadians are facing during this pandemic and first editorialColumn we’re calling Kerry’s Outlook. The Blind Canadian, Volume 17 can be found here: http://www.cfb.ca/august-2020-version-of-the-blind-canadian Globe & Mail article here (links to second one): https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-a-united-disability-movement-would-undermine-our-individual-and-unique/ Appearance on iCantCU podcast: https://www.icantcu.com/090-2/
Mary Ellen Gabias is President of the Canadian Federation of the Blind (CFB). On this week’s episode, we speak with her about her years before coming to Canada to lead advocacy efforts for other blind people like her, about her early time working in a sheltered workshop and then going on to create programs for adults who’ve gone blind later in life, and some of the differences she has seen between the way we Canadians advocate and the way the US does it. Mary Ellen’s desire to see things like employment opportunities improve, human rights cases improve the lives of blind people, for a more independent future, always staying true to the CFB’s philosophies that believe blind people, blind Canadians can live the lives we want. Blindness doesn’t have to be that thing to hold us back. To celebrate Outlook’s two-year anniversary, check out the show this week to learn more. http://www.cfb.ca
What do a castle, a snowflake, a butterfly, and DNA all have in common?
Caroline Karbowski is the CEO of See3D, a non-profit organization that manages the printing and distribution of 3D printed models for people who are blind. Although she is not blind herself, she reads braille by touch. This is a fascinating interview you will not want to miss.
https://see3d.org
Outlook 2020-08-24 - Help with inaccessible bike lane design, Blind history in Canada by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2020-08-17 - Interview with Educational Assistant Melissa Houthuyzen by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2020-07-27 - National Federation of the Blind Virtual Convention by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2020-05-25 - Interview with Ed Barnes on guide dogs by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2020-03-09 - Coronavirus, International Women's Day, skating by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2020-03-02 - Rare disease day, Travel Update, Is love blind? by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2020-02-17 - Interview with Ben Fulton on guide dog discrimination case by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2020-02-10 - White cane week, Kerry walking the Thames by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2020-01-20 - Kerry learns the console and reviews a book, Public Speaking for Probus by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2020-01-13 - Learning the console, Keeping up with CFB, Braille Calendar by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-12-09 - Study on sound, New CNIB spokesperson? by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-11-18 - Social Media Week Toronto, traveling while blind by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-10-07 - Kerry on Rogers TV Her Stories, Braille UNO and other games by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-09-30 - Independent blind people, blind actor on This Is Us by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-09-09 - Once Around The Sun (1-Year Anniversary Show) by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-09-02 - Team Starfish (feat future-Paralympian Emily Trepanier) by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-08-26 - The Beach & The Bog (feat special guests Max & Sophia) by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-08-19 - Discussion with Program Director Pamela Haasen by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-08-12 - Braille displays, The Blind Canadian, picking out clothes by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-08-05 - 2019 CFB summer social, special guest Sharmayne by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-07-29 - Back Live (AMI appearance, CFB fundraisers, AODA) by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-07-08 - Sibling Connection continued, The Music by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-06-10 - You'll Be Fine, CFB Convention Part II by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-05-27 - So You're Blind, CFB Convention Part I by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-04-15 - Special guests Anthony & Jesse from CJSW show Bumping into Walls by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-04-08 - New Kids in town award, Green shirt day, job update by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-04-01 - Disability fees for students no longer mandatory? by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-03-25 - Discussion with violinist Gianna McGrath by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-01-28 - Label on washrooms, Bird Box challenge by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2019-01-14 - 10 Things You May Not Know About Braille, CFB Scams by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2018-12-03 - International Day of Persons With Disabilities by Outlook on Radio Western
Outlook 2018-10-22 - Discussion with Erik Burggraaf (CFB Ontario Chair) by Outlook on Radio Western
Ketchup On Pancakes Episode 3 - The Great Gong Show of 2016 by Outlook on Radio Western