Outlook on Radio Western

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.com Don’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-joy And 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.org And make sure to check out and support the companies who graciously contributed to our installation: https://ailledesign.com https://www.purdys.com https://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 6 Isn’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=OFS8SpwioZ4 Listen 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=1000488226660 Our episode reviewing Heumann’s book: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2020-07-13-being-heumann-book-review/id1527876739?i=1000488226662 And 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.ca And 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/17856062 And 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.com For even more on Singh’s own storytelling and performance work: https://rebeccasingh.com Rest 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-housing Check 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=1000548263642 And 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.ca And all other links referenced in this episode can be found below: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/world-radio-day-we-are-diversity https://news.westernu.ca/2023/02/western-researchers-create-online-resource-to-support-physical-activity-for-children-with-disabilities/ https://cyneveryonecanplay.my.canva.site https://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-tulia And 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 raised A 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=sf0QYIbACIU Check 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-fireplace Learn 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-pc And 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/macylewis Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMacyLewis Twitter: 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/channels You can also catch the show at the same time simulcast on AMI Audio: https://www.ami.ca/listenlive And 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=1000501639876 https://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=1000589083990 Read 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=1000553477466 And 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=1000524699528 https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-06-14-cfb-choices-goals-2021-virtual-convention/id1527876739?i=1000525501448