Triple Vision

In this month's podcast Peter and Karoline speak with Canada's Chief Accessibility Officer Stephanie Cadieux. Calling herself Influencer in Chief Ms. Cadieux talks candidly about the progress made to date on the implementation of the Accessible Canada Act, and the long road still ahead before Canada is expected to be accessible by 2040.
Too often accessibility is seen as a charitable activity, something you do when there is money left over or, when you get a grant. We have to flip that script and say, 'no, accessibility is as important as electricity'.

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In this month's podcast Peter Field of the Triple Vision team takes listeners on a tour of his hobby farm in Ashcroft British Columbia. Peter became fascinated about how blind individuals could take up farming following an interview on podcast 22 with Professor Geoffrey Reaume of York University. In that podcast Professor Reaume explained how, prior to the industrial revolution, blind individuals fully participated in the economy by working on farms. Consequently, he and his partner purchased a 20-acre hobby farm in the interior of BC where they manage chickens, sheep, 7 dogs and an intrepid barn cat. Tune in to this month's episode of Triple Vision for this fascinating story about managing life on a farm without vision.

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In Triple Vision's first podcast reporting from location, Peter and Karoline talk with researchers and participants at the Co-Design Festival organized by the CNIB's Research Team. On March 11 participants gathered at the Microsoft campus in Toronto to talk AI, accessible competencies, inclusive and ethical research and designing accessible blood pressure monitors. In this podcast Peter speaks with three guests at the festival about what co-design means for them. Karoline follows up with two interviews with participants on their impressions of the event. Co-design is the concept of designing products and services with those who will benefit from them at the very beginning, rather than waiting for a final, or nearly final, product.

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Uncovering Book Clubs: Why Book Clubs are More Accessible to Individuals who are Blind than Ever Before

In this month's podcast Karoline and Peter uncover the world of book clubs for individuals who are blind, deafblind, and partially sighted. It used to be that it was very difficult for individuals with visual impairments to join book clubs, but now, with the proliferation of books available in so many formats, attending book club meetings is no longer such a big deal. In this podcast Karoline asks Chris Jonas and Pasquale Agnone of her chat-based book club to talk about why they find book clubs so interesting, and the pros and cons of joining book clubs organized specifically for people who are blind vs. mixed book clubs.
"In terms of your question about why blind people would go to a blind book club, I think its just because there's that shared experience. They have a common format like, typically most blind people prefer the audio format. They know what the sources are. They can compare what is available. They can talk about the narration which is not something which is usually talked about in a "non-blind" book club. There's things like that. Things that everyone is familiar with as a person with a visual impairment when it comes to reading books."

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Re-imagining Human Rights - Let's Take This to Another Two Levels
In this month's episode of Triple Vision, the team follows up on the interview it did with Dean Stacey of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, produced in December 2023. In that episode Dean talked about the Alliance's attempts to overturn a decision by the Canadian Human Rights commission not to hear a complaint of discrimination against it. This month Peter and Karoline talk to lawyer Anne Levesque who brought the case to two levels of Canadian courts hoping for a different decision. Each time the courts rejected the Alliance's attempt at justice. Now, Anne speaks freely about what she sees are the difficulties with the current human rights process in Canada and what could be some solutions for a re-imagined human rights system.
Human rights law in particular, and this is not me that says it, it’s the Supreme Court of Canada, ought to be interpreted liberally to give purpose to the Act. You shouldn’t look for exceptions or loopholes. We really need to look at what is the intention of Parliament, and the intention of Parliament behind human rights legislation is to allow all Canadians to live the lives that they wish to live.
Resources:

Profile: Anne Levesque, Faculty of Law

LinkedIn: Anne Levesque

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In this month's Triple Vision episode, Peter and Karoline start to re-imagine what human rights in Canada could look like. We start this re-imagining by talking with Dean Steacy of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC). AEBC had launched a complaint to the Canadian Human rights Commission (CHRC) against the federal department of Employment and Social Development Canada, on the basis that AEBC was discriminated against when the forms it used to apply for a grant were not accessible. The CHRC refused to hear the complaint, and the AEBC appealed to two levels of Court to have that decision overturned. Tune in to hear Dean describe the case and why it is so important to blind Canadians.
If the Commission were to do things right, they'd be moving to a digital process so that everything is online and everything that the sighted community has to use on line, we as the blind community have access to that.
Resources:
December 3rd is the annual observance day of the International Day of Disabled Persons, which was proclaimed in 1992 by the United Nations General Assembly.

Canadian Human Rights Commission

United Nations: International Day of Persons with Disabilities

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Universal Banter. How Does Assistive Technology Fit with the Idea of Universal Design?
In this week's episode the Triple Vision Team, with guest host Karoline Bourdeau, joins forces with the AT Banter podcast team to discuss the interplay of assistive technology with mainstream technology towards a horizon of universal design. Join the Triple vision team, along with Steve Barclay, Ryan Fleury, and Rob Mineault of Canadian Assistive Technologies Ltd. to discuss the past, present and future of assistive technologies in Canada, and around the world.
Imagine, for example, somebody who lives a good majority of their life in a powered wheelchair with very limited physical access. We can, through various technologies that we handle, we can connect somebody to a computer right down to a single muscle if necessary, or even eye gaze technology if necessary. There is an interplay that happens in cases like that between occupational and physical therapists to determine exactly how a person can be positioned, how a person can do movement that is meaningful for their access. I just can't see there being a one solution for everybody given that because they do get so very specific.
Resources:

AT Banter Podcast: Advocating for Inclusivity, Diversity and better Accessibility for the world we live in

Make A Difference - Described Video, By Ryan Fleury on White Cane Records

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In this latest podcast, the Triple Vision team reimagines what inclusive communications could look like by speaking with Denis Boudreau, owner of the firm Inklusive communications. Denis is a writer and speaker in the area of inclusive communications. In this podcast he describes the importance of businesses and individuals including a diversity of recipients in their communications, and where they have fallen down, or have had little exposure to this area. He also discusses many tips for individuals an organizations for improving their communications practices.
Most colleges still don't have accessibility baked into their programs. They might have someone who speaks about it, tangentially, as part of a course, but its not embedded as part of anything we do. so, in most cases when accessibility is being taught to them its this extra course that they might take sitting in parallel with everything else, while in reality we have known for a long time that they only way accessibility can be successful is if its embedded into what you are doing.
Resources:

Denis Boudreau, Inklusiv Communication

Founder & Chief Inclusion Officer, Trainer, Speaker and author

Website: https://inklusiv.ca

Book: The Inclusive Speaker, available on Amazon
Through this book, author Denis Boudreau, a 22+ year web accessibility and digital equality veteran, shares his perspectives on systemic exclusion as being one of the greatest communication threats to face businesses today, and how brands can be more successful, simply by doing the right thing by their audience and empowering them to truly connect.

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Beyond Average: What Could the World of Technology Look Like If It Was Designed Differently?

In podcast 38 the Triple Vision team talks with Jutta Treviranus, Director of the Inclusive Design Research Centre at Ontario's OCAD University. As Triple Vision sets out to re-imagine what inclusively designed technology systems and apps could look like, Jutta brings her perspective on how designing for the so-called difficult 20% actually promotes innovation and creativity so that products can work for everyone.
one of the first things that we examine and question is this notion of average. This goes back to an academic in the 1800's called Katalay who started the field of demographics. He talked about human averages, and that the average human was the ideal to achieve. But there are other people who have shown that there is, in fact, no average human and if we design for the average human then we are creating a greater and greater disparity.
Resources:

QUANTIZATION: A podcast on inclusion.
Podcast 3 part series: Jutta and Bianca series on housing and homelessness, we ask them to look at the future and what technology could offer.

YouTube: The Disappearing Computer.
In this exclusive preview of groundbreaking, unreleased technology, former Apple designer and Humane cofounder Imran Chaudhri envisions a future where AI enables our devices to "disappear". He gives a sneak peek of his company's new product, shown for the first time ever on the TED stage, and explains how it could change the way we interact with tech and the world around us. Witness a stunning vision of the next leap in device design.
Imran Chaudhri TED Talk

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In episode 37 the triple vision team talks with Kaye Leslie to re-imagine what an accessible and universally designed health care system could look like. Kaye recently moved to small town Ontario and talks about her experiences navigating the health care system in Toronto as well as in her new town of Huntsville. The team asks her how health care could be re-imagined to meet the needs of all individuals in an accessible and universal way.

“When we talk about barriers, of course we know that that there are the physical and the practical, but then there is the attitudinal. That’s where I would love to see medical students who may graduate have a new approach to people with differences – end of story. That includes disability, you know, don’t make assumptions, treat everyone with respect and ask, 'How can I assist you’”.

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In this episode of Triple Vision, the team strikes out on its own, independent of Accessible Medi Inc. to continue to bring you the Triple Vision podcast. It reimagines what life could look like if blind, deafblind, and partially sighted Canadians had greater social participation in employment, education, technology, governance, and an accessible Canada with equal economic benefits.

“I think the challenge which service organizations have is, what is their role? Because currently they’re struggling to hang on to that old colonialism kind of role of providing services that really are no longer needed. So, what should service organizations be doing? With artificial intelligence coming down the pipe we have tremendous opportunities to gain a foothold, to gain more independence and integration into society."

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An Entrepreneurship round table discussion by the Triple Vision Team.

In this second in a two-part series on entrepreneurship, the Triple Vision team talks about their own paths towards entrepreneurship and self-employment. Each team member, Sharlyn, Hanna, David and Peter have all arrived at the same place, although each pursuing a different route to get there, and choosing entrepreneurship and self-employment for different reasons. When organizing this podcast team members were pleasantly surprised to discover that, when they talked about who else they knew who were entrepreneurs, each person could tell the story of their own entrepreneurial journey. “I think there’s a real need for younger people to understand what they are getting into when they become an entrepreneur. About 65% of our GDP is now small business. I think if we are going to come and achieve any desire or any level of accepting of inclusion, we need to start very early in education so that when people become entrepreneurs they can do it without all of this overhead of worry and frustration. There is so much misinformation out there that I find a lot of them are led down the garden path”.

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CNIB Governance with Kate Bahne from Charity Intelligence In this fourth episode looking at some of the governance issues of CNIB, the Triple Vision team speaks with Kate Behan, Managing Director of Charity Intelligence. Charity Intelligence is a non-profit organization which provides Canadians with information so they may make informed decisions about which charities to support. In this fascinating podcast, Kate talks candidly about what makes a good charity, and what are some of the pitfalls charities can fall into. She explains why the CNIB, as one of the largest 100 charities in Canada, merits only a two star rating as evaluated by her organization. ”We do always find that when charities have strong feedback mechanisms, and when they are serving the people they serve then they can allocate their spending where it can do the most good. And, talking about the value, where is the money going, and how is it delivering the best value for the community? To me it always comes back down to the better you can understand the problem, the better you can tackle it. You would hope for evidence-based policies, that you can see if we do A, B, and C, we will hope to see a change in X, Y, and Z. But that doesn’t seem to be the case in this situation.” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"In this week’s episode, the Triple Vision team talks with Kevin Shaw, a self-proclaimed entrepreneur who is currently the Digital Accessibility Lead for the online bank, Tangerine, and has some experience starting up his own businesses. The team asks Kevin questions about the challenges and rewards of being an entrepreneur with sight loss. The podcast provides an engaging look into entrepreneurship as a viable career choice for Canadians who are blind, deafblind and partially sighted. Indeed the team asks the question, ""Why is it that it does not seem that entrepreneurship has ever been promoted as a practical career choice for many members of our community?"" “Entrepreneurship is really about sharing your talent with the world, and going out there, developing a skill. Maybe it's in computers, maybe it's working with your hands, and sharing that with people. I think that’s why it's been growing so much and that’s why I think some people are looking at this as a viable option.""" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"In this week’s episode, the Triple Vision team speaks with Elizabeth Lalonde of the Pacific Training Centre in Victoria, and Deborah Gold of BALANCE for Blind Adults in Toronto. Elizabeth and Deborah talk about how their organizations offer rehabilitation services to the blind and visually impaired community. The podcast offers a glimpse into how Canadians do have choice, although still somewhat limited, when it comes to the services they can access. “We learnt a lot through the pandemic. I’m very proud of the way we pivoted in four days. We were really the first organization serving blind people in North America to be able to continue service. I was online with people all over the States, working in organizations. It took months for many of them to get so that they could provide service again. We never stopped.” " --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"In this third part in the Triple Vision team’s exploration of governance at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), David Best and Peter Field talk with Chief Operating Officer, Angela Bonfanti and its new National Board Chair, Robert Fenton. Angela and Robert talk candidly about the role of the foundation in the lives of blind Canadians. They also answer some direct questions passed along by Canadian consumers in the team’s previous podcast about participation of blind, deafblind, and partially sighted Canadians on the foundation's board. “I believe, as Chair of the Board, that it's very important to have good relationships with all of the consumer groups. That doesn’t mean that we agree on everything. It means that we can talk and we can candidly discuss things and share perspectives, and get input from these groups who represent more than one individual or a small group of individuals at a time. It's important to have input from these groups and to be seen as a partner.” Tune into this episode for the continuing narrative of a single story of governance." --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"In Part 2 of Triple Vision’s exploration of what is the single story behind governance at CNIB, Peter and Hanna speak with Mary Ellen Gabias and Albert Ruel about what they heard from Jane Beaumont and Kevin Burns in Episode 29. In our last podcast, Jane and Kevin discussed the CNIB governance structure from its origins to where it is today. At the end of this episode the Triple Vision team asked the question, “Do Canadian consumers who are blind, deafblind, and partially sighted share those same views?” In this episode, Mary Ellen and Albert talk frankly about what works for them and what does not coming out of CNIB’s structure, governance and programs. “I get a lot of advice from my siblings, my husband, my children. What I do with advice is what most people do with advice. I take it under advisement and accept the advice that I like and reject the advice that I don’t. CNIB as an entity does that too. But, I, as a consumer, if I think that the organization is going in the wrong direction, I can vote with my feet by not showing up, but beyond that there’s very little that can be done.” Join the Triple vision team for Part 2 of this illuminating in-depth exploration of the single story of governance at CNIB." --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"The Triple Vision team starts a series on governance, in particular the governance story behind the CNIB. The team starts with a look back at how the CNIB was formed, and what it looks like now. David, Hanna and Peter speak to Jane Beaumont, CNIB Archivist and former Chair of its National Board, as well as Kevin Burns, a former Chair of CNIB’s Governance Committee. Is it possible to determine the single story of an organization by how it is governed, by the rules and structures it operates under? How did the organization move from charity to a more modern approach to service delivery ... or did it? Tune into this week’s Triple vision podcast and find out. “The issue, of course, is we are talking about working with disability at a time when, well, we call it disability studies now, but back then it was called something else. It was called charity. It was called helping out. So, one of the things that is a big line in this story of the CNIB is how the instinct to be a charitable organization providing services becomes a movement that is about dealing with people’s full participation in whatever way they choose to live their lives.” " --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"In this episode the Triple Vision team continues its exploration of the danger of a single story by speaking with Dr. M. Leona Godin. Dr. Godin, who has taught literature and humanities at New York University, is a writer, performer and educator, lecturing on art, accessibility, technology, and disability. In this episode, she speaks with Peter Field and Hanna Leavitt about the themes emerging from her book, There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness. She reflects on how some of the single stories of blindness over the past two-and-a-half centuries have led to myth, stereotyping and unbridled inspiration porn. ""I think the most obvious thing that I am pushing back on in my book is that the story of blindness in our literature, in our media, our films, and even from a journalistic perspective, has almost exclusively been told by sighted people. That is the No. 1 big issue, because I think that the ideas that sighted people have about blind people just don't make any sense in terms of our own lived experience.” Learn more about There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness: https://drmlgodin.com/2021/05/there-plant-eyes-a-personal-and-cultural-history-of-blindness/" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

In this episode the Triple Vision team takes a page from a Ted Talk by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie called “The Danger of a Single story”. In her Talk the author relates what happens when someone else tells the story about another person or a community, and how much they can get that story wrong. Throughout the podcast you will hear the voices of the Triple Vision team, David Best, Sharlyn Ayotte, Peter Field and Hanna Leavitt discussing how the story regarding the community of Canadians who are blind and visually impaired has been told for years without them, and what the consequences of that are. “I was shocked by that. It was a story that had been generated for an awfully long time by the agency about who we were as blind people, dependent, helpless, terrified by everyday living. I couldn’t stay any longer because the story I knew about my friends and myself was that we were educated, self-determined, independent, skilled and talented.” The single story is a theme the Triple Vision team plans to return to often in its upcoming episodes. Resources: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Danger of a Single Story (2009): https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"In this last episode of Triple Vision’s first season, the team of David, Hanna, Sharlyn and Peter look back at their first year of podcasting and some of their most memorable moments. From Professor Serge Durflinger talking about his book, “Veterans with a Vision,” in Episode 1, to colonialism, library services and several episodes dedicated to education and employment, the team recalls what they learne and what they are looking forward to next as they prepare for a second season. “I’m looking forward to a conversation that talks about how governance matters, and which narratives take priority when we are talking about ‘nothing about us without us,’ and how the current governance models are not working to support that perspective.” “The challenge that we have is that we’re such a small group that a lot of what we say gets overlooked. Even today, we see that a lot of the traditional ways of doing things lingers on. We have to try to figure out how we can shift that thought process; for example, today we depend on computers, technology, the iPhone, everything like that, and it makes a huge difference in our lives. But, for the most part, we are basically told what we need. We’re not given much opportunity to say, 'I am the end user and this is what I want. This is how I do things.'”" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

In this last in a four-part series on employment, the Triple Vision team speaks to Jen Ferris and Wayne Henshall in order to answer the question: “Do employment programs for blind Canadians really work?” Jen Ferras is a "Free Agent" employed by the Government of Canada working on modernization initiatives; she has been working towards her own employment program for Canadians who are blind called “Talent Launch Consulting” on the side. The idea is to seek out gig work from established companies and then provide that work to qualified individuals looking to start their careers, or change their employment situation for the better. “What makes it unique is that it's well-established. It's legitimate companies requiring work to be done on their projects, and it's meaningful work. It’s not just tokenism.” Meanwhile, after 20 years in the corporate world, Wayne Henshall is now head of the Come to Work Program at CNIB. The program supports blind and visually impaired individuals moving along the continuum of vision loss through to the pursuit of work, careers and venture start-ups. The national program has grown from 30 participants in its first year, to now taking in 1,100. “The hard part is, how do you make the overall numbers change? We have such a high unemployment rate, it's three times the rate of the rest of Canada, and so I would say, are we making meaningful change? Two hundred and eighty of those 1,100 individuals have gotten jobs who had not been working for six months-plus, and in some cases had never worked, ever in their activities. So, that is a start. … Even if I got all 1,100 of those, that would only change the overall employment rate by less than .01%.” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"In this third episode covering the unemployment story for blind Canadians, the Triple Vision team speaks with city of Winnipeg Council Member Ross Eadie. We start by going all of the way back to Episode 5, called “Cane and Ableism,” when we spoke with Gord Hudek of Ambutech Corporation. Gord told us a fascinating anecdote about when he wanted to hire a individual who was blind in his factory. He was told by the CNIB that the workplace presented some safety concerns and that the person should probably not be hired. Peter asks Ross about this, as well as his life as a City of Winnipeg municipal Council Member - all to continue our exploration of the question, ""Why is the unemployment rate so high for Canadians who are blind, deaf blind, and partially sighted?” “The City of Winnipeg takes accessibility overall quite seriously, actually. Sometimes it may not seem like that but if you look at our transit system and you look at our streets system, tell me any major city in this country right now, give me a major city, that has every signalized intersection outfitted with an audible signal. Every intersection Isn’t perfect, but every intersection has that.… My wish is that we could find more employers, and this would really help the whole cross-disability perspective, more employers who would consider positions that are more specialized that could be filled.… Again, I still don’t know to what engineer I need to refer to, to get someone to look at Ambutech’s actual workplace and not see why not to employ a person who is blind, but look at how to employ somebody who is blind in that workplace.” " --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"Today’s episode continues Triple Vision’s deep dive into the difficult questions surrounding the employment, and unemployment rates, of blind Canadians. The team pulls together three panelists to discuss the daunting issue of why the unemployment rate for Canadians who are blind, deafblind and partially sighted so chronically high. Vic Pereira, Marcia Yale and David Best all share their views on what has, and continues to, hold employers back from hiring individuals within the sight loss community. The panel covers issues like the lack of awareness by employers regarding the capabilities of individuals who are blind, technological trends that have both supported us and held us back, and attitudes in the workplace, amongst other issues. “One of the major challenges that we face is that we are always at the trailing end of progress. Through the 1900s, sheltered workshops were quite popular because they were opportunities for people who could not get into the workforce. However, we have shifted from the labour-based economy to the knowledge-based economy and the policies and procedures have not kept up with the progress of the world when it comes to the employment environments of workplace tools and transportation. I think the reason why we have always been behind with employment is we have been left behind when advancements are made. There’s no policy to include our needs as progress moves forward.”" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

This week, the Triple Vision team starts a series on the history of employment for Canadians who are blind, deafblind and partially sighted. In today’s look back, Peter speaks with Geoffrey Reaume, Assistant Professor of Critical Disability Studies at York University, about the impacts of the industrial revolution and the development of the sheltered workshop. Starting at the turn of the century, these workshops provided a very basic form of employment for Canadians who are blind, but they were often menial jobs which did not even pay the minimum wage. Hanna then talks with Cathy Stukenberg, who managed a CNIB CaterPlan kiosk for 28 years in Vancouver selling a variety of items ranging from cigarettes to chocolate bars. CaterPlan was CNIB’s answer to the employment problem from 1928 up to the 1980s. “It was really with the industrial economy that large numbers of people in the industrial world were employed in sheltered workshops. Beginning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Goodwill industries in Boston was founded by a philanthropist and spread throughout different parts of North America.… By the mid 20th century, there were large numbers of sheltered workshops established for people with physical, mental and sensory disabilities. People who were blind were especially put to work doing jobs that they were seen as being more capable of doing in regard to tactile work.… Of course it was very exploitative work, where they were paid very poorly and were very, very much not valued as labourers within themselves. So, people with disabilities, blind, people with physical and mental disabilities whose work had previously been more integrated into a pre-industrial economy were more segregated as the industrial revolution speeded up activity. They were considered less capable of contributing to the economy even though in many cases this was certainly not true." --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"Today, the Triple Vision team wraps up its five-part series on education by exploring how a fully-integrated education system has worked for three blind and partially sighted individuals in British Columbia. Fourteen years ago, Shawn Marsolais started Blind Beginnings, a non-profit organization committed to supporting blind children and youth through their personal and educational journeys. A driving force for Shawn’s desire to start the organization was as a result of her own lack of inclusion in the B.C. education system. Hanna and Peter talk to Shawn, as well as two of her Blind Beginnings participants Jinnie and Nika, about how Blind Beginnings helped support these students through school and now on to university. The episode caps off an exciting series where many individuals have shared their stories about how socialization, whether it be in an integrated or specialised school setting, is a critical success factor in any student’s success. “I think a big part of what I’m trying to do is realizing how much internalized ableism that I grew up feeling, and still tackle myself as a person in my 40s, it's really hard. When I think, for example, of how long it took me to feel comfortable using a white cane because of the shame I felt using it. When you are growing up in an environment where you’re the only person with a disability most of the time, it's natural that you’re going to have a lot of self-esteem issues and feel less than. So, when you are surrounded by people who are like you, you get to just focus on who you are, not this 'blind' part that you are constantly trying to over-compensate for.” " --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"In this fourth podcast in a series covering the education of Canadians who are blind, deafblind, and partially sighted, the Triple Vision team explores the history of the W. Ross Macdonald School for the Blind in Ontario. Peter speaks with Dan Maggiacomo, who has the honour of being the school’s Principal in this, its 150th anniversary. Hanna then talks to Alan Conway about his experiences there. The only remaining school for the blind in Canada, the W. Ross Macdonald School continues to evolve to provide relevant educational opportunities for children and youth with vision loss. “These days it's split about 50–50. Fifty percent of our students are blind and 50 percent of our students have low vision, and they tend to come for perhaps five years or less. We have programs that are just a year or two in duration. We have programs that are a week long several times throughout the year. We still run a robust high school program increasingly doing things like STEM - the sciences and mathematics - where these students are finding the opportunity here to participate fully in those types of programs. So, there was a time when, I think, it was the conception of the school, that we were going to become a school that was really specialized serving students with additional needs only. That period has passed and now we are a comprehensive school. Yes, we have students with all different types of needs, but I think the school now has the greatest range of learners that we have ever had, and that’s absolutely to the school’s benefit.” " --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"Today, the Triple Vision team continues its series on education by speaking with two graduates of the Jericho Hill School for the Blind in Vancouver. Diana Brent travelled from her home in William's Lake, 350 kilometres north of Vancouver, to attend the school between 1956 and 1959. Our second guest, Nora Sarsons, attended between 1949 and 1955. Both graduates had similar experiences to other graduates we previously talked to from schools in Quebec as well as Halifax. These past students recount that even attending schools for a short time helped prepare them for further education and the working world, and how they formed life-long friendships. “When I first left school, and even up until a few years ago, I really felt that the best thing for kids to have happen to them was to be integrated from the get-go. But the problem with that is there are not enough resources to be put into their education. I know this because I was a teacher for 10 years teaching kids with visual impairments. You don’t have enough time to be consistent, constantly keeping up the teaching of the blind-related skills when you’re trying to teach everything else as well....I think there has to be a combination. I never would have said that a few years ago.""" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

Today the Triple Vision team continues with the series on education. In this series we are tracing the history of Canada’s schools for the blind and exploring some key themes around how effective these schools, as well as Canadian schools which undertook the integration of students who were blind and partially sighted, prepared these students for post-secondary study and beyond. In this second episode we talk to two past students of one of Canada’s oldest schools for the blind in Halifax. Terry Kelly attended the Halifax School for the Blind and started his music career in high school, and in 2003, he was appointed to the Order of Canada. Robert Mercer attended the School for the Blind in Halifax, and went on to get a Bachelor’s Degree from St. Mary’s University, and at the age of thirty, he was appointed National President and CEO for the CNIB. "One other thing about the school is that it taught me to be competitive. It's hard to create a full education platform for young children who are blind in a regular school. You can provide the itinerant teaching, and watch over to make sure that if you don't understand the mathematics that we can teach it in a different way, but all of the other skills are difficult. You can't teach people to play football in the backyard when they can't participate. But we played football, baseball, and we played soccer, and we did all kinds of things as blind children that we couldn't have done with children in a sighted school, for example. We changed the rules and we adapted the game to our own circumstance, but those things happened very naturally." --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

Today the Triple Vision team starts a series on education. In this series we will be tracing the history of Canada’s schools for the blind and exploring some key themes around how effective these schools, as well as Canadian schools which undertook the integration of students who were blind and partially sighted, prepared these students for post-secondary study and beyond. In this first episode we talk to two past students of two of Canada’s oldest schools for the blind in Quebec. Chantal Oakes attended the Nazareth School for the Blind in Montreal, and then Jerico Hill school in Vancouver, before completing her education at an integrated school in Surry British Columbia. Leo Bissonnette began his education at the Montreal Association School for the blind, later renamed the Phillip E. Layton School. Leo then went on to Loyola College and eventually completed a master’s and a PhD. “Certainly, I would hope that what we are getting today is the student who has been supported in recent years with a teacher for the visually impaired who is layering on in stages what is needed as a student goes through the school so that it is not just one big shock thrown at them at once. It has to be an evolutionary development of a skill set that goes along with what is happening at the school at the level that the student is at.” Listen in as these individuals relate their stories about their experiences in the education system and what worked well, and what they may have left behind. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"In this third episode on advocacy, the Triple Vision team connects the dots between the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 and the passage of the Accessible Canada Act in 2019. And who better to tell this story than two of Canada’s strongest advocates, who have been on the ground for many years making change happen? In this, our 16th podcast episode, the team interviews Order of Canada and Order of Ontario recipient David Lapofsky about his contributions to advocacy in Ontario and across Canada. We also speak to Yvonne Peters, who has been an advocate since kindergarten! Both these individuals were instrumental in ensuring the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the Charter. In this episode you will hear an excerpt from David Lapofsky’s presentation to the House of Commons committee reviewing the draft Constitution in 1980, available on his own Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Alliance (AODA) website. Meanwhile, Yvonne Peters talks candidly about the pros an cons of the 2019 Accessible Canada Act and her concerns that Canada is implementing a “two-tiered” rights system where Canadians without disabilities may go to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, while those with disabilities will need to seek re-dress elsewhere first. “That’s the way it happens for us, always. The barriers that we face aren’t because someone sat down and calculated them. The cost of including us for the most part is negligible. Where there is a cost it’s a cost worth paying. But the cost of not including and providing inclusion and accessibility for people with disabilities, that is much, much higher.”" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"In this second podcast series on the history of advocacy in Canada, the Triple Vision team covers the years between 1974 and 1982. We were fortunate to record this episode with John Rae just before his sudden death earlier this month. In this episode, John describes almost 50 years of tireless advocacy, beginning with the formation of the “Blind Organization of Ontario with Selfhelp Tactics,” or BOOST, in 1974. John also touches on a piece of Canadiana, describing the reaction of the blind community to the arrest and sentencing of Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones in 1979. Richards was ordered to play a benefit concert for the CNIB and the reaction of the blind community was, well, mixed! Finally, John brings this episode to the point where disability was enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982. “We were an organization of blind people who came together to speak for ourselves. An important part about that is that we employed what is called a mass-based approach. We didn’t just have the Chair going out and doing all of the speaking. We tried to involve everybody in developing policies and our initiatives. For many of us, being involved gave us a chance to learn skills, skills of organizing, skills of writing, skills of public speaking. We learned by doing. For many of us, that was the first opportunity we had ever had in our lives to participate in a meaningful way in decisions that effected us. And that was exciting!”" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"In the early 1900s a young man arrived in Canada, ready to start a job as an organist for a Montreal church. But when the church discovered he was blind, they rescinded the job offer and, really, the rest was history! This week, the Triple Vision team starts a new series on advocacy in Canada. This first episode begins with the story of Philip E. Layton, the founder of the Montreal Association for the Blind (MAB). Our story is told through posthumous recordings with former NDP leader Jack Layton, and former MAB Board member Nancy Layton. It is a compelling history of one prominent Canadian families' indelible mark on the lives of blind Canadians. “Had penicillin been invented, my great grandpa, who knows, maybe never would have come to Canada because he would have kept his sight. But with no penicillin, the infection in his eye nerve moved from the one eye to the other and he was totally blinded. So here you have a blind teenager who was taught to play the piano, was quite proficient at it, already composing things. .... They didn’t mention in his resume that he was blind, they didn’t think it was relevant, but when he showed up they said, ‘I’m sorry, the job is taken,’ and I guess he got his first experience in discrimination against the disabled.” " --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"The story on accessible books and libraries is still being written. In this third chapter in this series, the Triple Vision team speaks with George Kerscher, Chief Innovation Officer of the DAISY Consortium and senior officer of global literacy with the Benetech corporation of Bookshare, and Kieran LeBlanc, Executive Director of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. Involved in accessible book publishing since 1988, George Kerscher talks about the kinds of standards which exist to assist publishers in producing accessible books without having to go through a third party. “You want to get to the place where you’re getting materials from the commercial outlets and not necessarily have to go through a service like NNELS or CNIB or CELA. All of these are great services, but my vision of the world is where they’d be born accessible right out of the box and we wouldn’t have to go through a service,” her says. But Kieran Leblanc is clear that the Canadian publishing industry still needs a fair bit of support to produce their works ""born accessible."" ""I would say publishers are doing accessible publishing because it is the right thing to do. They would not be seeing any kind of any monetization or profit from that at this point. But there is a value that they want their books to be available to all readers in formats that readers need to access,” he says. At the end of these three episodes, the Triple Vision team still has questions about this evolving industry, so stay tuned for more podcasts in this area in the future!" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

In this third episode of a series on the history of the practice of eugenics in Canada, Peter Field speaks with Associate Professor Geoffrey Reaume of York University. Peter and Geoffrey discuss documents obtained from Library and Archives Canada, which show that the CNIB played an active role in the sterilization of Canadians who are blind in the late 1930s. The discussion begins with a letter from A. R. Caufman of the Kaufman Rubber Factory in Kitchener, Ontario. Kaufman writes to the CNIB’s Managing Director, Edwin Baker, making the case that more blind Canadians should be sterilized under the direction of his “Parent Information Bureau.” While Baker disagrees with some of Kaufman’s ideas, records demonstrate that, a year later, the CNIB paid for the costs of the sterilization of four blind men. Peter and Geoffrey discuss ideas about how we can react to this kind of history. What do we do about individuals who were so instrumental in improving the lives of blind Canadians, but also responsible for actively supporting eugenics practices? “I would certainly not agree with erasing him, or cancelling Edwin Baker, or anyone else, from history. I think we have to account for different people’s positions and critique them, but not erase them. History is history and we have to deal with them, and that includes people we have often thought of as heroically, but as time went on we’ve re-assessed.… So, I would say is what we do is re-assess and critique their positions, where they were from, also recognizing they were coming from a position of privilege. In the case of Edwin Baker, of course, he was very well connected and he certainly did make positive contributions to the welfare of people who are blind. There’s no question about that in terms of his work with the CNIB, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be criticized just as anybody else in positions of power or leadership.” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

"In this second episode of a three-part series on eugenics, the Triple Vision team talks to Brian Moore, Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai and Marc Workman. Brian shares his experience with discrimination during a pre-natal class involving the birth of his son. Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai explains the origins of eugenics, as well as the difference between the science of genetics and the practice of eugenics. And Marc Workman, current Chief Executive Officer of the World Blind Union, expands on the past practice of eugenics in Canada, particularly in Alberta. He proposes the alternative that if the environment a child with disabilities is born into was more inclusive, it may be easier for parents to make difficult decisions during a pregnancy about whether or not to bring their child, determined to have a disability, to term. “One thing that I think we can do, that I think we could do a lot better at, is helping present the whole picture when someone is faced with making what is, let’s face it, a tremendously difficult choice. What scholars like Adrienne Asch would say is that, at the very minimum, we need to make sure that when parents are being presented with the information on the risks around the disability, that they’re also being given accurate information on what its like to actually have that disability. The thing is the genetic counselors who are providing this information may not have a ton of experience with disability. They’re probably not in the community. They may not have close friends or close family members, or they themselves probably don’t have disabilities. So, you have to wonder, how accurate is the picture that is being painted for parents when the individuals who are giving that information may themselves have their own biases, their own misunderstandings about what it is truly like to live with disability.” " --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

In this first episode in a new podcast series, the Triple Vision team tackles the difficult issue of eugenics. Eugenics as it was practiced in Second World War Germany is very well known, but in today’s podcast Triple Vision starts to peel back the layers of how eugenics was practiced in Canada from its very origins until today. You will hear stories from three blind and visually impaired women about their own experiences, where they were subjected to the practice of eugenics by the medical profession. Then, we talk to Dr. Bonnie Lashewicz, of the University of Calgary, about the links between colonialism and eugenics. She will present you with some surprising examples of eugenics thinking of today. “We went for genetic counselling, not really questioning what was really going on there. This counsellor told us, without ever taking any samples from us at all, that if we were to have a child, it would probably come out like 'The Elephant Man,' all distorted and disabled. As a result, we talked about it and decided not to have children. But when I look back on that now I think, 'Wow, they didn’t even take a sample or anything from us.' And based on no scientific evidence at all they told us not to have children. I think, 'How did I accept that so readily?' And It was just because it came from the medical profession. I didn’t recognize it as eugenics then, but that’s what it was.” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

In this, our Valentine’s Day episode, the Triple Vision team takes a look at “puppy love” by tracing the history of guide dogs and issues related to public access and certification for our favourite furry workers. Hanna and David talk to Steven Doucette, the Client Services Administrator of Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind, about guide dog history, and the history of this Canadian training facility. Irene Lambert recounts her own story of arriving back in Montreal in 1969, to a less than warm reception, with her husband, two sons, and their two owner-trained retriever guide dogs. Finally, Alan Conway of Guide Dog Users of Canada discusses the thorny issue of recent Canadian efforts to have guide dogs meet new standards when they are already certified under the International Guide Dog Federation. “We were all gung-ho to join this new culture, however, we were often refused access to restaurants and to theatres, especially the Place des Arts. We looked into the Proof of Laws that allowed people access. We had carried these all around in the States with us and had never been denied except for the occasional taxi driver, but hear we were in Montreal facing all of these rejections.” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

In the last podcast episode, The Opening Chapter, the Triple Vision team traced the history of library services for blind Canadians from the 19th century to 2014. In this Next Chapter the team brings us up to date with interviews with representatives of the Centre for Equitable Library Access and the National Network for Equitable Library Services. David and Hanna explore how these public library systems are enhancing library access to Canadians with print disabilities. They also start asking key questions about why publishers themselves are not taking more of a leadership role in this area. “In Canada, our public libraries are public service institutions. At their heart, they are meant to be inclusive and to provide equitable access to reading for all their users, including those with disabilities. I think that, historically, public libraries felt that that the services they were providing weren’t adequate and that they needed to be revisioned. This new approach is necessary to ensure a more equitable access to reading to those with print disabilities.” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

In Canada, public libraries have been around in one form or another for about 200 years. On January 4, we celebrate the birthday of Louis Braille. Born in 1809, Louis Braille invented his famous system of reading 400 years after the invention of the printing press. In this first episode on the evolution of library services, the Triple Vision team talks to CNIB archivist Jane Beaumont about the founding of the Free Library for the Blind. This service eventually became the Canadian National Institute for the Blind’s library until it evolved into the Centre for Equitable Library Access. Joining Jane on this podcast is library user Albert Ruel, who talks about the variety of methods he uses to access his books. “I had done some research on audiobooks. It was fascinating to me to see that really this has just come full circle. We’ve come back to the way humankind was before the Gutenberg press. We are back to storytelling, the oral traditions. That’s part of our DNA that hasn’t evolved out of us yet.” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

In this sixth episode of Triple Vision, we do something different. We invite six members of the community to talk about how they see the current blindness narrative in Canada. What is wrong with the current narrative, and what should it be? Who is controlling the current Canadian blindness story? “The sad part is, we all look at the news as a news and information source, and it isn’t. It’s a drama. It’s a dramatic work and belongs in the arts. A lot of people go there for their information. Unfortunately if it bleeds, it leads. And when it comes to blindness, we don’t bleed so much, but my goodness the narrative is pity filled.” Join us for this fascinating journey, exploring the dangers of the single narrative of the blindness story in Canada. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

While people who are blind have used some sort of cane to navigate the world over the centuries, the white cane became a standard mobility device in the 1900s. But, in recent history, attitudes towards the white cane have shifted. In this episode, David and Hanna take a world tour from Winnipeg to Zanzibar and the United States to explore the issues associated with white vs. coloured canes. Is it time for the white cane to have a make over? “I have never had an issue using a cane other than white. The general public seems to understand that they are there for help. They offer their elbow, or they guide me to their vehicle, and they have never said, 'Why is your cane that colour?'” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

Join us on this week’s Triple Vision podcast, where Doreen Demas talks with us about the impacts of colonialism on her life as a First Nations woman from Manitoba living with vision loss. Doreen traces her life, from attending the residential school for the blind in Brantford, Ontario, to a regular school, to an Indigenous residential school in Brandon. She speaks openly about the duality of service provision she experienced from the CNIB as a First Nations person. Listen as she talks about her work at the United Nations and her optimistic hope for the future. “My family always allowed me and my siblings free to go about our community. We were able to go and visit friends, we were able to play in the back of our house. We had trees and could climb them. We could pick berries. We could do whatever made us happy and that is what we did. But when I got to Brantford, I found out I could never do those things. Everything I did was pretty much dictated either by the house parents or the teachers and the structures we had there.” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

In this episode, David and Hanna speak with Jim Sanders, former Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). Jim traces the history of the institute from its founding to its need to change in the current digital era. "Some of the strongest advocates in Canada have come out of the concern of CNIB, in the 70s and 80s and 90s, that they considered the organization as paternalistic and patronizing. These advocates, in fact, have had very positive influences on the CNIB opening up from what it was." --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

This week, Hanna Leavitt and David Best speak with Dr. Serge Durflinger, a professor of history at the University of Ottawa. Serge penned a book called, "Veterans With A Vision: Canada's War Blinded in Peace and War," about how First World War wounded were the first advocates in canada to establish reshaped the way Canadians and successive governments perceived war disability and, in particular, blindness. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

In the first episode of Triple Vision, the team behind the Pandora Project introduces themselves and the goals of the Pandora Project. David Best, Hanna Leavitt, Charlie Ayotte, Peter Field and John Rae all speak to the motivations of the project and team members, alike. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message

From the AEBC's Pandora Project and AMI-audio comes a new podcast that aims to tell the history and stories of blind Canadians. Join co-hosts David Best and Hanna Leavitt as they speak to historians, community members and those who were there for the moments that shaped the lives of blind Canadians for generations. Podcasts are released bi-weekly starting October 12th. Subscribe on your podcast platform of choice today. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-best9/message