April 6th, 2016 Motivational speaker Onkar Biring found hiring his own employees through individualized funding gave him more flexibility to plan his day. Now he’s the boss, hiring and, if necessary, letting go support workers, while getting better and more personalized assistance. The administration is “not as big a deal as (people) think,” he says, […]
Given a Chance to Shine “Sometimes we have to prove a little extra” Shelley DeCoste is a motivational speaker and leader of the Divesability campaign. Here she shares a story about about living with cerebral palsy, employment and life lessons.
Image description: the words ‘just a little’ written in black above the word ‘Respect’ in green with the ‘c’ turned into the disability symbol. Yesterday was a day of confrontations. I don’t know why. I even shocked myself. It started innocently enough. Joe and I were heading down to the movies to meet up […]
Photo Image: photograph of Manuela wearing a yellow jacket and wearing dark rimmed glasses Dearest Manuela, I wanted to call you today. The realization that I couldn’t, ever again, do so hit me with the force of reality. It wasn’t a new realization, you’ve been gone a while now and I can’t. But […]
Photo description: Two people talking one says ‘Ableism the other responds, ‘WTF is that?’ Twice recently I have tried to explain to non-disabled people, nice non-disabled people, about the lived experience of disability. I made it clear that I wasn’t talking about my disability or about accessibility or about physical barriers. I was talking […]
Image Description: The word ‘Future’ printed in black on a white background with sad faces in each of the two ‘u’s in the word. “I feel bad for you.” Her tone chilled me and I shivered as if someone had walked over my grave. I was at the counter, taking stuff out of my […]
Image description: Two green eyes, eyebrows and a circle in the middle of the forehead with and arrow point to it with the words ‘LOL – God’ I always politely refused. There were two reasons that I said, “No,” when I was offered anointing and a prayer for healing at church. This is a regular […]
Image description: A space invader from the old video game sitting in a wheelchair drawn in for use. Typically Joe and I go grocery shopping very early on a Saturday morning. We’re up early and we like to be in the store before the crowds hit. We’ve always done this, long before I was a […]
Image description: a pair of blue eyes, watching It was the strangest thing. And for me to say that, when strange things happen all the time when I’m out in public, I really mean it. It was strange. And I don’t now how to understand it. We were all headed over to the Royal […]
Image description: a line drawing of a counter with the words ‘public space’ written underneath It now takes a bit of courage and ‘territory claiming’ for me to go up Yonge Street. I love walking up to Yonge and Bloor from my place. However, given Toronto’s penchant for building a condo on every corner, […]
