She was little She saw me and smiled She pointed to me Her little finger traced a circle in the air Eyes seeing the wheel of my chair Now she stops. And looks Really looks at me At my chair She is in the smallest and tiniest wheelchair I have ever seen It is pink […]
Can we talk about training? A class, no matter how well done the PowerPoint, no matter how the rules of adult education are followed, no matter how many role plays or how many good evaluations you get, is not the appropriate solution to every human problem. We’ve come to a point in our society where […]
A few days ago news broke in the city of Toronto about two police officers, having stopped a car which contained three people, two of those were mother and daughter. The daughter had Down Syndrome. The police were caught on their own devises speaking of the woman with Down Syndrome as ‘disfigured,’ a ‘half person’ […]
I was sitting next to Scott, a fellow wheelchair user who I know lives in an accessible apartment, and talking about our move to Newmarket. I was explaining to him about having been on the wait list here in Toronto for 10 years for an accessible one to become available and how we decided to […]
She was mean. She went on a racist rant. She represented the worst of Canadian society, a side that we don’t like to show to the world. Yes, racists and bigots live here too. We aren’t all the warm, wonderful, welcoming types that is the stereotype. We love this image. In fact for our 150th […]
When you are different, and constantly treated as such, you need a fair bit of tolerance in order to live a life where you aren’t shouting constantly at people. I don’t shout at people often, I confront people from time to time, but I usually don’t shout. I don’t know why when shopping on Saturday, […]
When we first moved here 10 years ago, it was summer like it is now. We found an outdoor patio, with only two or three tables, where we could sit and have tea and watch crowds of people go by. It was a unique little place and we felt, then when we discovered it, that […]
I thought my life was busy before! We are moving in 13 days. There is so much to be done, we have too much stuff that we only become aware we have when we are moving. We spend more time making lists than either of us are used to. We have pages and pages and […]
Let me say, for the record, and to no one’s surprise, that I don’t like Donald Trump’s policies or politics. I think his manner and his mouth have created an atmosphere that endorses violence and encourages prejudice. There, I’ve said it. Many of the people I know personally and virtually feel the same way. Let […]
It’s happened many times of course, without me really noticing. But when it happened a few weeks ago, and then again yesterday, I began to think about it, ask questions about it and now want to write about it. The first time it happened Joe and I were having lunch with a couple, and if […]
