Some of you who read here are also connected to my blog through Facebook. Some of you resolutely do not use Facebook. I apologize to the second group right now because I’m going to write about a Facebook Fenomenon which I feel I really need to address. I do not wish to offend anyone, I […]
I was asked, by someone who seriously wanted to know, if I encountered more discrimination because of my disability or because of my sexuality. As this wasn’t part of a frivolous conversation where a quick, and funny response would have been acceptable, I paused to think about it. And there was much to think about. […]
Over the past couple of days I have been bombarded with emails and alerts about a story of a woman with Down Syndrome who is retiring after working for 32 years at McDonalds. Many of you will have seen the story. I simply can’t link to it. I’m afraid I just can’t. It’s an important […]
Sometimes been a professional, while being different, can be a difficult thing. I know that I have to maintain a professional bearing but I also know that I have to stand up for myself whenever I can when facing ignorance or prejudice. Let me give you an example: Last week I was on the phone […]
I wrote a post a couple days ago about a young man who stood up for himself in a store. I wrote the post as it happened with myself as simply an observer to what when on, I was not an active participant in any way other than to respond when asked if I had witnessed […]
Photo description: In this photo, lifted from an article in the Toronto Star, people are pictured using the bathrooms at the ‘Ex’ with the ‘We Don’t Care’ symbol indicating that ‘anyone can use them.’ There has been a lot of ‘to do’ about the ‘inclusive’ bathrooms at the CNE (Canada’s National Exhibition) lovingly called […]
I saw someone with an intellectual disability stand up for himself today. He spoke right up to a clerk who ignored him in preference for someone else, “I was here first,” he said. The clerk was taken aback and muttered, “fuckin’ retard.” The man I saw left for only a second and then came back […]
The experience of disability, as we all know, is as much a social one as a physical one. This realization keeps slapping me in the face – especially when I’ve been dealing with my own person experience of myself as a disabled person. This happened in the Vancouver airport on our way back home. We’d […]
We stopped for a cup of tea at a little shop in the mall. I found us a table while Joe went to get our tea. It’s a place we like because they make the tea from loose leaf placed in a bag. It’s good tea. I pulled my gloves off and then got my […]
My dad, well, he isn’t much of a talker. It is one of the many ways in which we differ. He’s the kind of ‘Here’s your mother’ … kind of dad when he answers the phone. Conversations are best about the weather and are even better when short. As I said, he’s not much of […]
