“Those who expect to reap the benefits of freedom must undergo the fatigues of supporting it.” —Thomas Paine, 1777

We’re back, for round two, back in studio.

We’re in person again for our final live show of October and, when live, you never know what will happen on air.

We talk days of importance and if there’s a point to it. Days, weeks, months: Disability Employment Awareness Month (DEAM), National Day of Action For Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, World Sight Day, White Cane Safety Day/White Cane Awareness Day/White Cane Day.

Eye health is important, but as blind people celebrate it too and the problem of no sight bumps up against the pride we’re trying to feel and show to ourselves and others. Blindness is a spectrum, shades of grey from low vision to totally blind. More resources for blind people to be successful and happy is where we on Outlook stand.

From World Sight Day to White Cane Day. We talk orientation and mobility, stairs vs elevator, and backtracking and accepting assistance. Fitting in vs finding our way. It’s about finding the focus and figuring it out. We discuss tips we’d give to anyone assisting us and helpful apps we can access.

From apps to more low tech tools for independence. We talk unloading dishes from the dishwasher and sorting and washing towels. It’s the mystery of blindness demystified. Finding meaning in the mundane.

Brian will be attending the CNIB’s Connecting The Dots conference this month, to see what they have to offer, and Kerry isn’t happy with them lately and will not be going, but talks her frustration with that organization’s lack of care with their braille translation/production. What makes a book accessible? The CNIB is no longer offering this though they claim they are. Low quality braille is all they offer now.

Lately we’ve been talking about advocacy fatigue. Kerry just the other day attended something fun and positive, something promoting audio description, the Luminato Festival, an arts and culture festival in Toronto. Sometimes we need a break from the advocacy, though advocacy can come through art. We’re still here because it does matter and it’s the small price paid for living as white settlers on this land, privileged as we are, in Canada.

For more info on a few of the things mentioned in this episode, for the Ontario Disability Employment Network (ODEN) and Luminato Festival Toronto and the podcast Talk Description To Me, you can check out:

https://www.odenetwork.com

https://luminatofestival.com

https://talkdescriptiontome.buzzsprout.com