Ah, the fun of live radio. No, seriously.

The original plan was to have Peter Field on live, a recent acquaintance who had reached out to us for a change, but the unexpected extreme weather, the heavy rains and flooding on the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, where Peter is located, was hit with this dramatic November weather, making connecting over Zoom to do a live interview impossible.

This is why a backup plan is always needed, the excitement of live radio, and so though Brian and the station manager made a nice effort to get a clear line of communication going, it wasn’t meant to be; this time.

So while Brian and Station Manager Tim worked on things in the background for the first several minutes, co-host/sister Kerry kept the live show going, hinting on the upcoming rescheduling of an interview with Peter Field and about something known as The Pandora Project and the Triple Vision podcast, which we’ll hear more about from Peter himself in an episode in a few weeks.

When Brian returns to the mic, We once more revisit the fact that blindness history in Canada is not as well documented and understood as one might think, a problem we see Americans like The Blind History Lady have addressed, in an Outlook from last year, but that Canada has our own unique history with blindness and disability in this country and we are extremely interested in looking into it further. It is for blind Canadians, such as ourselves, to learn our history, but also that sighted Canadians have no idea either.

We talk Diabetes Awareness and the location of Banting House, the residence of the main name in the discovery of insulin to treat otherwise deadly type one diabetes, often a paediatric diagnosis. Kerry wanted to come to London to check out an open house at the Banting Museum on Diabetes Awareness Day, but we discuss how sometimes (even with our positive philosophy of blindness), it can still pose inconveniences like not having access to our own vehicle, when we only want to zip over to a nearby city for a few hours.

November is halfway done and another reminder that November is National Indigenous Disability Awareness Month and Remembrance Day got us thinking. We read, together, a post from social media about the injustices Indigenous veterans faced after fighting for Canada in both World Wars. Some, perhaps, returned from the fighting without their sight. Our overall mission with this show is to put the attention back on forgotten stories and viewpoints, to recognize the prejudices and injustices and discrimination Indigenous peoples experienced or are experiencing, during times of war and also times of peace. With things like the Indian Act and the CRPD (the Charter for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), we are expecting Canada and our government to do more and do better.

Ending on a possibly better note of future progress, we wrap up this one with Kerry sharing about the OrCam, a nifty little assistive tech device she’s been loaned and the thoughtful and accessible piece of art a friend made for her, and Brian rounds it all off with a story of a sighted cane and travel skills instructor he had during his high school years who works at the school for the blind in Brantford and who lost sight himself in recent years. Anyone can end up losing the sight they once had which we talk about, not to scare people out of their wits, but to show why the things we talk about on Outlook are applicable to anyone because disability is a minority anyone can join at any age.

We’re told progress takes time, but for many of us, this is our life and we can’t afford to sit on our hands and wait for the slow march of progress. Join us for another Outlook On Radio Western as we show you why that’s the case.