Outlook for 2022, all wrapped up with a beautiful beau. On this final episode of 2022, right before Christmas, we acknowledge that it’s not a joyous time of year for all of us equally and also we discuss the impact all the beautiful wrapping on gifts this time of year has on the environment. Outlook is about tearing off the fancy wrappings on issues, to get to the heart of it, the contents of an issue involving anything disability.

In the second half of this week’s show, we talk music, inclusive products, and audio description, reviewing a few recent guests (out of all 42) including new friends, one of which we had sit in with us to mark Outlook being on the air for four years back in the fall. We discuss some of the disability inequality and examples of how people who are marginalized have been struggling with things like inflation and poverty, at a time of year when A Christmas Carol (traditionally watched with Kerry and her dad on Christmas Eve) holds lessons for how the world treats the haves and the have-not’s. Plus we’re remembering some of our shared/individual Christmas memories growing up, from gifts not wrapped to red and green construction paper loop chains made to count down to Christmas. We share about what traditions we had and have, with Kerry remembering the colours of Christmas and Brian never having seen enough for that. And we cap things off with a few hints of what’s to come next year.

Also, reviewing the last twelve months, on a show like ours, often includes tributes to those we’ve lost. And this week we have a loss in the blindness community to announce, along with how the year began with the sudden passing of disability activist John Rae back in the spring. It was last week the announcement shocked many of us in the blindness community (especially in the US and with the National Federation of the Blind), Scott LaBarre passed away on December 10. We had him as National Rep for the Canadian Federation of the Blind’s convention with us as convention MC’s when he attended and gave the banquet speech, all virtually in the middle of the pandemic in 2021. Larger than life, Scott was a lawyer with a family, a leader and mentor to many.

Those like Scott and John are a part of the history of blindness, both in Canada and in the States and we can’t forget why that matters. So RIP to Scott and to all those we’ve lost this year.

And so Happy Holidays and all the best in 2023 from us at Outlook. Cheers to you all and we’ll be toasting 2022 with a bottle of wine with braille on the label we found recently. Please enjoy unwrapping these gems by checking out a few fun and informational links we’re including to round things out, podcasts we were invited on, along with accessibility and art topics we covered this year with our guests.

Check out our recent appearance on the Limitless, Blind Beginnings Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/episode-127-lets-meet-brian-and-kerry/id1518892826?i=1000589083990

Read the story of how braille ended up on wine bottles:

https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/the-story-of-how-braille-wound-up-on-wine-labels/

Remember John Rae by listening back to his appearance on the show from earlier this year:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2022-03-07-think-global-act-local-with-john-rae/id1527876739?i=1000553477466

And pay tribute to Scott LaBarre through revisiting his appearance at our CFB convention in 2021 on this 2 part episode:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-06-07-cfb-choices-goals-2021-virtual-convention/id1527876739?i=1000524699528

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-06-14-cfb-choices-goals-2021-virtual-convention/id1527876739?i=1000525501448