Richard Marion knows that: with the political climate threatening inclusivity of society in some ways, it’s even more important, out there, that he only wants people identifying themselves, being proud of their identities.

Going with our September theme, we’re beginning this one by talking education for the blind, for our guest. This week on Outlook we’re speaking with first-time guest on the show, Richard Marion, from Richmond, British Columbia, but he wasn’t always living in Metro Vancouver.

We hear from Richard about the culture shock of going from the third grade at the school for the blind to a much bigger classroom environment in his local, mainstream school for grade four. He shares about bullying, the white cane and braille skills he was given, while trying to make use of his residual sight.

Richard shares about his intersectionalities which include disability, coming out as a part of the 2SLGBTQQAI+ community, and discovering his Metis heritage.

We talk audio description not transferring across the border. Marion was the one who got the Vancouver Pride Society to have live audio description for the Pride Parade and then would pass the baton to VocalEye.

He applied for Metis Citizenship, in 2019 receiving his Metis Nation British Columbia status card, after childhood summers going back to the Manitoba he was born into. Since he’s gone on to be hired to audit the accessibility of the Assembly of First Nations national general meetings.

Finally he talks about his touring with a group of musicians and his recent bucket list train travel from Vancouver to Toronto, sharing about the friendliness of the Via Rail staff along the way.