“So after I was injured, all of a sudden I was discovering - Oh, there’s a whole other possibility of how I can use these artistic disciplines I’m really passionate about, but with now this whole new lens on it of being somebody with a disability, somebody who’s part of a community that has largely been marginalised and devoiced and that I think, by putting on stage, putting in the stories, suddenly there’s a transformative element there. So I think it’s something that I rediscovered, post disability, and rediscovered with new purpose,” says our new friend (made in 2024), Regan Linton.

Barry’s back, and guide dog Oyster too, joining us on our final episode of the year to speak with Linton to finish 2024 off with a bang.

This week we’re speaking with theatre and VoiceOver artist, performer, writer, and educator/advocate Regan Linton about finding one’s voice and using it optimally as she has had to before and since the accident she experienced around her college years. Linton is one of our new pals from the disabled artist’s retreat in Mount Vernon, Maine over the previous summer and together we’re looking back over our time together at Drama Club Camp.

We talk cross-disability solidarity, along with intersecting access needs, as Linton shares about her experience living as a wheelchair user. She shares with us about how theatre became a part of her life (both pre and post accident that caused paralysis from the chest down. She tells us about the road trip she took through southern states immediately after this year’s election on her way to Warm Springs, Georgia, a special spot for her study of disabled president Franklin D. Roosevelt, a part adapted/and being played by Regan on stage as we discuss staying locked in our own bubbles vs being more open to other people’s lived experiences which helps us better understand our own overall.

We’re looking back at the week we spent together getting to know each other, including the road trip we went on in Linton’s wheelchair accessible van, an adventure from Maine to Boston, Mass, interdependence being key with our friend Regan and a key theme for this show.

We’re talking the umbrella of disability and disability experience with social change agent and artist and expert Regan Linton, as she shares about her own internal revolution, on Outlook on the final show of 2024.

To check out more about our guest this week, her VoiceOver and educational work plus so much more, visit:

https://www.reganlinton.com

Q: What do Lego and musical theatre have in common?

A: Our guest for this second last show of 2024 that’s what.

This week on Outlook we’re speaking with our new friend Matthew Shifrin, someone we met with the rest of the gang at the drama camp/artist’s retreat we attended in Mount Vernon, Maine over the summer.

We spend the first half of this episode talking all things accessible Lego as Matthew shares about how the world-wide children’s activity was finally made accessible for him on his 13th birthday, about his visit to LEGO HQ in Denmark, and how he’s created Bricks For The Blind, a non-profit organisation bringing sighted allies and blind testers/users together to adapt 220 complex sets in its first year in operation, not to mention unthought-of uses for the famous stackable blocks.

In the second half of this second last show of ours for 2024, we hear about how Matt’s love of musical theatre began, including learning to play accordion in a week to attend an Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and his work at one time with a gesture coach, Matt being kind enough to share with us and the listeners a bit of his immense musical talents with a few songs from his various performances such as the musical he wrote about his Jewish grandmother.

Bonus Material: we’ve included a second song (two-for-one) for this episode of the podcast which wasn’t included for the live airing on Radio Western originally. And, whether sighted or blind/young or simply young-at-heart, go check out Bricks For The Blind to learn more about how LEGO’s being made accessible, one brick at a time, by Matthew Shifrin and friends:

https://bricksfortheblind.org

From dusk till dawn. It’s always darkest before the dawn, but what’s wrong with dusk? Where’s the beauty in it?

It’s December and nearly are we arriving at the shortest, longest, darkest day/night of the year.. On our International Day of Persons With Disabilities 2024 episode, we are discussing disability within a larger framework of discussion, expanding into age and the changes it brings, including experience with illness and disabilities as we all, inevitably, get older.

Through a sudden scare with the sight in his right eye, Frank Bruni goes ahead, in his book, to explore a shifting perspective on themes of vulnerability, ageing, and the perspectives that come from a life turned into life lessons well earned. This week on Outlook we discuss New York Times columnist Frank Bruni’s medical memoir The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found which came out a few years back.

We examine themes from the book such as light and dark from the images held in the book’s title referring to beauty found in the dusk and the influence of language and using such words as “affliction” and the negative weight such a word holds for the imagination.

We need more thoughtfully written books like Frank’s to normalise disability as a part of all our lives. Co-host Kerry stumbled upon this one and, upon reading, wanted to review it on the show, to explore how those who gain valuable lived experience of disability suddenly, or later in life, can still write about these things from a thoughtful and careful place with sensitivity and wisdom.

Find the book available in various formats here:

https://www.amazon.ca/Beauty-Dusk-Vision-Lost-Found/dp/1982108576

Co-host Kerry’s back!

Sister/co-host Kerry returns and is live in studio after being away for a month. It’s a month away from Christmas on this late November, mixed bag show.

This week we discuss what was and what has been, with a badly sprained ankle, Kerry luckily got all her Dublin exploring out of the way, mostly. And Brian has been taking action regarding his mental and physical health. We talk about Others Like Me: The Lives of Women Without Children book release and the unfortunate lack of access in audiobook versions available for those, like some blind people, who would prefer or are best able to read any book in its audible format. Also, Kerry shares about her recent literary and media wins with The Toronto Star and CBC Radio.

Kerry is wearing her Poets For Harris t-shirt in protest, while accepting results while Brian broke the pool, referring back and ahead to the 2003 Elf film which is over 20 years old this December. This upcoming Christmas. We’re looking forward but we are also looking back, on Kerry’s time in Ireland this last time, as well as the holidays and traditions of the season, along with recent guests.

It was a big deal, having/seeing her writing in newsprint - check out a link to Kerry’s Toronto Star travel essay here:

https://www.thestar.com/life/travel/i-m-blind-but-i-still-wanted-to-experience-my-beloved-ireland-through-my-other/article_84ee3c60-983e-11ef-9c6e-ef822316d85c.html

And listen to Kerry on CBC radio’s Fresh Air:

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/9.6567168

In preschool, her teachers noticed she wasn’t hearing and she soon got hearing aids, but it wasn’t until she was in her teens that our guest on Outlook this week had to face that she was losing vision as well.

Natalie Shearer is with us, for one of our final interviews of 2024, to discuss her position as an advocate, with her diagnosis of Usher syndrome. She’s telling us about what eventually caught her attention and made her sit up straight, seriously thinking about the necessity of learning to use a white cane, facing blindness head on.

From Two Canes Consulting, job as Head of Accessibility and Operations at Lotus (wearable assistive tech), to her position as Usher Syndrome Canadian Coalition’s Ambassador. So with her lifelong experiences with both disability and chronic illness, Natalie Shearer is eager to get back to accessibility and community.

And community is built through connections, one of which led to Natalie coming on our show in the first place. Thanks to Anne Mok (Purpose In View) for the intro.

Check out the wearable ring Lotus Natalie speaks about in this episode:

https://getlotus.com

Words like “childless” and “blindness” are both too harsh for some ears, often diluted by using other words or terms. These are conversations we on Outlook seek to take on and not hide from every day because we’re living it.

November 5th is the official North American release of Others Like Me: The Lives of Women Without Children by writer and translator Nicole Louie and this week sister/co-host Kerry is taking a deeply personal dive into the book’s themes.

Kerry and Nicole met online six years ago when Louie Was on the end of a years-long search for others like her, in the sense that they were not mothers, could not be, chose not to be in her pursuit to write a book about a subject often shied away from.

There are plenty of misconceptions around “childlessness” in society and how we’re less vital to the world because we’re not reproducing for the next generation, but Nicole has pushed back on that message in OLM and in the work she does surrounding the topic. On this episode we hear from Nicole Louie about her first book and why she wanted to have the conversation to begin with, the over-decade long road to publication, and her and Kerry share about the growth of their friendship and collaboration during the writing process, including the book club discussion Kerry was lucky to get to join, at a special spot in Dublin, as one of the featured women appearing within its pages.

Nicole shares about things like the research process, her on-the-ground time when she visited Kerry in Canada and when Kerry then visited her in Ireland, and the audiobook narration experience she had in studio, as she comes into Kerry’s virtual Outlook studio for a chat.

This is not an anti-natalist position book, but rather the further opening of a discussion on the rights and freedoms of women and a dialogue between women and their partners, families, and communities on a choice for a life, a path different from what we’re taught, as girls, about our sole job being to grow up, get pregnant, and become mothers.

Kerry is very glad this book is out, after so long, and she wanted to use her platform with this show to talk about this intersectionality, of the lives of many others, that’s not always easy or painless or certain, but just that her friendship with Nicole and her own search to find community have brought her to where she is and she wants girls and women to know they have options for different paths in life.

It’s a book, by one woman, interspersed with the stories of fourteen more including Kerry’s story. To check out more about Others Like Me: The Lives of Women Without Children go to the North American publisher’s website for more information:

https://houseofanansi.com/products/others-like-me

While Kerry is still in Ireland and away from the mic, this week there’s a special spot filler in her seat. We’re talking magic and monsters on what we’ve coined our Monster Mixed Bag show.

This week on Outlook, the Fab Four return, including sister/co-host Kerry and boyfriend Barry in Northern Ireland and brother Brian and friend Nefertiti Matos Olivares, visiting from New York City, in studio after her first appearance as our guest back in July and the show where we visited Perkins School for The Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts as a group.

Nef is visiting Ontario and Brian has been showing her around its capital, around London, and even Kerry’s house (without Kerry herself being present). The four of us discuss the adventures Brian and Nef have been having, including tours of Toronto and its Islands, an accessible art gallery experience at Tangled Art + Disability, and a proper Kijewski immersion around the Woodstock area.

While Kerry and Barry share about watching two wildly different retellings of Dracula (both audio described) and tell tales of a spooky ghost bus excursion, in Dublin, along with their awesome hotel find at an historic spot included on said spooky tour during their pre-Halloween visit to Bram Stoker’s Dublin.

Sharp and stabby, flaming hot like the fiery depths of hell, this is Halloween on Outlook as Kerry experiences the holiday, Irish style (including trying monster themed snacks) and tells all on the show on this final episode of October.

Learn more about Tangled Art + Disability:

https://tangledarts.org

Listen to the four of us back in July on Nef’s first Outlook appearance:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2024-07-15-scars-the-oscars-the-voice/id1527876739?i=1000664231625

And us four exploring Perkins School for the Blind:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2024-09-23-our-field-trip-to-perkins-school/id1527876739?i=1000671209448

Frogs and toads, rubber ducks, and loons - oh my!

It’s time for Part Two - this week on Outlook we share the second half of our audio scrapbook of our week in Mount Vernon, Maine this summer for Drama Club Camp.

Last week we heard from several of the others in attendance and this week we continue hearing from those from our "cast of characters,” as our host called it.

Host Scott spoke with us last time about his philosophy of “one step, two step, three” and this week we further explore the bonds of friendship and collaboration in working toward a theatre piece featuring the blind aesthetic, along with loons on a lake and six blind people jumping in to swim with them.

We hear from Scott’s partner, in work and in life, Shannen about his hopes for their inn and artist retreat, plus we hear from Chef Jeanelle and cross-disability friend and collaborator Regan. It’s a fun-filled dive into the week that was.

This episode features interviews with Regan Linton, Jeanelle Krawchuk, and Shannon Morrison.

It is dedicated to Brian’s longtime friend and drummer Andrew McIntyre (1978-2024). RIP.

The clip from “Frog and Toad Aren't Friends” found in this episode is taken from Meaning No Harm by Fowler featuring drums by Andrew. Find it here:

https://fowlercanada.bandcamp.com/album/meaning-no-harm

And learn more about Scott and Shannon at:

https://www.dramaclubproductions.com

“This morning, when I woke up, I felt good because the sun was shining. I felt good because I was a frog. And I felt good because I have you as a friend.”

Arnold Lobel, “Days with Frog and Toad”

We used to do tours of the hotel rooms we stayed in as a family, as kids, and now we’re going to give you a tour of the inn we were invited to this summer, in Mount Vernon, Maine, for an artist retreat.

This week on Outlook we’re taking you along on our trip with us, from back in July, as we made new friends, connections, relationships formed with friends we’ve never met and those we’ve known virtually for a while.

This episode is part one of two parts, an audio scrapbook of sorts, our guest book entry for our experience at Drama Club Camp.

Through interviews we did with the other participants, to a tour of the 100-year-old inn we were hosted at, to the boat rides on the pond/lake, we were there to create something from a blindness lived perspective, with others from the blindness community, disability cross solidarity community, and the broader community of those who’ve experienced feeling like they didn’t fit in - we’re exploring the bonds of friendship and the art made when we’re given the room to explore our imaginations and feel accepted by others.

From the hugging area to the community kitchen, we’re hearing from the others in attendance as to what the week ended up meaning to them and sharing what it meant to us too.

The themes from the “Frog and Toad” books kept coming up during the week, plus much much more, all of which will be showcased in this two-parter special Outlook.

This episode features interviews with Dr. H. May, Dr. M. Leona Godin, Matthew Shifrin, John, and Scott Ihrig.

Check out our friend Matthew Shifrin’s Bricks for the Blind:

https://bricksfortheblind.org

And learn more about Scott and Shannon at:

https://www.dramaclubproductions.com

We’re continuing our education series during October, Blindness Awareness Month - BAM!

A lot has changed since the summer of 2020, but not the focus and hard work of returning guest and ally, Caroline Karbowski, who joins us this week from the home of Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, Mass. There she will soon be celebrating October 15th (White Cane Day) with blind and deaf-blind students who she’s having a hand in teaching things such as tactile literacy and self advocacy skills.

Returning friend of Outlook, Caroline, has been working with the students of this historic educational campus for blind and deaf-blind children for months now. After catching up with Caroline, and for our listeners on her company See3D which produces 3D models for tactile learners, we could have used more than an hour’s time to find out all the work she’s been doing since we first met her. Like the international outreach Perkins does, as we found out on the tour of the school we took in July, Caroline shares about the international outreach See3D is now working to offer through the mission of the organization she herself started back in 2017 as a high school student. Now she contributes, through her own biology background, to making the STEM fields more accessible and inclusive while finding new ways of making the braille she learned, as a sighted person, even more relevant for herself and her students.

Since her time in Ohio, from certified braille transcriber to orientation and mobility specialist, Karbowski left her schooling and her work in her home state and moved to Boston, where she’s been experiencing life at the school with the children during the summer camp offerings and now is beginning a new school year on the Perkins grounds.

She tells us about the vast array of resources and assistive devices for multi-sensory teaching techniques available to her there and about some of the adventures she’s been on with the kids over the summer, what the year ahead is shaping up to be for her in Watertown where we just visited ourselves, and her continued educational and entrepreneurial goals within various inclusion spaces. Plus, she shares about coming across more “braille in the wild” and shares about A Cubed Design and its ideas for how to make electronic braille machines more able to withstand wear and tear when in use.

So from the art and experimentation of tactile map making and the range of communication and teaching tools she’s both making and making use of there in Boston to the continued work back there in Ohio where she’s utilising interns, grants, and other funding and fundraising strategies to continue with 3D printing, Caroline and helpers have been working on making everything from weather guides, to lightening, to the life cycle of a butterfly accessible.

And not only is she driven toward all we’ve so far listed, Caroline also tells us about the ballroom dancing she enjoys and how The Terminator showed up for his interest in the activity.

From her now going on to attend U Mass, to Perkins, to growing work with C3D, Caroline Karbowski shares it all with us. She is one sighted ally we’ll have back on with us again, but just try to listen to this educational themed episode and not feel inspired to learn something new and be of service to the younger generation. Undoubtedly, as the list of necessary and innovative work she does grows as it has in the years since Covid turned Outlook from strictly a radio show to now a broadcast and a podcast both, we’re glad we met her and, this second time around, we’re sure you will be too.

Learn more about A Cubed Design, a startup for braille literacy that is developing a low-cost and customizable braille display:

https://www.acubed.design

And listen back to her previous appearance on the show:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2020-08-31-interview-with-ceo-of-see3d/id1527876739?i=1000489673485