Outlook on Radio Western

John, AKA Mac The Movieguy, has a degree in Cinema Studies and has been critiquing movies since the 90s and before he went blind - his YouTube channel has over 1000 videos all about movies and audio description in film.

This week on Outlook we’re speaking with John Stark and getting his movie critic expertise on audio description (AD) in film, including how watching a movie with sighted people is made better by a more accessible movie going experience for all. John, as someone who was sighted and then went blind, is able to offer his perspective from both sides of the issue.

Speaking of multiple sides of things, John shares about his placement and history working at the cinema (as most movie theatre employees unfortunately know very little about AD), more about his first experiences and memories learning what audio description is and how it works, and the struggle to be taken seriously as a film critic who’s blind, but his specialty focusing on AD only makes his videos all the more well rounded and interesting.

What does John look for in a film as far as good quality audio description goes? He answers this question and much more, along with giving examples of shows and films he’s found with it because he’s done the work and knows the lay of the land, putting his thoughts on his Mac The Movieguy Youtube Channel. Plus, he shares his pics for the best paired films with their AD of 2023.

We discuss audio description all the time on this show, as a way of getting listeners familiar with what it is and why it’s important. So check out more on AD and on Stark by visiting his website, YouTube channel, and The Audio Description Project:

https://macthemovieguy.com

https://www.youtube.com/@macthemovieguy

https://adp.acb.org/

Stories from a scientific life, on a snowy Ottawa morning.

The International Day of Disabled Persons (IDPD) promotes people with disabilities being a part of life in all areas, including in science, which is everything all around us and involves everyone. This week on Outlook we hear from Lawrence Gunther, a storyteller with a love of being by or on the water. He got a degree in Environmental Studies and his perspective as a blind person means he’s had to adapt the activities he’s done ever since, with guide dog by his side and without.

we’re speaking with Lawrence Gunther of the podcast Outdoors With Lawrence Gunther and hearing dispatches from his outdoors accessible life on everything from an early childhood out in and exposed to nature, converting boats and navigation, and his perspective on the tactility of fishing which means sight ceases to be a requirement.

He offers tips to blind people on how to find others with similar interests (not necessarily blindness) to spend time outside with and how we have just as much to bring to the experience as anyone else.

Gunther offers lessons, through example, on how there are so many non visual ways to explore, work and play, in the outdoors so hopefully on another international day for disability in the future, scientists with disabilities won’t be such a needed and longed for visible minority.

Lawrence does work to promote the natural world and the environment through multiple forms of media, all of which he provides in a laid back, easy to digest way. Check out some of that, including his podcast, and read more on his website below:

https://lawrencegunther.com

With “The Politics of Blindness” he’s looking to plant the seeds.

This week on Outlook we speak with Graeme McCreath whom we met through The Canadian Federation of the Blind about his book and about his dual British and Canadian perspective.

We hear about his early years in England and the unique opportunity he got to study physiotherapy there, his coming over to Canada and Victoria, British Columbia specifically, and what led him to write “The Politics of Blindness” more than a decade into the 2000s.

Why aren’t blind people getting the opportunities they deserve to find a place in public life? How can blind people in this country take a greater control back of our own lives?

Graeme shares some of the experiential lessons he’s accumulated, how blind people are regarded in the broader society, all after more than 100 years with the control and wide audience the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) has impacted us - how it has held onto blind people in Canada and on how sighted Canadians think of us in cultural, economic, and social life.

McCreath has been a leader in the CFB and in putting together a piece of the historical record of blindness in Canada and hasn’t given up on the work it takes to obtain equivalent human rights which any other Canadian has.

So check out more about the book here which we highly recommend you read because this story is the broader story of autonomy and human rights in Canada and beyond for more people as more of us speak our truths as Graeme McCreath does in “The Politics of Blindness”.:

https://thepoliticsofblindness.com

Then - our friendship with this guest goes way back to when he and Kerry got their first and only guide dogs in Quebec in 1998 and how he shared an apartment with Brian in Toronto for a few years between 2009 and 2012.

And now - this week on Outlook we’re speaking with our friend Erik about how, in the past five years, he’s found love and gotten married, had two kids during a pandemic, and is raising two kids (between zero and three years), and about his recent promotion promoted to Access Technology Analyst with Shared Services Canada.

what the co-host’s longtime friend Erik Burggraaf says of his life now and over the last five years: “Couldn’t draft it up, dream it - don’t know how a person gets that lucky”.

And we’re lucky to be speaking with him again, third time appearing on this show, to talk blindness advocacy, the bonds of friendship with others who understand, as he shares his new-found experiences as a parent who is blind and educating the public along the way.

Check out the last time Erik was on the show with his sister during our blind siblings series in April of 2021:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-04-26-siblings-series-part-4-erik-burggraaf/id1527876739?i=1000518765532

And travel back in time to 2018 to hear him on our other podcast, Ketchup On Pancakes:

Part 1:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ketchup-on-pancakes-episode-13-pell-mell-claptrap-part/id1527876739?i=1000633134054

Part 2:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ketchup-on-pancakes-episode-13-pell-mell-claptrap-part/id1527876739?i=1000633134239

SIGHTED PEOPLE SUCK

Well, let us explain further.

This week on Outlook we discuss our friend Dr. M. Leona Godin’s new live performance piece “Sighted People Suck” along with discussing what that statement is really all about for us and other blind people in a mostly sighted world.

Also, we discuss Brian’s experience speaking to a group of greeters from across the globe. So what does it mean to be vulnerable, a familiar thing for blind people, just as it is to stand up on a stage, like Leona, and stand behind the somewhat sarcastic statement from the start of all this?

For more info on “Sighted People Suck” including the Be My AI Image Description/Conversation mentioned on this episode, check out this post on Godin’s official website:

https://drmlgodin.com/2023/10/sighted-people-suck-november-8-solo-show-image-backstory-be-my-ai-description/

And consider reaching out to London Greeters if you visit the UK:

https://londongreeters.org

Shortwave 1310…

This week on Outlook we’re reviewing the November Netflix release of “All the Light we Cannot See,” adapted from the 2014 novel by Anthony Doerr.

We share the audio described trailer and about what it means to have representation in storytelling and in media with ATLWCS having a lead actress who is blind, playing the blind character in this series, along with the important part an accessibility consultant played on the set.

What would we do if we found ourselves in a position like Marie-Laure, the main character in “All the Light We Cannot See”? We ask ourselves, put ourselves in that position of being caught up in a war we did not choose and much more in this one.

So be sure to check out the series for yourself streaming now on Netflix!

You can find the audio described trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7E0PStA8YE

For further reading, check out the following articles referenced on this episode:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/18/arts/television/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-adaptation.html

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-aria-mia-lorbeti-audio-introduction

Bit of a rocky start to this Mixed Bag episode, down one mic to start the hour, but Brian is taking us on an audio tour of Ireland.

This week on Outlook we go from a Belfast pub, to on board on Dublin tour buses, following a traditional Irish trail with co-host Brian. Also, we discuss our recent time visiting an old friend in St. Catharine’s and we read more AI generated image descriptions from our new favourite tool on the Be My Eyes app.

And don’t forget Aille Design’s big “Fashion For All” Jeopardy moment, which we share, along with hearing about Brian’s upcoming association with the World Greeters Association on this pre-Halloween episode.

As three pals do, giving each other a hard time but having fun in studio with good friend/boyfriend Barry Toner visiting from Ireland.

While he’s appeared on our show many times before, Barry is back on Outlook for the first time live in studio to have some fun with us as he tells us what he’s been doing and how he’s been getting along during his stay back here in Canada. Brian is also taking us through his visit to London, England, including sharing some of his adventures through audio and soundscape and filling us in on the cliff hanger he ended off with last time with a story of his adventures an an unexpected encounter riding the Tube transit system.

This, along with a Thanksgiving story of the blind boyfriend busy being the photographer for his girlfriend, co-host Kerry, at a recent family gathering with the help of AI photo descriptions. So thanks to Barry for joining us and being a good sport with us on this edition of Outlook.

Have the conversation.

Following September 30th, National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, and ahead of Thanksgiving it’s another Mixed Bag with a mixture of topics we discuss on Outlook this week as co-host Brian makes his return to the show live and in person.

This week we discuss co-host Kerry’s command of things in studio while her co-host was away in the UK and catch up on all Brian did on his trip, including using the new Be My AI app to get visual detail on the world around us. Brian tests out the app, right there, live in the radio studio to demonstrate what it can offer those of us who cannot see.

Kerry is glad brother Brian is back and he’s brought back with him long-time friend and now Kerry’s boyfriend Barry, for the month. Barry’s been on Outlook several times before, who came up with the name for the podcast originally, and who will be appearing live on an upcoming October episode. So tune in for that on the next one and also to find out the details of Brian’s cliff hanger from at the end of this week’s show.

Her one woman show is premiering, in London, England this October and we’re pleased to have returning guest Jasmine Thien back to discuss it, along with recent insights on adjusting with a second prosthetic eye after having the first one removed in response to childhood cancer.

This week on Outlook, Jasmine is here to share about her upbringing and family history and her lifelong journey with retinal blastoma and the cultural ideas on disability which led her to creating “I Dream In Colour,” a show on Thien’s grandparents who left China years ago, her parent’s ways of handling a threat of vision loss in their child, along with how Jasmine has grown up and come to acceptance and pride in herself.

She describes navigating her new main residence of London, England in preparation for the performance happening on October 15th, the things she tries to instil in the young people she runs educational workshops with, and we even talk disability and sexuality and some of the misconceptions people have about the lack of the latter when it comes to people with the former.

Actor, performer, and educator Jasmine Thien is back with us with her big news and if you happen to be in the UK on 15 October, you should definitely go to this show. You can grab tickets here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/i-dream-in-colour-by-jasmin-thien-tickets-660403463537