Happiness is blind is a worthwhile state of being. It’s not all misery is blind as so many parts of society might have you believe.

A year of acceptance is what the mother on today’s episode of Outlook describes since the genetic blindness diagnosis of her third child, her only boy, after the Calgary family received the results of multiple examinations and medical testing for genetic markers for Leber Congenital Amaurosis. Since then, she’s gone on to create a blog and social media pages where she can make meaningful connections from sharing about her family’s experience in dealing with what it means to have a child who is blind, the diagnosis journey, in reactions from strangers in public, and in how learning must be altered somewhat and tailored to the child’s specific needs. So check out our interview with Melissa from Happiness is Blind and then go check out her family’s story at:

https://happinessisblind.com

Meet local London friend Rob Castrogiovanni in his first interview on Outlook. We talk school days, sharing a disability with a sibling, and music with his newest project: The Melody Chamber!

Rob's music page can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/robctg

And his writing page:

https://www.facebook.com/robCastrogiovanniAuthor/

The Melody Chamber website coming soon!

BAM!: also known as Blindness Awareness Month has arrived. October is also Meet The Blind month. We are unsure about such a name as we eagerly await Meet The Sighted Month for November. ;-)

October means not only BAM and Disability Employment Awareness Month but World Sight Day was October 8th and we’re back, us two, discussing why WSD seems to include blindness awareness on a day all about sight saving measures around the world.

Back to basics and another mixed bag this week, on this Canadian Thanksgiving holiday Monday. We discuss something known as sensitivity reading and accessibility review work, recent Netflix shows with audio description included, and more talk of music braille and perfect pitch which our most recent guests shared about.

From her early rural west coast years to becoming a city girl, our guest on Outlook this week is someone we met in 2019, for the first time, at the Canadian Federation of the Blind Employment-Empowerment convention. On this week’s episode we discuss a musical life with good tone days and bad tone days. Patricia Elgersma speaks with us about perfect pitch, comparing just knowing a note to automatically recognizing a colour. So check out this interview with Patricia to find out how she hears a busy world around her.

Check out our discussion with an old friend this week on Outlook where we discuss music (piano, voice, and violin) along with music braille. From expectations to transitions, Sarah Jevnikar speaks with us about education and employment and the advocacy of speaking up for ourselves and the improvement for all when we’re persistent in doing so.

Did you know Art Garfunkel (of Simon and Garfunkel fame) had a lifelong best friend and College roommate who went blind in 1961 while they were in school together at Columbia University in New York City?

On this week’s episode of Outlook, we’ve got a review and discussion with the two of us, and a friend and occasional guest host from Ireland, Barry Toner, of this memoir by Sanford D. Greenberg. It’s entitled “Hello Darkness, My Old Friend: How Daring Dreams and Unyielding Friendship Turned One Man’s Blindness Into An Extraordinary Vision For Life”. It’s about the real and lasting ideas about blindness that persist in 2020, even as we try our best to understand what it must be like to lose one’s sight in the middle of college, at a time of such change and growth in any young person’s life. It’s difficult, for those of us who’ve been blind all our lives, to hear how the book frames blindness as a “scourge” that must be ended.

"We stumbled over a blind beggar. He was sitting cross-legged on the sidewalk. He was lanky, hunched over in soiled and torn clothes, wearing oversized and disintegrating shoes, and holding a metal cup. His unfocused eyes were milky with small black spots, his teeth misshapen and decayed. Anyway, that is how I recall him, and from that moment to today that is the form in which he has been a regular visitor in my dreams."

"Will Ludwig, an old blind man would stand and “watch,” too. No one knew what he did or where he came from. He just stood there in his white T-shirt and gray slacks hiked up on his hips. He was creepy but benign, like a friendly ghost. If he wasn’t there, you wouldn’t notice his absence.”

If these were the only images of blindness you’ve been exposed to, you’re not getting the whole picture.

As we move into our third season of the show, we discuss the pros and cons of a singular disability rights movement in Canada with two opposing points-of-view and their published articles in The Globe and Mail newspaper.

We also spotlight the newest issue of the magazine from the Canadian Federation of the Blind known as The Blind Canadian, with articles on subjects such as the challenges blind Canadians are facing during this pandemic and first editorialColumn we’re calling Kerry’s Outlook.

The Blind Canadian, Volume 17 can be found here:

http://www.cfb.ca/august-2020-version-of-the-blind-canadian

Globe & Mail article here (links to second one):

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-a-united-disability-movement-would-undermine-our-individual-and-unique/

Appearance on iCantCU podcast:

https://www.icantcu.com/090-2/

Mary Ellen Gabias is President of the Canadian Federation of the Blind (CFB). On this week’s episode, we speak with her about her years before coming to Canada to lead advocacy efforts for other blind people like her, about her early time working in a sheltered workshop and then going on to create programs for adults who’ve gone blind later in life, and some of the differences she has seen between the way we Canadians advocate and the way the US does it. Mary Ellen’s desire to see things like employment opportunities improve, human rights cases improve the lives of blind people, for a more independent future, always staying true to the CFB’s philosophies that believe blind people, blind Canadians can live the lives we want. Blindness doesn’t have to be that thing to hold us back.

To celebrate Outlook’s two-year anniversary, check out the show this week to learn more.

http://www.cfb.ca

What do a castle, a snowflake, a butterfly, and DNA all have in common?

Caroline Karbowski is the CEO of See3D, a non-profit organization that manages the printing and distribution of 3D printed models for people who are blind. Although she is not blind herself, she reads braille by touch. This is a fascinating interview you will not want to miss.

https://see3d.org

Outlook 2020-08-24 - Help with inaccessible bike lane design, Blind history in Canada by Outlook on Radio Western