March 12, 2010
ThisAbility #44: The “Parallel” Olympics
Brian McKeever qualified for the Paralympics and the Olympics, too bad his team started someone else. Most people think that the ‘para’ in Paralympics means paraplegic, but it actually means parallel. Ironic, since for much of its history, its treatment has been anything but. In fact, the Paralympics has always been that thing that you’re vaguely aware is supposed to come after the... [More >>]
February 9, 2010
ThisAbility #43: Olympic Accessibility
Inside the new Canada Line SkyTrain cars. This week, I’m coming to you live and on location from Canada’s Olympic city and the place of my birth. I’m fortunate enough to be staying at my father’s apartment across the street from the athlete’s village, so I’m literally in the center of the action. I can see the environmentally friendly generator that turns the athlete’s... [More >>]
January 5, 2010
ThisAbility #42: New Year’s Revolution
I've chosen my sport and you'll be glad you did too. I’ve often complained here about how disappointing it is to see a general malaise of silent acceptance among Ontario’s disability community when those in power again brush our issues to the side, or only deliver half of what they’ve promised. A fully accessible province? Sure, you’ll just have to wait until 2024. Accessible... [More >>]
December 8, 2009
ThisAbility #41: We Need Some TLC from the TTC
Find out how to fight back against the TTC. Last Wednesday, the following ‘letter to the editor’ appeared in Toronto’s Now Magazine: Disabled stay home I am a person with a disability who does not use Wheel-Trans, as others need it more and my needs have been better met by riding the subway, which is conveniently located half a block down my street. It’s the main reason I moved... [More >>]
November 24, 2009
ThisAbility #40: Glee is for me
Kevin McHale takes centre stage and heat for playing wheelchair using Artie Abrams. Image from The Fox Network Sometimes it seems that no minority sits on a higher horse than people with disabilities—give an inch and they want a mile. I bet that’s what creator Ryan Murphy, executive producer Brad Falchuck and the rest of the creative muscle behind Glee thought, in their most private moments,... [More >>]
November 3, 2009
ThisAbility #39: Gay and disabled in Canada? Back in the closet for you
If you combine my disability with Queerly Canadian writer Cate Simpson’s sexual orientation, you may at least approximate the person who should be writing ThisAbility this week. Nevertheless, as a straight male, I’ve still been hearing rumblings of this problem among LGBT friends (and friends of friends) with disabilities for years, even though I don’t have any first-hand experience... [More >>]
October 20, 2009
ThisAbility #38: Ableism Goes Retro on Mad Men
Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) speculate on the future of their newly disabled colleague in "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency"--copyright AMC 2009 While most of Mad Men’s devoted fan base was surely whipped into a frenzy thanks to “The Big Reveal” this past Sunday, [Sorry folks, I'm going to be good and keep the spoilers behind the link]... [More >>]
October 6, 2009
ThisAbility #37: Simply People, I Wish it Were that Simple
The Simply People Festival shows there's still more to be done. If the LGBT community can have Pride Week, complete with parade, then the world’s most undervalued minority — people with disabilities — can have at least one day to come together for disability pride. That’s the idea behind Simply People. Canada Wide Accessibility for Post Secondary Students [CANWAPSS] had... [More >>]
September 22, 2009
ThisAbility #36: Ian Brown’s The Boy in the Moon
Ian Brown’s The Boy in the Moon had already achieved a mythic status long before it was ever ready for public eyes. It was this insiders’ rumour, the much anticipated, nagging project that was going to blow away everything the Globe and Mail feature writer had ever written previously. As far back as 2007, the Ryerson Review of Journalism was already calling it, “The book that may... [More >>]
September 9, 2009
ThisAbility #35: Crosswalk Chaos
Dianne Trottier, a 33-year-old tenacious journalist killed by a hit-and-run driver while crossing the street in her electric chair. CANADIAN PRESS/CBC While cyclists in Toronto rallied to remember Darcy Allan Sheppard, the cyclist killed after allegedly being dragged along Bloor St. by a car driven by former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant, another car accident was causing comparative degrees... [More >>]
