To help spread awareness, we have compiled a collection of content below, including episodes of our Limitless Podcast and Limitless Blog that would be great ways to learn more about blindness and hear about the lived experiences of those who experience blindness and low vision on a daily basis.
Enjoy, listen, and most importantly, SHARE.
Podcast Episodes
When vision loss is discussed, most people think about all the negatives but rarely consider that there can be some positives as well. It is a transformative experience, which brings with it both positives and negatives. This week Shawn welcomes back Ishita and Jill to the podcast to shift perspectives and talk about some of the many positives that their blindness has brought into their lives as well as discussing dealing with the pressure that society puts on the disability community that they need to be “fixed”.
As we enter into the first week of Blindness Awareness Month, we are breaking some stereotypes! People in the disability community are often placed in two categories – hero or helpless. They can be seen as a source of inspiration, or as someone who is going to require support. This week Shawn welcomes Ishita, Clement, Alexis, and Ella to the podcast to talk about reasons behind these stereotypes, their own experiences encountering these attitudes, how they feel about it, and what they want people in the able bodied community to know about blindness or partial sight.
This week Shawn is joined once again by Ishita, Clement, and Jinnie to continue their conversation about “common knowledge” facts that they may have only learned recently. You won’t want to miss this epic (and sometimes hilarious) conclusion to this great conversation!
Incidental learning is defined as unintentional or unplanned learning that results from other activities. People can learn certain facts just through exposure or observation, even though it’s never taught. For those growing up blind or with partial sight, however, some facts that are seen as “common knowledge” may only be learned later in life. This week Shawn is joined by Ishita, Clement, and Jinnie to discuss some of this “common knowledge” and things that they may have only learned recently that “blew their minds”. From the color of pesto sauce to sunbeams, the list of topics was so big we had to break this one into two parts!
Having a guide dog can be an incredibly important part of daily life for many people, offering both companionship and independence wrapped up in one fuzzy package. But what happens when you are unfairly denied service because of your canine companion? This week Shawn welcomes back guide dog users Jinnie, Jill, and Nika to unpack the laws around Guide Dog access and share some personal experiences around being denied service and how they resolved or navigated these situations that happen more often than you may think.
As anyone who has spent any time listening to the podcast is well aware, blindness is a gradient, and every person has their own acuity and level of vision. In this episode Shawn sits down with co-hosts Jinnie, Ishita, and Randi to compare and contrast their own lived experiences, from total blindness to low vision. From terminology and labels, to social situations and adaptations, they discuss how their experiences can vary wildly while also being very similar. It’s a frank and open discussion about vision that you don’t want to miss!
This week Shawn welcomes co-host Jinnie back to the podcast after an extended absence to talk all about prosthetic eyes. They discuss common misconceptions, the fitting process, what it’s like caring for them, the ways that people tend to react to them, and much more! And of course no discussion about prosthetic eyes would be complete without a few funny stories thrown in for good measure. It’s a fascinating and honest conversation aimed to demystify prosthetic eyes that you won’t want to miss!
It’s a special episode this week as Shawn and co-host and Blind Beginnings Programs Coordinator Keisha Anderson discuss making outings and events meaningful and inclusive for children who are blind or partially sighted. They discuss the methods that Blind Beginnings uses in their Community Discovery outings and share their own personal experiences growing up to shed light on the importance of providing inclusive opportunities that allow children who are blind or partially sighted to fully engage with the world around them.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but how many words are worth making a concise and impactful description for those who can’t see it? This week Shawn is joined by Jill, Clement, and Nika to talk about their experiences and preferences when it comes to image description online, from social media and websites to messaging apps. They discuss what exactly “alt-text” is, how it works, and tips on how to craft effective image descriptions that are full of context and meaning before also discussing their feelings on the new trend of meeting participants describing their appearance for other attendees who may be blind or partially sighted. It’s an informative and fascinating insight into what descriptions can mean for the community that you won’t want to miss!
It’s a very special episode this week as Shawn welcomes Acacia, Keisha, and Nina to a panel style discussion aimed at breaking stereotypes of blindness and giving an overview of their journeys through blindness or partial sight in order to educate and empower. It’s an open and frank discussion from the youth perspective that you won’t want to miss and a valuable resource for those new to the blindness community either as an individual, family member, or loved one.
What does it mean to “look blind” and can being self conscious about it impact your actions or add pressure in certain social situations? This week Shawn welcomes Dougie and Keisha back to the podcast to discuss their own experiences with their other people’s reactions to their vision, the pressure they put on themselves and the impact both can have on confidence and self esteem, and much more. It’s a fascinating and honest discussion that you won’t want to miss!
Working in retail or customer service can be challenging, but when you are blind or partially sighted it can also come with its own set of unique challenges to overcome. This week Shawn sits down with Acacia and Jill, both of which have experience working a variety of jobs in retail to share their experiences and talk about everything from initial concerns during the application and hiring process to how customers and co-workers reacted to their vision conditions and even advice for others who may be interested in working with the public.
While inclusion is something that is incredibly important most of the time, when done without consulting the person who is being included, it can go wrong and backfire.
Asking for help from family members, friends, or even strangers can be something that many people who are blind or partially sighted can struggle with on occasion. This week on the podcast Shawn is joined by co-hosts Keisha, Jinnie, and Nika for a very open and honest conversation about the act of asking for help and how it can impact everything from perceived social expectations of people who are blind or partially sighted to self esteem and even confidence. It’s a fascinating discussion that you won’t want to miss!
Disclosing your disability can be a very complicated topic to navigate, with a variety of pros and cons on when to disclose. This week on the podcast, Shawn and co-hosts Ishita, Clement, and Kolby discuss their own personal experiences in everything from personal relationships to job interviews and how they have developed their own personal guidelines on when and how to disclose. It’s an open and honest conversation that anyone who has ever faced this dilemma won’t want to miss.
It’s a very special episode this week as Shawn and co-host Ishita welcome Brad McCannell, Vice President of Access and Inclusion at the Rick Hansen Foundation to talk about the concept of Universal Design and its vital importance in working to build a more accessible society. They discuss definitions, the way that it is currently implemented in the build environment, some of the hurdles faced, what needs to be done in order to remove the many accessibility barriers that people with disabilities currently face, and how it can benefit everyone in the long run.
The first full week of February is White Cane Week, and to help celebrate this very special week designed to highlight the lived experiences of people who are blind or partially sighted, Shawn welcomes Nika, Jinnie, and special guest Monty to the podcast to pay tribute to everybody’s favorite mobility aid! They share some insight on the importance of this simple yet incredibly useful “blind stick” before swapping some of their favorite humorous white cane stories. It’s an episode full of information and laughter that you won’t want to miss!
How do sighted people respond when meeting someone who is blind for the first time? For some, it might be a bit of discomfort at feeling unsure of what to do or say. This week as part of our ongoing Blindness Awareness Month content, Shawn has invited some special guests to the podcast to have an open and honest conversation about their own experiences with encountering blindness for the first time. Ryan, Linda, Rob, and Emily join Shawn to discuss what the process is like for both people who are sighted and people who are blind.
Audio description is an extremely valuable way for people who are blind or partially sighted to be able to access many TV shows, movies, and other programming. But apart from just pure entertainment, audio description can also offer up some very important lessons and learning moments for children who are blind or partially sighted. This week Shawn and co-host Kolby welcome Maria, who is the parent of a daughter who is blind, to discuss what kind of developmental impact audio description can have on young children.
Shawn and co-hosts Nika and Clement continue their discussion of ableism from last week and talk about their own personal experiences with it. They discuss their internalized ableism and how it can affect their own behaviors, as well as concepts such as “inspiration porn” and how it can be damaging to how disability is viewed in the mainstream.
This week we are excited to present the first part of a two-part special episode on ableism. Join Shawn and co-hosts Nika and Clement as they have an open and frank conversation about ableism, defining it and sharing personal experiences which detail the implications and impact that it can have in the lives of people with disabilities.
Blog Articles
A little while ago, I had an interesting conversation that got me thinking about the idea of having an impact on people without even recognizing it. The conversation took place on the bus when I was just heading back from class. I heard someone call my name, and I turned around to find a girl that I used to work with at my previous job.
Growing up, I didn’t really have the opportunity to witness accurate and positive representation of persons with disability in media. Whenever a character with a disability was present in a show or movie, they were usually a side character with no real character development or were often portrayed with negative stereotypes that were presented as a joke. Media has come a long way in the past couple of decades, and representation for persons with disabilities is becoming more normalized and is moving in a more positive direction.
My acceptance to using a mobility cane and fully embracing my blindness did not happen until my 40th birthday. In a few months from that magical date, I was going to travel to Des Moines, Iowa and I had a lot of anxiety around traveling independently and safely in a new city, navigating the airport, and using public transportation.
I had an interesting conversation with my aunt the other day. She noticed how many people with disabilities often make jokes about their disabilities to themselves or their friends. She didn’t understand why they would do that, since she interpreted them as being mean to themselves, and asked if that was something that I did often in regards to my blindness.
Growing up partially sighted, the word "blind" was never a part of my vocabulary, mostly because many people who met me didn’t consider me to be blind. To them (and myself), blindness meant having no vision whatsoever. I grew up with the idea that blindness was an all or nothing concept, and although I only have roughly half of my visual field, I still had remaining vision and ergo wasn’t considered as being a blind person.
It has been about nine months since I have transitioned to having a Guide Dog in my life. Though this means that I am usually with my furry companion when I am out and about, there are still times when I need to use my white cane, or times when I use it to ensure that I keep up my skills.
Science has always been my favourite subject, so much so that I remember my very first lesson in kindergarten which was 15 years ago. From that point on, I was permanently enthralled by the fascinating world of STEM. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math; however I will be focusing more on the science and math component in this article.
Why is braille literacy so important? Does Braille even matter today, in a world where everything is read aloud? What the heck even is it?
What is able-ist? Has my “plain vanilla” blindness enabled me to devalue people with “Neapolitan” blindness or blind people with additional needs? I’m not sure where to begin unravelling this important and heavy topic, but let’s take it all the way back to "Source of All Knowledge", Google.
As someone who has grown up with a disability and who spends a lot of time discussing both the positive and challenging aspects of living as someone blind from birth to my friends, I often dream of what it would be like to have a friend who just gets it. “But why,” you may ask. “Don’t you have sighted friends who treat you normally?” Well, the answer is a complicated one. Yes and no.
A couple of years ago I joined a Leadership working group made up of a diverse group of individuals who wanted to learn how to be more inclusive and practice celebrating diversity. At the first on-line group meeting, there were 8 of us from different locations in Canada, and even one person calling from England. There were a couple of grandparents, one male, one person who uses a wheelchair, somebody who disclosed they deal with severe anxiety, and myself - a person who is blind.
The use of certain language is a complicated issue, not just in the blind community but the disability community in general. Do we use person first or disability first language? Should we not use certain words in order to prevent drawing attention to the disability? Are there any words we shouldn’t say at all? To put it simply, it’s a nuanced issue with no straightforward answer.
It's the first week of Blindness Awareness Month and we are kicking off our month's worth of content with a version of a conversation that could very well be happening somewhere right now as you read this.
On the bus last week I met a woman with the same eye condition as me. Her diagnosis was fairly new, and had come much later in her life. Mine has been with me since birth. “I wouldn’t wish this condition on my worst enemy” she proclaimed. I didn’t know what to say to that. I could think of a lot of things that were far worse that I could wish on my enemies. Poverty, starvation, loneliness, homelessness, terminal illness, etc. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this statement, and it continues to surprise me.
Throughout my childhood my family sat down to dinner together every night. One particular dinner stands out in my memory as the day my life changed. “You have an eye disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa” my mom said.