The Seated View

As you may be aware, I have been doing advocacy work in accessibility for many years, serving on a variety of committees. In the last three years, I have been involved in the R-PATH Committee , which advocates for accessibility in Toronto Community Housing (TCH). I have long been very frustrated with the lack of usable accessibility standards and usable design in the built environment. It’s been wonderful to be part of our committee that, in collaboration with TCH staff, have developed standards that exceed the Ontario Building Code, and which will accommodate present and future accessibility equipment, making for actually usable design. Unfortunately, this is a fairly isolated endeavor. The rest of the industry is still riddled with barriers. A bit of statistics At present, 1 in 7 people in Canada (14-15 percent) have a disability. Mobility disabilities are most common at 11 percent or about two thirds. With the baby boomer generation aging, it’s expected that th...

I was really excited when I was approached by Mango Health and they asked if I’d write some articles for them. Mango Health has created an app that helps you remember when to take your medication, and remind you of when renewals of your prescriptions are due (available in the US). Super helpful. They also have a blog with lots of informative articles about living with chronic illness. And that’s where I’m going to be appearing once a month through May. My first article is live now. “I am obsessed with light and water. These elements may be a natural part of everyday life, but I find myself continuously fixated on them, particularly when taking photographs: I have approximately a gazillion photos on my hard drive, and 67.4 percent contain images of light, water, and often, light upon water. Photography is my escape from stress and the chronic pain of rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. If the weather’s even halfway decent, I head outside, with my camera tucked...