Reflections

Returning to the office due to new mandates? The adjustment isn’t being taken well by all, and there are some serious accessibility issues to address. Joeita Gupta is answering all our burning questions around which employers are insisting workers come back to the office and why. What role is the Canadian government playing in all of this? And how are people with disabilities being affected?  Opey...

London, Ontario was designated as Canada's first UNESCO City of Music in 2021, recognizing its vibrant music scene and commitment to cultural development, and Kelly MacDonald was thrilled to commemorate. Mario Circelli, Founder and Chair of The London Music Hall of Fame, introduces us to this special music community, and helps us explore what the UNESCO title means for London's growth. We hear abo...

Last fall, a group of eleven blind hikers traveled to Tanzania to tackle Mount Kilimanjaro. Grant Hardy speaks with climbers Peter Quaiattini, David Brown, and Tammy Adams about the triumphs, challenges, and highlights of their hiking journeys. The trip was made possible by Nana Safaris. It’s a mainstream tour and travel company based in Arusha – Tanzania that incorporates accessibility into its t...

What’s the first moment when life after vision loss starts to feel possible again? Nisreen Abdel-Majid explores the small, powerful breakthroughs that reshape independence, the moments that may look ordinary from the outside but carry deep emotional weight for the people experiencing them. Through firsthand stories, Ariana Noughira shares what it meant to regain confidence with her guide dog by he...

The memoir genre is booming, disability memoirs specifically. But what makes these books so entertaining, informative, powerful, or groundbreaking? Is it pressure from publishers? Or is it the translation of a person's lived experience into a digestible, easy-to-read format? Andreae Callanan is a writer and researcher who studies neurodiversity and the disability memoir. Andreae provides her persp...

Grant Hardy is joined by tech experts Shaun Preece, Andy Baryer, and John Biehler to compare and contrast the benefits of the smart home with the perils of planned obsolescence and tech troubleshooting. Let's figure out if the smart home is really worth it. Andy Baryer from Handy Andy Media shares what he’s most excited about in his smart home for 2025, as well as his thoughts on futureproofing. D...

Are older employees in the workforce wrongfully keeping work away from young people who are fresh out of school? Is AI taking over older workers' jobs first? Are aging employees too expensive to keep around? Let's get to the bottom of these questions. Kelly MacDonald speaks with Lisa Taylor, Founder and CEO of Challenge Factory, a Canadian research and advisory firm focused on the future of work,...

From crowded buses and train stations to classrooms, gyms, and healthcare settings, we’re constantly negotiating hygiene in shared spaces. Nisreen Abdel-Majid explores how to approach the tricky conversations of hygiene, addressing environment, expectation, and access. Kindergarten teacher Melinda Morbi shares how hygiene is introduced early in classrooms and how those messages can follow us into...

What are some of the common touchstones in the blind community?  Do they create a shared sense of culture? Joeita Gupta was curious and decided to invite some of the smartest people she knows to share their input on whether a blind culture exists. Joined by Andrew Leland, Barbara Pierce, Marcia Yale, and Michelle McQuigge, Joeita will explore the shared traits among the blind community, the stigma...

To put a bow on 2025, Kelly MacDonald gathered stories about the unwrapped gifts that have stayed with us, in memory and impact. ESPN and Sportsnet's Dan Shulman nudges us about the gifts of advice and the giving of time. Artist Lucas Haneman remembers how just one gift lead to a lifetime of blessings. Angela Bonfanti, President and CEO of CNIB, shares how her childhood attempts to run away from h...

Grant Hardy introduces us to the Mayday Club’s Amplify: Sound, Voice, and Radio course that took place this fall, in partnership with Disability Alliance BC. The sixteen-week course provided neurodivergent youth with hands-on experience in the fields of voice acting and radio hosting, including the opportunity to create an original radio series. Nicole Provost, the Founder of Mayday Club, shares w...

For many artists, legitimacy is imagined as a single moment, when someone finally says, “you’re in.” This episode follows emerging indie pop artist Laura Ulmer as she confronts the music industry gate keeping, able-ism, and internalized self-doubt that kept her hovering on the fringes, despite her ever-growing talent and repertoire. Alongside music publicist Eric Alper, we ask who really gets to d...

This past week proposed amendments to the Canada Post Corporation Act surfaced, and free postage for literature for the blind could be removed. Joeita Gupta heard the alarming news and noticed how deeply it was affecting people in her close circles. Joeita is inviting you to listen to this episode of Reflections to find out why these amendments are so concerning, how you can use your voice to supp...

You can become a celebrity overnight and make money online, at a price, of course. And what’s that price when you’re a minor? Let’s find out the realities of becoming a kid influencer. When you’re not yet legally an adult, being a star can bring danger. The Ivey Business School at Western University conducted a study on “kidfluencing,” and we learn what they discovered with Lead Research Professor...

Holidays are the perfect time to gather with friends, family, coworkers, and your community. But how do hosts ensure that whether they’re in a grand banquet hall or trying to squeeze a few more chairs around their own dinner table, they’re creating an accessible space for everybody?  From washrooms to festive attire, holiday lights to food allergies, join Joeita Gupta to find out how you or your o...

Grant Hardy explores how artists are going beyond the visual, reimagining how we experience art in diverse and multisensory forms. Violinist Leslie Ting's show, What Brings You In, in partnership with Theatre Passe-Muraille, is centred around the nonvisual experience for the audience, inviting people to participate in unique, auditory ways. Nonvisual, social practice artist Carmen Papalia shares d...

Can martial arts traditions help people with disabilities take on the world more confidently? Let's continue to explore this question, while we learn about martial arts mindsets and philosophies. Chris James is the Lead Instructor of the self defence workshops ran periodically at Balance for Blind Adults in Toronto. He, along with Kathleen Wilson and Mags Storey, share how they approach teaching b...

In Part 2 of this series, Grant Hardy digs a bit deeper into what is being done to treat chronic pain, and asks how people living with chronic pain can re-train their brains to lessen the impact of pain on their lives. Kara Stanley and Simon Paradis, authors of the book The Pain Project, are back to recount the tactics they’ve used to distract Simon’s brain in real-time when he's experiencing pain...

The Zero Project works alongside the UN community to spotlight and scale innovations that advance the goals of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. On December 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, it releases a list of award solutions toward its goal: a world with zero barriers.  The full list is at zeroproject.org AMI-audio Manager Andy Frank spotlights thr...

At Vision Health Canada (VHC), their work is unified under the guiding theme: One Voice. Clear Focus. Collective Action. They aim to collaborate with government, industry, clinicians, researchers, and community partners to establish a unified national approach to vision health. In this roundtable discussion, Kelly MacDonald introduces us to Jim Sanders, Director at VHC; Ian White, Chair of the VHC...

Grant Hardy hears from individuals living with chronic pain about their experiences, struggles, and how they are working to move forward. Couple Kara Stanley and Simon Paradis published their book, “The Pain Project,” that documents their journey of Simon’s chronic pain after a traumatic brain and spinal cord injury. Simon’s band is called “Them Ordinary Things”. We speak about “The Pain Project”...

We know the fears and anxieties that come with navigating the streets on our own, being out late in unfamiliar areas, or moving through public transit systems. Let’s talk honestly about those realities, and figure out safety, strategy, and self-defence. Samira Lavei and Lindsay McCaw run the Unbreakable Women’s Self-Defence series in Toronto; they share practical self-defence tips and emphasize th...

In 2025, video content offers vital access to information, but making videos accessible to blind and low-vision audiences is still a work in progress. Let's figure out where exactly we are in the grand scheme of things. Kelly MacDonald introduces us to Joshua Miele’s project YouDescribe, a free, crowdsourced platform that allows people to add audio description tracks to YouTube videos. We hear fro...

Food bank visits in the City of Toronto have increased by 340% since 2019, and across Canada food bank visits are rising. Why is this happening? How can we help? Feature Reporter Joeita Gupta set out to find an answer for us. While it may not be as straightforward as we would like, there are still things we can do to support our fellow Canadians during a time when putting food on our tables is get...

This episode features the conclusion to our special archive cut of AMI's documentary Alzheimer's: The Tsunami to Come as it originally aired in 2016. About AMI AMI is a media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians with disabilities through three broadcast services — AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French — and streaming platform AMI+. Our vision is to establish AMI...