Reflections

Regardless of the common fears and criticisms around our relationship with artificial intelligence, AI plays a significant positive role in our world. Kelly MacDonald's guests remind us of what those good sides are.  Musician, author, and entrepreneur David Usher presents his five key guidelines to AI creators, encouraging responsible development of AI.  Technology Analyst and Journalist...

Grant Hardy learns more about the Vancouver Adapted Music Society, an organization that makes music production and performance accessible to artists with disabilities.  Bryden Veinot is Senior Program Coordinator for VAMS. He tells us about the organization, and the 2026 Strong Sessions Concert showcasing VAMS talent. Simon Paradis is a client of VAMS and a performer at the Strong Sessions Co...

Anxiety is often defined as a response to something we perceive as a threat. For people living with disabilities, the threat isn’t always hypothetical. It can be the inaccessible entrance you discover when you arrive, the mobility aid you’re afraid an airline might damage, the stranger who grabs your wheelchair without asking, or the medical professional who doesn’t believe your pain is real. When...

A haunted restaurant. A mummified toe. A porter who’s been dead for decades, but still helps guests with their luggage. Welcome to the creepy side of Canadian history! From unexplained encounters to stories of lingering spirits, Jennie Bovard explores the strange tales connected to places you can still visit today, drawing on firsthand experiences, secondhand accounts, and expert perspectives.&nbs...

Kelly MacDonald learns from the pros about the power of preserving our past.  Reflections Senior Producer Matt Agnew is in his element as he shares his passion and purpose behind archiving. Ed Conroy, Creator of Retro Ontario, explains how reviving forgotten analogue footage online brings communities together. Disability Media Historian Michael Marlatt reminds us that archives represent our h...

This episode features un-aired clips and interviews from last year's coverage of the Toronto Treat Accessibly's Halloween Village.    Joeita Gupta is inviting you to join her and Producer Matt Agnew for a spook-tacular afternoon at the 2025 Toronto Treat Accessibly Halloween Village, where families living with disabilities can safely and accessibly celebrate the spookiest time...

Multisensory art has a way of rewriting the narrative on important issues in diverse ways. Grant Hardy spoke with three artists in the community to find out how they’re creating critical change for people with disabilities and other minority groups, having a creative and fun time while doing so.  Multidisciplinary artist Theodore Walker Robinson discusses some of their weaving, television, an...

Supports may be out there, but how do people with disabilities go about finding their way to those supports? Reflections Reporters Joeita Gupta and Kelly MacDonald join Ramya Amuthan to chat about how well disability communities are doing at finding each other, collaborating, and building bridges.  The four Reflections episodes highlighted in this panel are:  Looking into National Eye Ca...

Understanding, and eventually undoing the erasure of the experience of Indigenous Peoples with disabilities is an attempt to unlearn our very way of thinking. Dr. Lynn Gehl talks through the political model of disability with Joeita Gupta, an approach which aims to eliminate ableist, racist, and sexist language written into Canada’s political policies and laws. Kathryn Reinders shares insights fro...

It’s hard to ignore the darker sides of social media, but sometimes something comes across our algorithms that reminds us of the positives of connecting through online platforms. When AMI's Crip Trip team was in Whitehorse, Yukon, an impatient truck driver drove over their ramp. They had nobody to call, no one to help, and no idea how they were going to continue on their journey. That was until a...

Thanksgiving in Canada has a checkered history, so Joeita Gupta set out on a mission to learn more about it.  She spoke with Peter Stevens, a Professor of Liberal Studies at Humber Polytechnic. Peter talks about the religious histories of the widely celebrated holiday, and describes how settlers wrote Indigenous peoples out of the story of Thanksgiving in the early 1800s.   Brian Ri...

Canadian Cultural Historian Ed Conroy takes Kelly MacDonald back in time to the late 20th century to ponder about what kids at the time were watching on TV. They go over communication style, disability representation, quality of writing, and how the creators aimed to connect to the audience.  Alyson Court, a very busy teenage actor at the time, runs down the highlights of her career, and lets...

Running can be a fun way to participate in the community, improve your health and fitness, or push yourself beyond your perceived limitations. Grant Hardy speaks to two partially sighted runners, Richard Harlow and Julie Colangelo, and learns how their running journeys evolved. Richard's sighted guide Richie Jackson also gives his perspective on prepping for a marathon and completing it accessibly...

Jennie Bovard has been a lifelong cyclist and now spends part of her time putting butts on tandem bikes as a program coordinator with Blind Sports Nova Scotia. She gets a lot of joy from tandem cycling, and finds out who else feels the same.  Ange Purcell is brand new to tandem biking. She shares what drew her to the sport, why group rides have quickly become a summer highlight, and how tande...

Workplaces across North America have been implementing period positive policies in their offices and cultures for several years now. One policy that sparks a strong debate is menstrual leave, and Joeita Gupta learned how organizations handle issues of period equity in their workplaces.  We hear from Sophie Zivku, Impact Manager at DIVA, about how their menstrual leave policy was implemented t...

Outside of broadcasting aspirations, Kelly MacDonald considered auctioneering as a career. The fast talking entertainment intrigued him then, but today he set out to explore the world of auctions a bit further.  Lenn Metcalfe, Founder and Former President of Metcalfe Auctions, reminisces with Kelly about his over seven decades working in auctions.  Dennis Kidd of Kidd Family Auctions tak...

Joeita Gupta had always considered herself an avid reader, but lately, Netflix and doom scrolling had taken up a lot of her time. So, she turned to her friends for inspiration to get out of this reading slump.  Paul Daniel, former AMI Producer and avid reader, shares where he gets his book recommendations and how he tracks what he's reading throughout the year.   Jacob Shymanski, ho...

Kelly MacDonald learns about “The Healing Leash: Honouring Guide Dog Loss,” a CNIB program offering space for people like Guy Carriere, a former guide dog handler, to talk openly about that experience with others who understand it first-hand.  Denise Chamberlin, the group’s Facilitator, navigates participants through the four-week Healing Leash series, intended to meet participants exactly wh...

Joeita Gupta has already explored what it’s like to go through two of life’s biggest stages: heading off to university and changing your career. Now, she wants to find out what the next stage of life might be like and how she can best prepare for it. Last year, Joeita’s mother retired after a 40-year career, and it left her with lots of questions. When do you know when you’re ready for retirement?...

What are the realities of living with ALS? When James Smith was diagnosed with ALS in 2021, he was relieved to finally have an answer for his pain and symptoms. However, the progression of the disease was just beginning. James (@adaptwithjames) shares his life with his over 40,000 Instagram followers, and joined Beth Deer to talk about how he and his family are handling his diagnosis and progressi...

New approaches to assistive technology are replacing the medical model for disability with an inclusive one that acknowledges one size doesn’t fit all. An organization leading the way is CanAssist, engineering cutting-edge assistive technology and tackling accessibility across the board.  Grant Hardy speaks with Griffin Long, a former engineering student at the University of Victoria, who com...

Rising Temperatures in the summers are becoming a challenge for everybody, and are uniquely complicated for people living in high rise apartments and condos within the busy City of Toronto. Joeita Gupta learns more.  Jordan Gray is the Executive Director for the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights and is among a growing number of advocates asking Toronto to create a Maximum Temperature Bylaw t...

What does it mean to be independent? The goal of independence, and the way to get there, varies. Reflections Reporters Grant Hardy and Kelly MacDonald discuss the scope of this theme as they revisit four past Reflections episodes:  The Access Go Mobile App, released July 16, 2026, exploring how access to coding has levelled the playing field for the blind and low vision community.  The E...

Anything is possible when creative minds take self-expression and a bit of theatre magic to put on a show. It's representation at its finest, and Kelly MacDonald finds out how its done.  Kevin Jesuino, Artistic Director of Theatre Terrific, highlights the work the Canadian organization has been doing for inclusive theatre.  Lisa B Lewis is the Founder and Executive Director of Omnium Cir...

Grant Hardy hears from three travelers from the blind and low vision community about the joys and challenges of international travel. No matter the plan or destination, these narratives offer valuable insight into accessible travel from a blindness perspective. Richard Marion authored a series for The Blind Canadian about how he planned a trip to Edinborough, Paris, and London with his partner. He...