The Disability Diaries With Steven Vine

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Steve talks with Agust who lives in Iceland. Our guest has had 2 serious conditions: Ostomy care and bouts of manic episodes. He's had a very challenging life as he was affected with manic episodes when he was 19 years old. He also dealt with colitis and cancer, which led to the removal of his colon and getting an ostomy. He is an avid mountaineer and leads a...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Steve interviews Deborah James Sabo - a student of Therapeutic Recreation, which is therapy designed to improve the health, wellbeing, and quality of life of the individual seeking help with cognitive challenges. Debra has a diverse background, but found her interest to be in the emerging field of therapeutic recreation. She is working mostly with older adults wit...

Send us Fan Mail As a younger man, Marty was into sports big time. He eventually worked in the tech industry as a technician for Apple.  He slowly lost his vision completely. Marty eventually applied his technical experience into 2 Podcasts entitled 'Unmute' and 'Code Orange' (on the Aftersight Network). Unmute is a podcast focused on technology for blind and visually impaired...

Send us Fan Mail Steven talks with Seaver Stafford, a representative from the Neil Squire Society, a Canadian national not-for-profit organization that helps Canadians with disabilities through advocacy, computer-based, assistive technology , research and development, and various employment programs. There are four locations across Canada. Seaver also hosts a podcast on Spotify "We have solut...

Send us Fan Mail Unedited, uncensored, and raw. Please join Steven and Chris as we warmly reflect the project’s first year, including memories of: unforeseen challenges, memorable episodes, and other anecdotal stories. All said with a sense of humor and candor over a bottle of bubbly. Don’t miss the announcement at the end (before the abrupt ending)

Send us Fan Mail Steve has a candid discussion with Andy Manson, a recently retired Ostomy nurse about the crappy and not so crappy sides of having and caring for an Ostomy You will find topics that you can slide right into, it's a slippery slope - but Steve and Andy think you won't find anything stinky about this episode. After all, as Andy reminds us: it's just poop. HOME - Ostomy...

Send us Fan Mail Steve has an ever so interesting conversation with Brian Mackie; representative of Vision Loss Rehabilitation Canada about the challenges of teaching the visually impaired technology and other tasks. Collectively, Steve and Brian cover the use of iphones, smart speakers, computers, braille, and other tasks around the house that might be of use to help clients living a higher quali...

Send us Fan Mail Steve and Chris talk to Dr. Alyssa Hodgson, a pain specialist doctor at CPRI (Canadian Pain & Regenerative Institute); a multidisciplinary clinic in Vancouver and New Westminster. Steve has a personal connection with Dr. Hodgson, as she has been treating Steve for his chronic pain for over a year now, as he continues to see her and other doctors in the pain clinic. Pain manage...

Send us Fan Mail Steve talks with Mark Stockbrocks, who is a triplegic  (meaning he only has the use of his right hand and arm). Mark discusses his accessibility program which means that Mark will slap your business with a sticker if you don't meet the accessibility standards for a person in a wheelchair.   Mark had a lifechanging incident when he was in his 30's; just as he was about to...

Send us Fan Mail Steve converses with Grant as he expertly articulates his world of blindness. From his journey at birth until his life now as a champion podcast host on the AMI Network; Grant talks about his life growing up with vision impairment, his high school experiences, and then as a student at the University of British Columbia. After university he joins the AMI Network (Accessible Media I...

Send us Fan Mail Steve has a great conversation with Tristan, who is the Director of Business Development for BC Diabetes in Vancouver. As Tristan explains, he is a 'business guy' and not a medical professional. Tristan's father, Dr. Tom Elliott is the Founder and Medical Director at BC Diabetes. Tom eventually recruited his son to work with the organization. This was just about the...

Send us Fan Mail Steve and Chris together have a great discussion with Paul Gauthier in regards to him as the founder of the CSIL program (Choice in Supports for Independent Living) They also discuss his involvement with his other significant initiatives that make Paul such a prominent and influential individual in the disabled community. He was born with Cerebral Palsy. As a young person, he grew...

Send us Fan Mail Steve has a conversation with the delightful Amy Amantea, an actor/performer, writer, arts administrator, disability strategist and advocate. She is also legally blind, as well as neurodivergent, and she experiences chronic pain from Gastropareses - nerve damage in the stomach. Her Type 1 diabetes rendered her into a coma and when she emerged from that experience, she was diagnose...

Send us Fan Mail Steve talks with Michelle Hewitt from Kelowna, current Board Chair of Disability without Poverty, a non profit organization. A former public school principal, Michelle was diagnosed with aggressive multiple sclerosis in her early 40s, and is a full time power wheelchair user. Fatigue limits the amount of time she spends out of bed each day to less than 8 hours. “We have a large ch...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Steve talks with Evan Schwerbrock (all the way from North Carolina) who developed Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, and became legally blind in 2014. As health & fitness was very important to Evan, he continued working out feverishly, learning to adapt to his new needs. Despite visual impairment, Evan moved on to earn his Master’s degree in Kinesiology with...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Steve has a very candid conversation with Dayna Wilson who has autism. Dayna grew up in the 90’s a bit isolated in Whitehorse, Yukon. She was treated differently, because as she describes it – she was a bit weird. She was officially diagnosed with Autism when she was in her 30’s, which she describes as cathartic. She also has autistic children, which are a blessin...

Send us Fan Mail Steve interviews Ean Price from Kelowna, British Columbia.  Ean is the Peer Support Manager at Technology for Living, a non profit group from Vancouver that works with people who have severe physical disabilities and helps them to live as well and as independently as possible. TFL provides people who experience physical barriers with peer support, innovative technologies, respirat...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Steven and Chris talk with Penn and Moses Street from Colorado. Penn became blind as a young child from a rattlesnake bite, developing Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. Her family of 12 moved to Colorado from Arkansas because Penn could get better care from the children’s hospital in that area. Penn had a tomboy spirit, and refused to accept that she couldn’t do something...

Send us Fan Mail Today we have an internationally acclaimed singer. If you are a Vancouver Canucks Fan, you certainly don’t need an introduction to Steve’s current guest. He has been a frequent singer of the Canadian and American Anthems before the hockey home games at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. Jugpreet lost his sight from retinoblastoma eye cancer when he was only 6 months old.  He started his m...

Send us Fan Mail Steve talks with his friend Iris, whom he met through the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) when Steve first went blind. Iris and Steve share the rare condition of being 100% blind. While Steve’s was sudden, Iris slowly lost her vision, starting when she was a teenager. She had various operations without success but eventually accepted her non-vision as her lifestyl...

Send us Fan Mail Scott has been in the Prosthetic and Orthotic profession for over 30 years. He completed a 2 year residency with Russell Prosthetics in New Westminster, BC. When the founder retired, he took over the clinic and has continued to serve patients ever since. Scott continues to stay up to date with the latest techniques and technologies in this rapidly changing field. Scott’s volunteer...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Steve talks to Monica Gartner. Monica is 3’ & 1.5” foot tall in stature, but 10X taller in gumption! When Monica was born, she was affected with scoliosis and a bone disease. She tells some stories about growing up, some of her hospital experiences, and her family support. She has a degree in Business, has done some acting, as well as wrote a book! Monica is t...

Send us Fan Mail Steve has a very lively conversation with Marco Pasqua. Marco was born with Cerebral Palsy, but that is hardly the story. When he was only 10 years old, Marco was invited to be the ambassador/host of the Timmy’s Christmas Telethon with local radio legend Red Robinson . This was his first opportunity to speak in front of a large audience. Later in life, he pursued a career in techn...

Send us Fan Mail Steve and Chris talk to Liz Hunter, a Community Librarian at the New Westminster Public Library in New Westminster, British Columbia. We talk to Liz, because she helped teach us in learning about Podcasting. This is an initiative Liz started at the library, including procuring equipment and a space that library card holders can use to facilitate their own podcast. Liz also talks a...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Steve talks to Joey Hsieh – who has a son who is disabled. Her son Matthew has a rare disease, is nonverbal, blind, and in a wheelchair. As a child, he was misdiagnosed with Autism. Joey is truly a loving mother full of positivity and acceptance. She gets her strength from Matthew, and she prefers the term different ability over disability. Joey also talks about t...