“What makes something significant enough for a museum collection – and what gets overlooked?” Questions like these framed our family’s conversations as we toured the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) this summer. Together, we viewed countless exhibits, from prehistoric fossils and an ancient Egyptian cat mummy to First Nations art and modern furniture, testifying to years…
How many people do you know who live with a hidden disability? And even if you’ve been told, how well do you understand the challenges that person deals with? Let me share some insights that I have garnered from living with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) for over a decade. My disability has affected every…
I had dinner with some new friends last month; all of us are caregivers of children with disabilities and developmental challenges. At one point, we discussed the question, “If you could change anything about your child, would you?” It sparked some deep reflections about making changes for our children versus making changes about them. Several…
Treasure-hunting is not just about finding diamonds in dark caves. My childhood taught me incredible finds could be discovered at the end of a driveway, disguised as junk ready for the dump. Family folklore has it that my dad picked up our family’s longstanding coffee table at the side of the road and biked home…
How do you make decisions? Are you a pros-and-cons list maker, weighing each side like it’s a courtroom debate? Or maybe you like to test-drive your choices (my preference): Pretend you’ve picked one path for a few days just to see how it sits with you, then flip to the other and compare. Making medical…
Over the winter months, with snow making it a challenge for the wheels, we’ve been taking our girls to a local indoor track. Built for the 2022 Canada Summer Games, the Walker Sports and Abilities Centre was designed to be accessible for parasport. There are two large accessible washrooms, one on each level, with adult-sized…
It was a cold morning back in January, as the nurse and I bundled up the girls for a trip to McMaster Children’s Hospital for a scheduled visit. When the appointment ended, we wheeled the girls from the clinic to the large accessible washroom that includes an adult-sized change table. The intentional design with the…
What do you want for Christmas? I remember this question from my childhood, part of recess-time chatter. In January, the question would shift: What did you get for Christmas? In my family, we’d make a big deal of writing our names on a piece of paper and then each choosing a name randomly, meaning we…
When I started my post-secondary schooling You Can’t Say ‘You Can’t Play’, written by Vivian Gussin Paley, was on the syllabus for my first education class. Paley was an American primary school teacher and early childhood education researcher who took a special interest in observing the non-directed experiences in the classroom and the corresponding conversations…
Back in May of this year, journalist Meagan Gillmore wrote the article “What one man needed for a second chance at life.” The story features an update on Michal Kaliszan, an individual born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Michal first caught public attention through his GoFundMe campaign in 2022 when he tried to raise money…
If you’re new to my column, two of our four kids, Rachel and Janneke, are disabled teens who live with significant needs that require complex care. Recently, the dietician assigned through the home and community care agency asked for updated weights of the girls. When Rachel and Janneke were younger (and lighter), I would hold…
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