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  • Remarkable World Commentary Episode #116: Interview with Jerry Nicholson, Co-Founder, Accessible Data

    Remarkable World Commentary Episode #116: Interview with Jerry Nicholson, Co-Founder, Accessible Data
    2026/10/13
    🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #116: Interview with Jerry Nicholson, Co-Founder, Accessible Data https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-10-13-2026/ In this inspiring episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan welcomes Jerry Nicholson, co-founder of Accessible Data, from the UK. Jerry traces his path from studying geography at the University of Edinburgh and qualifying as a chartered accountant to moving to Bangladesh with his wife, Fiona, after the two of them read Muhammad Yunus's Banker to the Poor. There they set up Tindercapital to bring early stage venture capital to businesses that could scale, invested in the eco-friendly manufacturer Oasis Coffins, and ran Open Accelerator for rural entrepreneurs. Jerry speaks openly about how hard that first investment was, including a breakdown just before COVID that he says he has fully recovered from. Jerry then explains how the platform he and his business partner, Christophe Geiser, built under the name Preignition became an accessible survey tool after the International Disability Alliance found that many of its members could not fill in its global survey and put out an open call. Jerry describes the barriers people face with online forms, from keyboard navigation to sign language and Easy Read needs, and why forms that shut disabled people out leave them unheard and leave organizations with biased data. Donna presses the point that organizations too often collect lived experience for free, Jerry says a paid panel of disabled respondents could be a future product, and Donna closes by inviting him to write an article for https://barrierfreecanada.org. TRANSCRIPT Podcast Commentator: [upbeat music] Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, and MBA invites you to listen to her bi-weekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary. Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts, insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners. Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids, especially kids with disabilities. Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach, dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator. She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise in access technology and information. As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles, she just wants to make things better than possible. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Remarkable World Commentary. I'm Donna J. Jodhan, a lifelong disability advocate and one who sees the world mainly through sound, touch, and amongst other things, stubborn optimism. I am a law graduate, an accessibility consultant, author, lifelong barrier buster, who also happens to be blind. You may know me from a few headline moments, as in November 2010, I won the landmark Charter case that forced the Canadian government to make its websites accessible to every Canadian, not just to sighted ones. And in July of 2019, I co-led the Accessible Canada Act with more than two dozen disability groups to turn equal access into federal law. And most recently, on June the 3rd, 2022, I was greatly humbled by Her Late Majesty's Platinum Jubilee Award for tireless commitment to removing barriers. When I'm not in a courtroom or in a committee room or in a pottery studio, you'll find me coaching kids with vision loss, producing audio mysteries, or helping tech companies to make their gadgets talk back in plain language. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Everything I do circles one goal, and that is to turn accessibility from an afterthought into everyday practice. I invite you to think of this show as our shared workbench, where policy meets lived experience and lived experience sparks fresh ideas. Now, before we jump into today's conversation, let me shine a quick spotlight on today's guest, a change maker whose work is as every bit as remarkable as the world that we are trying to build. I am pleased and privileged to welcome Jerry Nicholson all the way across the pond in the UK. Hello, Jerry, and welcome to my podcast. Jerry Nicholson: Hi, Donna, and it's a pleasure to be speaking with you today. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Great. So what's the weather like in the UK at the present time? Jerry Nicholson: Well, the weather in the UK constantly changes, so— Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: [laughs] Jerry Nicholson: It was rainy this morning, but it's now beautiful outside. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Good. Jerry Nicholson: Big blue skies with a few fluffy white clouds. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Oh, nice. Nice. So Jerry, welcome to the Remarkable World Commentary. I always like to begin at the very beginning. So tell us about your early path from studying geography at the University of Edinburgh to qualifying as a chartered accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. Back then, what did you imagine that your life's work would be? Jerry ...
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    46 分
  • Remarkable World Commentary Episode #117: Interview with Joel Snyder, President, Audio Description Associates, LLC

    Remarkable World Commentary Episode #117: Interview with Joel Snyder, President, Audio Description Associates, LLC
    2026/10/14
    🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #117: Interview with Joel Snyder, President, Audio Description Associates, LLC https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-10-14-2026/ In this illuminating episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan welcomes Joel Snyder, who takes listeners back to his years as a volunteer reader at the Metropolitan Washington Ear and explains how audio description began. Joel credits Dr. Margaret Pfanstiehl, the blind founder of the Washington Ear, and Chet Avery, a blind man at the Department of Education, with the idea that grew into the first professionally described theater production, Major Barbara at Arena Stage in the summer of 1981, and he credits Gregory Frazier, whose San Francisco master's thesis he says was the first published work on the subject. He traces description from live theater to television with WGBH, then to DVDs, movie theaters and streaming services, and points listeners to the American Council of the Blind's Audio Description Project at https://adp.acb.org. Donna and Joel also talk about how his training as an actor shapes his teaching, with observation as the first of his four fundamentals of audio description, and why he says the best compliment a describer can get is "I forgot you were there." Joel looks back on his 20 years at the National Endowment for the Arts and his work describing Sesame Street at the National Captioning Institute, and he shares the stories of a blind mother following Sesame Street with her children and a young blind girl who asked Fred Rogers to say aloud when he fed his fish. Looking ahead, he predicts description built into productions from the start and delivered through smartphone apps, and he mentions his book, The Visual Made Verbal, which he says is now in print in seven languages. TRANSCRIPT Podcast Commentator: [upbeat digital music] Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, and MBA invites you to listen to her bi-weekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary. Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts, insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners. Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids, especially kids with disabilities. Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach, dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator. She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise in access, technology, and information. As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles, she just wants to make things better than possible. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Remarkable World Commentary. I'm Donna J. Jodhan, a lifelong disability advocate and one who sees the world mainly through sound, touch, and stubborn optimism. I am a law graduate, an accessibility consultant, author, lifelong barrier buster who also happens to be blind. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You may know me from a few headline moments, as in November of 2010, I won the landmark Charter case that forced the Canadian government to make its websites accessible to every Canadian, not just to sighted ones. And in July of 2019, I co-led the Accessible Canada Act with more than two dozen disability groups to turn equal access into federal law. And most recently, on June the 3rd, 2022, I was tremendously humbled by Her Late Majesty's Platinum Jubilee Award for tireless commitment to removing barriers. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: When I'm not in a courtroom or in a committee room or in a pottery studio, you'll find me coaching kids with vision loss, producing audio mysteries, or helping tech companies to make their gadgets talk back in plain language. Everything I do circles one goal, and that is to turn accessibility from an afterthought into everyday practice. I invite you to think of this show as our shared workbench, where policy meets lived experience, and lived experience sparks fresh ideas. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Now, before we jump into today's conversation, let me shine a quick spotlight on today's guest, a change maker whose work is as every bit as remarkable as the world that we are trying to build. I am pleased and I am tremendously privileged to welcome Joel Snyder to our Remarkable World Commentary podcast for today. Welcome, Joel. Joel Snyder: Thank you, Donna. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be with you. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: All right. So let's get right into things then. Joel, long before anyone called this a profession, you were a volunteer reader at the Metropolitan Washington Ear reading the Sunday Washington Post aloud. Joel Snyder: [laughs] That's right, for about 10 years. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Oh, and somewhere in there you started describing the comics the way Mayor La Guardia once did on the radio. I want you to take me back to that studio. What made you start describing the pictures instead of just reading the words? Joel Snyder: [laughs] Well, in...
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    47 分
  • Curb to Cabin Canada Episode #1: Interview with Steve Dawson, Senior Operations Manager, Fnyx Aviation Services

    Curb to Cabin Canada Episode #1: Interview with Steve Dawson, Senior Operations Manager, Fnyx Aviation Services
    2026/10/20
    🎙️ Curb to Cabin Canada Episode #1: Interview with Steve Dawson, Senior Operations Manager, Fnyx Aviation Services https://donnajodhan.com/curb-to-cabin-canada-10-20-2026/ In this inaugural episode of Curb to Cabin Canada, host Donna J. Jodhan speaks with Steve Dawson, senior operations manager at Fnyx Aviation Services, whose team provides passenger assistance at Toronto Pearson. Steve says a niece with spina bifida drew him to the work, and that his company assisted 887 people with restricted mobility in May 2021 and almost 36,000 this past May, with Pearson handling over 4,000 wheelchairs a day. He explains who is responsible when something goes wrong: his surrey and wheelchair replenishment division, contracted by the airport authority, and his PRM division, which handles wheelchair service for 27 airlines, while Air Canada still runs its own wheelchair service and uses his team for its Curbside Assistance Program. Donna, who is blind and flies, shares her own experiences, from agents arriving with wheelchairs she did not want to agents who now ask whether she would like a wheelchair or an escort. Steve describes how airlines flag blind travellers with the BLND code, how his staff are trained to ask "How can I help you best?" instead of assuming, the Transport Canada accessibility training every agent must pass, and what a blind traveller dropped at the wrong door can do to reach help. He closes with the real estate and training challenges still facing Pearson, and says they are a lot closer to the finish line but not at the end of the journey. TRANSCRIPT Podcast Commentator: [upbeat music] Greetings from Toronto, and welcome to Curb to Cabin Canada. What really happens to blind and low-vision passengers when they fly? Your host, Donna J. Jodhan, is a lifelong blind advocate and law graduate whose landmark Charter case in 2010 compelled the Government of Canada to make its websites accessible to all Canadians, not just those with sight. Each episode follows one part of the air travel journey from curb to cabin, and asks the airlines, airports, and agencies a single question: Is this working? Donna serves on accessibility advisory committees in the aviation sector. None of them pays for this programme, and none sees a question before it is asked. Curb to Cabin Canada is presented to you by Donna J. Jodhan, with support from sponsors to be announced. None of our sponsors have any say in what this programme reports. Now, let's dive in with your host, Donna J. Jodhan. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello, everybody, and welcome to the very first episode of Curb to Cabin Canada, the podcast which would talk about what really happens when disabled Canadians travel, and what it takes to make every step of that journey work. I'm Donna J. Jodhan. I'm blind, I fly, and I know how much can go wrong between the curb and the cabin. Today, I'm here with Steve Dawson, senior operations manager at Fnyx Aviation, I hope I got that right, Services, whose team provides passengers assistance at Toronto Pearson. Steve, welcome to the show. Steve Dawson: Thank you very much for the invitation, Donna. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You're welcome. All right, so let's get started. Steve, you spent 19 years at Scotiabank, ran express operations for Aramex, and worked in sales before joining AAS Canada at Toronto Pearson in 2018 to manage assistance— 15:04 PM… for passengers with reduced mobility. What drew you to this work— Cabin temperature, 57 degrees Fahrenheit… and what from those earlier careers turned out to matter most when the person that you are serving is a traveller with a disability? Steve Dawson: Oh, now that's an excellent question, Donna. I have a niece who's been in a wheelchair since birth and she has spina bifida, and she's severely disabled. And I've spent a great deal of time with her, taking her to hockey games, baseball games, travelling with her, and I was amazed at the wide spectrum or wide levels of service available. Some places were absolutely outstanding to make sure that every single need she had was taken care of, and others fell rather short of the mark. And I found it very discouraging to see that we weren't maintaining a consistent level of service here in Canada, taking care of people who need some assistance, some mobility assistance. And the company I was working for at the time, I was working in a different division for them, for TBM Services, as their TTC division, and I saw some of this as working as a contractor for the TTC as well, where again, the people who need a little more mobility assistance weren't getting the consistent help they needed. So when the company approached me and asked me if I'd like to help start up AAS Canada at the airport, I was one of the first eight managers and I jumped at the opportunity. I said, "Sure, I would absolutely love to." And that's what got me interested more than anything. Needless to say, the pay that was offered didn't ...
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    53 分
  • Remarkable World Commentary Episode #115: Ask Advocate Donna

    Remarkable World Commentary Episode #115: Ask Advocate Donna
    2026/10/02
    🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #115: Ask Advocate Donna https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-10-02-2026/ In this practical episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA presents her October Ask Advocate Donna, opening with one of her favorite quotes, by an unknown author: speak in such a way that others love to listen to you, and listen in such a way that others love to speak to you. Her word game sets complacent against active, arguing that complacency leaves little room for advocacy while being active makes room for it, and then turns to in kind and unkind, wondering whether being cruel to be kind applies to the pair. Donna then shares three listener stories, asking of each what advocacy is, who gets involved, why it is necessary, how and when. A mother, Emily, told a desk agent that her son Emil was vision impaired to get a discounted pass, and Emil's friends spoke up; Donna calls this counter-advocacy and says using a disability to gain an advantage is not right. Rico was fined after his service dog left hair in an Uber; Donna says Uber must accept service dogs and should be called out, with Rico going from the company to a lawyer and social media. Finally, a medical assistant at a lab refused to help a vision-impaired patient undress and asked the patient's friend to do it; Donna says that was very wrong and advises reporting it to the doctor and then the medical association. TRANSCRIPT Podcast Commentator: Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, and MBA invites you to listen to her bi-weekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary. Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts, insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners. Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids, especially kids with disabilities. Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach, dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator. She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise in access technology and information. As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles, she just wants to make things better than possible. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello there. I'm Donna J. Jodhan, your Ask An Advocate host. Second episode for the month of October. Thank you everyone for joining me today, and thank you for responding to my call for your thoughts, your words, your comments, your feedback. Okay? So continue writing to me at donnajodhan@gmail.com, okay? donnajodhan@gmail.com and keep on listening. You never know what you might come across in any of my podcasts and we go from there. All right, so let me start off today with one of my favorite quotes. And here goes: Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you, and listen in such a way that others love to speak to you. Unfortunately, this author is unknown. Now let's go to my word game, one of my favorite segments of my podcast. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Okay? Many times advocates have to choose between being complacent or being active. I will tell you that being complacent in my books doesn't happen very often. The minute that one is complacent, it means that they choose to ignore. They choose to not care. They choose simply to sit there and take it all in. Whereas on the flip side of the coin, you have active. So complacent versus active. Active is when you decide to do something about something. So complacent versus active. There are complacent advocates who really believe that being complacent is a way or a means of support. I don't fully agree. If you're complacent, I don't think there's much room for you to become involved in advocacy. Whereas if you become active, there is room for you. So let's think about it, complacent versus active. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: All right. Here's the other two terms I'd like you to think of for today. In kind or unkind. Do you do something to be kind? As they say, it's in kind that you are performing some action or doing something. Or unkind means that, you know, it's being viewed that you're not being kind, you're being unkind. I wonder if the thought of being cruel to be kind could be applied to these two terms. You're being cruel to be kind when it is unkind. Is that so? What do you think? Or in kind is if you're doing it because you honestly believe that it is a kind gesture. Send me your thoughts to donnajodhan@gmail.com. Now we're going to move into the three stories of the month that our team has chosen for me to share with you, and here's the first story. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: A parent says that her son, little Timmy, is vision impaired. Why is she saying this? Emily told the agents at the desk that her little boy, not Timmy, Emil, was vision impaired. Emily wrote this story and sent it to us, okay? And she did so because she wanted to get a special rate for her little boy, Emil. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Emil's friends noticed what was going on. They ...
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    18 分
  • Remarkable World Commentary Episode #114: Left Out or Left Behind

    Remarkable World Commentary Episode #114: Left Out or Left Behind
    2026/10/01
    🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #114: Left Out or Left Behind https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-10-01-2026/ In this pointed episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA opens October with a question she calls controversial: when barriers shut people with disabilities out, are they being left out or left behind? She points to online forms that banks, educational institutions and certification bodies still fail to make accessible, calling out the Apex organization for inaccessible sign-up forms, InnoSearch for trying and failing, and Pearson VUE for an online certification exam she says was not accessible in any way. She recounts trying to renew her business registration through ServiceOntario, where the online form was inaccessible and the first agent told her to find someone to help, until a third agent resolved it. She also raises elevators in medical buildings with no braille labels or speech, office buildings designed without accessible entrances, and the lack, as far as she knows, of a federal minister assigned to accessibility in Mark Carney's government, adding that she is a Mark Carney fan and would apologize if a minister has been named. Donna's story of the month comes from a listener with multiple disabilities who used her mental stretch to cope with a lack of compassion from management and coworkers. She walks through the technique: sit or lie somewhere quiet, choose one of the senses, such as the smell of lavender, and let it send messages from the brain through the whole body, from the toes up to the head. She closes by announcing that Your Mental Stretch with Donna will be refreshed in January with a new way of doing mental stretches and an experienced co-host who writes songs and uses music therapy. TRANSCRIPT Podcast Commentator: Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, and MBA invites you to listen to her bi-weekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary. Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts, insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners. Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids, especially kids with disabilities. Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach, dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator. She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise in access technology and information. As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles, she just wants to make things better than possible. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello there. I'm Donna J. Jodhan, and welcome to my first Remarkable World Commentary podcast for October. Goodness, October is here, and October is steaming along. And I wanna thank all those who have taken the time to either write to me at donnajodhan@gmail.com. That is D-O-N-N-A-J-O-D-H-A-N, my first and last name, @gmail.com, or who have taken the time to respond to my podcast by listening to it, by reading the show notes. Thank you, everybody. So it is the first week in October, and for my topic, I have chosen a very controversial one, or I should say it's a question. It is all about left out or left behind. Which is it? And there are so many instances that I could refer to that talks about left out or left behind, and I want to give you some examples of what I mean, okay? Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: When online forms are not accessible to persons with disabilities, is this reason to say that we are being left out or that we are being left behind? We have too many online forms that are not accessible. From the banks in the banking industry, and one of the main culprits are those educational institutions and those universities. Universities may be a bit better in this instance, but the institutions and organizations that are offering courses and certifications to those persons with a disability, and for me as a person who is vision impaired, these forms are not accessible. So it means that we cannot take certifications. We cannot take advantage of banking services. We cannot take advantage of special offers from stores and other types of organizations who offer these incentives. I'm going to call out the Apex persons or organization. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: When I first got to know them, they were with Novacoast. Now they're with somebody else, but I'm still gonna call them out because their online forms for signing up and for doing other activities with them were totally inaccessible, and they offered little to no help as to how to do it. So I had to pay somebody to do it. In the case of another company called InnoSearch, they tried. They really tried, but they failed. And in the case of the Pearson VUE organization, here is another well-known international organization/agency/whatever you want to call them, did not make the online exams or online certification exam that I took accessible in any way and did not seem interested in wanting to do it in any way. So are we being left out or ...
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    14 分
  • Remarkable World Commentary Episode #113: Interview with Shaun Kelly, Pottery Instructor, SoKo Pottery Studio

    Remarkable World Commentary Episode #113: Interview with Shaun Kelly, Pottery Instructor, SoKo Pottery Studio
    2026/09/21
    🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #113: Interview with Shaun Kelly, Pottery Instructor, SoKo Pottery Studio https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-09-21-2026/ In this heartfelt episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA welcomes her pottery instructor, Shaun Kelly, of SoKo Pottery Studio, who shares how clay first came into his life through his mother, and how a career as a programmer and IT project manager that kept him always on call, and at 350 pounds, gave way on his doctor's advice to a healthier life in pottery. He credits his first teacher, Pauline Harman, for the projects-and-templates approach he still uses with beginners, and his mentor, Sandi Dunkelman, for teaching him everything from throwing to loading kilns, making glazes and running a sale. Shaun talks listeners through centering clay on the wheel and his "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle" method for rolling an even slab, describes how simple pinch pots helped a man named Ricardo rebuild his motor skills after a stroke, and remembers Studio on the Hill as a safe space where everyone who walked in the door was a potter. He explains how SoKo, named for his initials, became his own studio when he took it on on May 1st, and shares plans for a Christmas show and sale on November 6th, 7th and 8th, a possible spring sale and an Empty Bowls fundraiser, while Donna looks ahead to her Canadiana line. TRANSCRIPT Podcast Commentator: Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, and MBA invites you to listen to her bi-weekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary. Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts, insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners. Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids, especially kids with disabilities. Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach, dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator. She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise in access, technology, and information. As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles, she just wants to make things better than possible. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Remarkable World Commentary. I'm Donna J. Jodhan, a lifelong disability advocate, and one who sees the world mainly through sound, touch, and stubborn optimism. I am a law graduate, an accessibility consultant, author, lifelong barrier buster who also happens to be blind. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You may know me from a few headline moments, as in November of 2010, I won the landmark Charter case that forced the Canadian government to make its websites accessible to every Canadian, not just to sighted ones. And in July of 2019, I co-led the Accessible Canada Act with more than two dozen disability groups to turn equal access into federal law. And most recently, on June the 3rd, 2022, I was greatly humbled by Her Late Majesty's Platinum Jubilee Award for tireless commitment to the removal of barriers. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: When I'm not in a courtroom or in a committee room or in a pottery studio, you'll find me coaching kids with vision loss, producing audio mysteries, or helping tech companies to make their gadgets talk back in plain language. Everything I do circles one goal, and that is to turn accessibility from an afterthought into everyday practice. I invite you to think of this show as our shared workbench, where policy meets lived experience and lived experience sparks fresh ideas. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Now, before we jump into today's conversation, let me shine a quick spotlight on today's guest, a changemaker whose work is every bit as remarkable as the world that we are trying to build. I am absolutely pleased and excited to welcome my pottery instructor, Shaun Kelly. Welcome, Shaun, to the Remarkable World Commentary podcast. Shaun Kelly: Thank you very much, Donna, for having me today. It's been a long time coming, and I'm excited to be part of the program. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You changed my life when we met. You have forced me to stretch my imagination and to use my imagination, based on the functional vision I had before I lost it, to develop pieces, to create, and there's no limit to what we've been able to do over the last few years. Shaun Kelly: Exactly. And that's the beauty of pottery, is it's a metaphor for life. We're always evolving, adapting, growing. The only time you lose is when you say, "I can't do it." You gotta push through, right? And we gotta find a way to do it. Shaun Kelly: And that's the beauty, is both you and myself, I've learned how to express, to communicate, to look and... I shouldn't say to look at things differently, to hear things differently, to feel things differently. To express things differently. Just because there's one way, a common way, doesn't mean there's several other ways that might even be better. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA...
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    49 分
  • Remarkable World Commentary Episode #112: Interview with Brian Moore, Senior Accessibility Specialist, TD

    Remarkable World Commentary Episode #112: Interview with Brian Moore, Senior Accessibility Specialist, TD
    2026/09/17
    🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #112: Interview with Brian Moore, Senior Accessibility Specialist, TD https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-09-17-2026/ In this candid episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA welcomes Brian Moore, a blind digital accessibility leader at TD Bank whom she has known for many years, for a conversation that runs from an eleven-year-old taking the bus alone in Montreal to a senior role auditing a national bank's apps and websites. Brian traces a career that began in 1994 at a small Calgary assistive technology organization in the DOS era, moved through close to twenty years of tech support at Frontier Computing in Toronto, and became a self-taught specialty in web and document accessibility once AODA compliance started bringing people to his door. Along the way he is unusually frank about what he learned from the other end of the support line, about tokenism in earlier jobs, about automated scanners catching only thirty to forty percent of accessibility issues, and about the day he had to ask his eleven-year-old son to sign his own employment background check because the form was inaccessible. The heart of the episode is a barrier Donna and Brian hit roughly two decades apart. Both were blocked from a professional certification not by the subject matter but by diagrams no human reader could neutrally describe, and both walked away with the knowledge and without the paper. Brian argues the fix is structural rather than personal: standardized alternative descriptions supplied by the test provider, delivered to a computer rather than read aloud by a person. They close on the discipline of picking your battles, the ones Brian has lost, and his conviction that advocacy has to leave room for actually living a life. TRANSCRIPT Podcast Commentator: Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, and MBA invites you to listen to her bi-weekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary. Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts, insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners. Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids, especially kids with disabilities. Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach, dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator. She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise in access, technology, and information. As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles, she just wants to make things better than possible. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of The Remarkable World Commentary. I'm Donna Jodhan, a lifelong disability advocate and one who sees the world mainly through sound, touch and stubborn optimism. I am a law graduate, an accessibility consultant, author, lifelong barrier buster who also happens to be blind. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You may know me from a few headline moments, as in November of 2010, I won the landmark Charter case that forced the Canadian government to make its website accessible to every Canadian, not just to sighted ones. And in July of 2019, I co-led the Accessible Canada Act with more than two dozen disability groups to turn equal access into federal law. And most recently, on June 3rd, 2022, I was greatly humbled by Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee Award for tireless commitment to removing barriers. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: When I'm not in a courtroom or in a committee room or in a pottery studio, you'll find me coaching kids with vision loss, producing audio mysteries, or helping tech companies to make their gadgets talk back in plain language. Everything I do circles one goal: to turn accessibility from an afterthought into everyday practice. I invite you to think of this show as our shared workbench where policy meets lived experience, and lived experience sparks fresh ideas. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Now, before we jump into today's conversation, let me shine a spotlight on today's guest, a changemaker whose work is every bit as remarkable as the world that we are trying to build. Brian Moore, I'd like to welcome you to our Remarkable World Commentary podcast. You and I go back many years. I won't tell our listeners how many years, but it is a pleasure and a privilege to have you. I've watched you grow. I'm really, really proud of what you've done and the way you stick up for something whenever it matters to you. Welcome to my show. Brian Moore: Thanks, Donna. I appreciate you inviting me. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Anytime. So, Brian, most people meet accessibility as a rule they have to follow. You have spent more than 30 years meeting it as a way of life. Tell our listeners who you are and what you actually do on an ordinary Tuesday at the bank. Brian Moore: Okay. So I am a blind person first. So that's the lens that I bring to everything, because it's unavoidable, right? I can't turn that piece off. I mean, so ...
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    56 分
  • Remarkable World Commentary Episode #111: Interview with Priscilla Gagne, Paralympic Athlete, Judo Canada

    Remarkable World Commentary Episode #111: Interview with Priscilla Gagne, Paralympic Athlete, Judo Canada
    2026/09/16
    🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #111: Interview with Priscilla Gagne, Paralympic Athlete, Judo Canada https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-09-16-2026/ In this genuinely uplifting episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA welcomes three-time Paralympian Priscilla Gagné, who traces a path from a childhood in Granby and Sarnia, where doctors spent more than two decades cycling through diagnoses before landing on a rare, then-unstudied form of retinitis pigmentosa, to a silver medal in Para judo. Gagné describes a home where she was allowed to scrape her knees and a school system that would not let her run, the two years at W. Ross Macdonald School that taught her to advocate for herself, and the rugby team that made her the water girl and gave her the same ribbons as everyone else. She walks listeners plainly through how para judo classification and weight classes actually work, and is candid that the hardest part of moving to the national training centre in Montreal was not the training volume but the years when almost nobody would partner with the blind athlete on the mat. The through-line is belief as a discipline rather than a mood. Gagné explains what ninety percent of a fight being mental actually looks like in practice, lyric-free music so the imagery stays hers, fight-by-fight rehearsal, and saying "I want to be here" out loud until she meant it, and describes rehearsing the Rio nerves in an elevator doorway until they lost their grip. She is equally direct about the everyday work of access: drive the car yourself, be patient with people who have never met a blind athlete, and insist on training partners who have both skill and empathy, because either one alone fails. Donna closes by inviting her to speak for her Believing is Achieving initiative, and Gagné shares what is next, a green card, judo and self-defence programmes in American schools for the blind, and a massage therapy certification to carry her through the transition. TRANSCRIPT Podcast Commentator: Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, and MBA invites you to listen to her bi-weekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary. Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts, insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners. Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids, especially kids with disabilities. Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach, dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator. She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise in access, technology, and information. As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles, she just wants to make things better than possible. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello and welcome to another episode of The Remarkable World Commentary. I'm Donna J. Jodhan, a lifelong disability advocate and one who sees the world mainly through sound, touch and stubborn optimism. I am a law graduate, an accessibility consultant, an author, a lifelong barrier buster who also happens to be blind. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You may know me from a few headline moments, as in November of 2010, I won the landmark Charter case that forced the Canadian government to make its website accessible to every Canadian, not just to sighted ones. And in July of 2019, I co-led the Accessible Canada Act with more than two dozen disability groups with equal access into federal law. And most recently, on June the 3rd, 2022, I was greatly humbled by Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee Award for tireless commitment to removal of barriers. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: When I'm not in a courtroom or in a committee room or in a pottery studio, you'll find me coaching kids with vision loss, producing audio mysteries, or helping tech companies to make their gadgets talk back in plain language. Everything I do circles one goal: to turn accessibility from an afterthought into everyday practice. I invite you to think of this show as our shared workbench, where policy meets lived experience and lived experience sparks fresh ideas. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Now, before we jump into today's conversation, let me shine a spotlight on today's guest, a changemaker whose work is every bit as remarkable as the world that we are trying to build. I'm very pleased, and I'm very privileged to welcome Priscilla Gagné to our show. Priscilla, welcome to the Remarkable World. Priscilla Gagné: Thank you so much. Wow, what an introduction. You are incredible. What a phenomenal intro. I love stubborn optimist. I'm going to start using that. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Well, I am sure that you are ready and willing to take up the baton and move on. Okay, so let's start with the beginning. And Priscilla, I'd love to begin at the very beginning. Take me back to your early years in Granby and Sarnia, and help my listeners to understand what childhood was like for you growing up with retinitis...
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    53 分