By Grant Hardy

I recently chatted with motivational speaker, and award-winning singer, Mandy Harvey, who lost most of her hearing as a young adult. Mandy is a very talented woman with considerable skills and confidence. In 2017, her audition on America’s Got Talent, featuring her original song, “Try,” with vocals and ukulele, garnered Simon Cowell’s golden buzzer, sending Mandy straight to the quarterfinals. She ultimately finished fourth in the competition, a formidable achievement.

Mandy’s story demonstrates the potential of following your dreams and investing in your support system. She said she was inspired by the journey of Erik Weihenmayer, a blind mountaineer who ultimately climbed Mount Everest. But Mandy’s family and friends contributed to her success as well, including her dad, who assisted in prepping her for her America’s Got Talent audition. As someone who lacked a supportive dad myself, I’m always moved to see a father investing time and love into his kids and his family, despite any perceived barriers.

Mandy is one of the most down-to-earth people I’ve interviewed. In fact, after the interview she asked if we could reverse roles so I could take a turn in the interviewee chair! That’s not a luxury I often get, but it was really interesting opening up to Mandy because it demonstrates the vulnerability that we get from our guests every single day when they share their hopes, their dreams, and their ambitions with us for a national audience.

Check out our profile on Mandy and her incredible story, along with my chat with her, Monday, May 10, at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv, on AMI.ca or in the AMI-tv App for iOS and Android. And check out Mandy’s music on your favourite streaming platform. Her song, “Try,” is excellent and very catchy too.

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By Chris Vallée

Kim Kilpatrick, where do we even begin? Kim’s name is familiar to many in the Ottawa community as well as right here on AMI. After hearing so many wonderful things about her, I was thrilled to finally meet her (virtually)! It’s no surprise that Kim has been a champion for the disability community in Ottawa; her work in advocacy for accessibility, storytelling and her contributions to the Ottawa arts and culture sector are unmatched. 

Kim was recently named as one of the recipients of the CBC Ottawa Trailblazer award, which celebrates those who are making a positive impact in our city.

“This is an award that describes Kim to perfection,” says Karen Bailey. Karen is Kim’s long-time friend and creative partner. Both Karen and Kim have worked together for many years on a popular performance piece called Raising Stanley/Life with Tulia. Karen knew that when she saw that the Trailblazer applications opened, she had to nominate her close friend. 

There’s no getting around that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges for many. Kim isn’t letting those barriers get in her way; she continues to tell stories virtually and participate in conferences that she wouldn’t have had the chance to take part in if they were only offered in person. 

Speaking on her award, Kim expresses that, growing up, her entire family was very active in the community and thought it was just a normal thing to do.

“I’m not sure why I was chosen, I’m just doing what I love to do,” says Kim. Karen was thrilled to find out Kim was one of the recipients, explaining this was well overdue. These two fantastic ladies were fabulous, I really enjoyed learning about their connection, how they met and of course, their mutual passion for the arts.

Learn more about how Kim Kilpatrick continues to make a difference in the Ottawa community, and all about her Trailblazer award, by watching AMI This Week on Monday, May 17 at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv.

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By Grant Hardy

This Monday, we’re airing an AMI This Week piece that was definitely a highlight for the Vancouver team. Born without sight, Matthew Shifrin quickly caught on to how much fun LEGO bricks could be and he quickly began constructing small figures with his mom. But he never figured out how his sighted friends were constructing buildings, race tracks and other larger form structures, all out of LEGO. As someone born without sight myself, I can testify that these concepts are important, but often lacking in learning and play. Then one of Matthew’s buddies pointed out the obvious: the sighted kids had visual instructions!

This led to Matthew, along with a close family friend, painstakingly creating accessible LEGO-building instructions for a variety of structures and sets. This was buoyed by positive feedback both from blind parents, and parents of blind kids, about the new appreciation they had for how fun and accessible LEGO could be. His instructions are available to this day at legofortheblind.com.

Matthew’s efforts also lead to The LEGO Foundation, LEGO’s not-for-profit arm, taking an interest. The LEGO Foundation has now created an artificial intelligence system that can automatically create friendly, barrier-free instructions for any commercial set. And they’ve created another project: LEGO Braille Bricks.

I’ll leave you to watch the piece to hear what an incredibly passionate guy Matthew is, but suffice it to say it was a lot of fun chatting with him to learn about his work. One thing I can comment on personally are the LEGO Braille Bricks, which I managed to get my hands on for a brief play.

I say “managed” because these LEGO Braille Bricks are only available to school districts at this time. That’s disappointing, because there are clearly individuals who would benefit from owning a set, but it does make sense. This product isn’t going to be produced in the same mass market capacity as other commercial sets. So The LEGO Foundation needs to be strategic about where this product ends up. In practice, I think they’re going to be a lot of fun for kids, teachers and parents alike. Each brick has dots that make up one Braille letter. You’re not going to be building much with them necessarily, but they’ll be really useful for Braille learners. Kids will love adding and removing letters from the board, so it’s a fun, safe way to teach Braille, spelling, and mechanical skills all at once. In my experience, sighted kids love to be involved in Braille activities too, so I can imagine a classroom teacher using these bricks as part of a spelling game in class.

One minor quibble I have is that the dots form Braille letters, but it isn’t real Braille. Braille is meant to be felt with the fingertip only, but these dots are quite a bit larger—and have rather more spacing around them—than typical Braille dots do. While I’m sure kids will have no problem differentiating these from “actual” Braille dots, it’s an odd design choice.

All in all, it’s fantastic to see The The LEGO Foundation Foundation taking an interest in the blind and partially sighted community, inspired by a difference maker like Matthew. Watch the segment on AMI This Week on Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv, or stream it on AMI.ca or the AMI-tv App.

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AMI This Week returns with new episodes next Monday, April 26, at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv, and one of the segments is about ABLE2. 

ABLE2—Ability Benevolence Liberty Empowered—is a non-profit in Ottawa that provides the tools and connections necessary to empower people with disabilities to build lives full of joy. One of the ways they accomplish this is through their matchmaking program, where volunteer allies are matched to people living with a disability. Matches participate in weekly activities they both enjoy, at their own convenience.

Rob is regarded by many as a hero in the Ottawa community and has been awarded on several occasions for the fantastic work that he does. Rob is a member of ABLE2 and was matched with Teddy for nearly 10 years before he, unfortunately, passed away. Rob is currently matched with Ted’s friend and longtime roommate, Fred.

The Ottawa Race weekend is a massive annual fundraising event in Ottawa. Rob shared a lovely memory of he and Teddy participating in the 2K family fun run, which includes the funny story of Ted not realizing his wheelchair brakes were on the entire time! With that memory in mind, along with many others, Rob has decided he will run the race this year in honour of his friend. 

Speaking to Rob and his mentee Fred was such a heartwarming experience. Their memories of Ted spoke volumes, you could feel their affection towards Ted. Both Rob and Fred hope that spreading Ted’s story will allow people to understand how special he was. They want Ted’s legacy to live on for many years to come.

“Ted may be gone, but he’s in our hearts forever,” Rob says.

Learn more about how Rob and Fred are honouring Ted by tuning in to a new episode of AMI This Week on Monday, April 26, at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv. Stream AMI This Week on AMI.ca and the AMI-tv App.

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By Laura Bain

How do you describe your disability? 

This question, posed to people with disabilities from across Canada, is the starting point for our most recent original special from Halifax, In Focus, “Language and Disability.” The range of responses make it clear that language matters, and “it’s complicated.” 

Let’s start with all of the words that can be used to describe someone like myself with a visual disability who is not completely blind. There’s partially sighted, partially blind, low vision, visually impaired, legally blind, a person living with sight loss… you get the idea. Each person who fits this category is likely to have their own terminology preference. There is also the question of whether one prefers person first, or identity first language. For example, would you rather be referred to as a “person with a disability,” or a “disabled person”? 

It may at first seem trivial, but believe me, words matter. Whether we are talking about disability, or any other aspect of our identity such as race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation, it can feel not only awkward, but invalidating when we are mislabeled. It can feel even worse when words are directed toward us with the intention of causing harm, something most of us within the disability community have experienced. There is arguably no place at all for the use of “the R word” due to its historical use as a weapon against people with intellectual disabilities. However, some words with a painful history such as “cripple” are being embraced and reclaimed as part of disability culture. 

We explore all this and more in In Focus, “Language and Disability.” We get a primer on some of the biggest controversies surrounding disability language from our expert panel, we speak to Michelle McQuigge of The Canadian Press about disability language in the Canadian news media, and we learn about Krip Hop Nation, a collective of artists with disabilities who are using language as a tool of empowerment and self-expression. 

Whether you’re a word nerd like me, or you’ve never really thought about disability language before, make sure to watch In Focus, “Language and Disability,” airing Friday, April 30 at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv.