Editor’s note
By Debbie Austin
In this issue of Accessibility for All, we explore what it means to live boldly and authentically in a world that too often defines others by their limits instead of their potential.
You’ll meet individuals who are not just navigating disability but reshaping the conversation around it. Dr. Patti Bevilacqua opens the issue with a powerful message: living well with multiple sclerosis starts with rewriting your own narrative. It’s a theme that echoes throughout the magazine, whether we’re talking about transforming personal challenges or reimagining our spaces and systems.
Cover Story
Tim Palm is a musician and that’s his only label
Meet Tim Palm: 27, Swedish, electronic music producer, tech wizard, stage adventurer and owner of a setup he affectionately calls the “Spaceship” which is one part DIY engineering, one-part expressive tool, and one hundred percent Tim. His love for music runs deep, not just as something he listens to or plays, but as something he builds, reshapes and reimagines. For Tim, music isn’t confined to instruments or studio walls; it’s everywhere, in everyday sounds, fleeting emotions and spontaneous moments.
Author Spotlight
Dr. Patti Bevilacqua shows that living well with multiple sclerosis begins with rewriting your story
Dr. Patti Bevilacqua’s humour arrives before anything else: sharp, self-aware, and disarming. That’s how she opened her TEDx talk. And that’s how she opens conversations that matter. Her story doesn’t begin with pity or solemn piano music. It begins with laughter, and then it gets real. When she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis during her first year as a high school physical education teacher, her world shifted.
Community Spotlight
Courage to Come Back Award winner Louisa Bridgman is not done yet
At five years old, while most kids were learning to colour inside the lines, Louisa was confronting a school board. The crime? Trying to keep her out of school because she used a wheelchair. So, she rang up the local news anchor she had met while working as a campaign child for United Way . . . yes, working, at five, and told him what was going on. Ten minutes later, a news crew rolled in, and the board’s refusal quickly disappeared. She got in because she refused to be ignored!
Not Charity—Community: Acts of Giving in the Disability Justice Movement
By Danniel Swatosh, The Axis Project
In mainstream narratives, disabled people are often cast as recipients of charity—people to pity awaiting rescue. A Richard Pryor comedy routine comes to mind, where he plays a disabled person with a “cap in hand” begging for money. In this skit he exaggerated the “handicapped beggar” stereotype which is both commentary on the way people with disabilities were often treated and satire on the way society perceives them.
Entertainment
The story behind Trailblazing: Matt Hadley’s adaptive comeback and Kim Logan’s vision
In the mountain town of Canmore, Alberta, where weathered peaks loom large and the wilderness breathes with quiet intensity, a film has emerged that earns the attention it is receiving. Trailblazing: The Matt Hadley Story, a 27-minute documentary by filmmaker Kim Logan, has garnered national recognition, winning the Golden Sheaf Award in the Documentary POV category at the Yorkton Film Festival.
Families With Disabilities
From Surviving to Leading: Becoming the Special Needs Mama Bear
All over the world, some of the most powerful leadership is happening far from the spotlight—in living rooms, hospital corridors, and school meetings—where mothers of children with disabilities are quietly writing new models of leadership that are creating social change and lasting impact. We may not make headlines, but we are the heartbeat of a quiet revolution rooted in mama bear love, resilience, and purpose.
Can you be a good parent with a disability?
Parenting is hard, unpredictable and relentlessly demanding. Now imagine parenting as a person with a disability.
That’s not hypothetical for Dr. Marjorie Aunos, it’s her everyday reality. After a car accident left her with a spinal cord injury, Marjorie went from walking to wheeling. But what didn’t change was her role as a mother. She’s not parenting despite her disability. She’s parenting with it, in a way that’s deeply intentional, adaptive, and, frankly, impressive.
Feature Articles
A full circle of hope: From patient to donor at the children's hospital that saved me
By Lucky Mae Fornoles
Helping others wasn’t always top of mind for me, not until life slowed me down with a second brain operation. I have been diagnosed with arteriovenous malformation (AVM) more than 27 years ago, a rare condition where blood vessels in the brain are tangled and can rupture without warning, at the Manila Central University (MCU) Hospital and would at times have routine check-ups at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC).
BrailleDoodle makes braille learning accessible and fun
Close your eyes and picture learning to read, not by sight, but by feel. Now imagine doing that while also doodling, writing stories, solving math problems, and creating tactile art. That’s the experience the BrailleDoodle offers. It’s a simple yet brilliant invention designed to make braille literacy and tactile creativity accessible to blind and visually impaired learners. Created by Daniel Lubiner, an artist and educator, and brought to life through the TouchPad Pro Foundation
Nina Tame is changing conversations around disability one post at a time
Nina is the sort of woman who’d probably apologize for the rain. Warm, wickedly witty and absolutely running on fumes, she’s the type who’ll answer your DMs mid-laundry with a cuppa in one hand and a dog under the other. But don’t let the domestic whirlwind fool you. This woman is igniting conversations most people side-step.
Sam Sullivan leads using lived experience to advance disability rights and access
Sam Sullivan’s life changed forever at 19 when a spinal cord injury left him with quadriplegia. As the reality of living with a high-level disability set in, his world began to shrink. He relied on disability benefits, battled deep depression, and considered whether life was even worth continuing. But instead of disappearing, Sam did the opposite.
Health and Wellness
Sekond Skin is the inclusive fitness app transforming movement for people with disabilities
Lee-Ann Reuber identified long-standing barriers within mainstream fitness apps and responded with innovation, creating a platform intentionally designed to welcome and support everyone. Sekond Skin is what happens when you stop asking why and start asking why not? Why not a seated strength class taught by an instructor who uses a wheelchair? Why not yoga led by someone who’s blind, with instructions so vivid they paint pictures through sound?
Technology
Brad and Dan’s All Access Life highlights the everyday power of technology in disability life
Friendship, when rooted in mutual respect and shared vision, can become a powerful force for change. This is the foundation of All Access Life, created by Dan and Brad, a duo whose bond transcends roles and titles. When Brad, a young man with non-verbal spastic cerebral palsy and complex communication needs, entered a mainstream high school in Grade 7, Dan became his integration aide. What began as a student and aide relationship evolved into a lasting partnership that now drives one of the most impactful platforms in the world of accessibility advocacy.
Deaf Insights
The Languaging in Deaf Eyes
Languaging is a living form of expression, more than communication, it is the act of being fully present, connecting, responding, and expressing through all our senses. For example, when a little girl runs up to a new friend with arms wide open, she’s languaging joy and openness — without even saying a word.
Advocacy
Lindsey Mazza highlights the silent struggles of disability and calls for systemic reform
She was born with Holt-Oram Syndrome, a rare condition that affects the upper limbs. With her limb difference, it was obvious from early on that the world around her wasn’t built for bodies like hers. By six, she had already figured out that adults couldn’t always be trusted to protect or support her. One teacher denied her the help she needed to use the washroom, something her parents had arranged in advance.
Home Designs For All
The Mindful Shift in Home Renovations
By Saada Branker
It takes one fall in the house to make us side-eye our own home. My father once slipped down a flight of stairs at home, landing in the basement and hurting his shoulder. Afterwards, he and my mother placed a larger mat near the first step for better traction. Handrails were installed. Before that, nothing was there.
Capella Design: Shaping the Future of Accessible Travel
Capella Design offers beautiful furniture and accessories that elevate the style and function of the home. The company’s mission is to reimagine home mobility so that everyone can enjoy a more functional space without compromising on aesthetics.
This fall, Capella is bringing that same vision to hospitality.
Selected Reads
Smart content from trusted sources carefully chosen for you. Not our words, but ones worth sharing.
The dappled dilemma facing vitiligo science
By Elie Dolgin
Excited to share the results with non-scientists, Harris wrote about his findings in July 2018 for an online publication called The Conversation. He expected enthusiasm. Instead, he was blindsided by a wave of online hostility. “It was ‘F you. F you. You don’t even have vitiligo. What do you know?” recalls Harris, director of the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.
Can Dyslexia Be an Asset?
By John Manzella
As a child, I experienced the difficulties of dyslexia firsthand. Growing up, I often felt dumb, lacked confidence and had low self-esteem. I couldn’t read until much later than my classmates, albeit slowly, and continue to have difficulties with math. When paying bills, for example, I still say each number out loud, highlight each digit and review it several times before I hit send on my laptop.
In their own words Disabled storytellers share what ‘home’ means to them
By The Center of Public Integrity
The Center for Public Integrity held an event on July 26 — the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act — called “What is Home?” that explored the challenges of finding safe homes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
At the event, there were four storytellers with disabilities who shared what “home” means to them. Here is what they had to say:
Snippets from the wWW
Essential Disability News and Inclusion Stories
Snippets
We’ve gathered the latest disability news, accessibility updates, and inclusion stories from trusted sources across the web. These curated links highlight the trends, rights issues, and lived experiences shaping the disability community today.
