May 2025 Issue
Editor’s note
By Debbie Austin
In this edition, Christine E. Staple Ebanks, known as “The Special Needs Mama Bear,” shares how she turned confusion and fear into advocacy and strength. Her story is a reminder that expertise often comes not from formal training, but from lived experience, and many of us are building that knowledge every day.
Let’s step into that space with them.
Cover Story
Crip Trip: The weight of care and the power of friendship
If you thought a road trip was hard work, try doing it in an RV that had no business being on the road, with two best mates, one of them a quadruple amputee needing full-time care. Meet Daniel Ennett and Frederick Kroetsch, the buddies behind this brutally funny and wildly important docuseries, Crip Trip. It’s six episodes of chaos, friendship, full-throttle caregiving, and raw honesty, barreling down roads across Canada and the US in an RV that probably should have been condemned around the same time cassette players went out of fashion.
Inclusive Arts and Culture
Blind singer-songwriter Lachi is shaping a more inclusive music world
Can you tell us about your journey into music and how your blindness has influenced your songwriting?As a quirky little outcast, I turned to my piano as a creative outlet. Through song, I was able to understand myself and the world around me better, and in turn, have others understand me and my different perspective. Back then I was super shy and ashamed as a result of my blindness and neurodivergences.
The bold life and work of Maria Dalmon
Maria Dalmon’s life is a clear demonstration that physical or societal limitations are no match for determination, intellect and a refusal to accept less than what one deserves. Born in 1955 in Sydney Australia’s western suburbs and diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 18 months, one would assume that Maria’s path was set by circumstance, but she exercised her right to choose and her choice was to engage fully with life.
Q&A with Bart Vulliamy about the Disabled and Disorderly Art Show (Vancouver)
I am a disabled artist and I’ve been continually let down by inaccessible art shows, art markets, and galleries. They are still inaccessible to the majority of disabled artists, financially and physically.
Adishi Gupta, Artist.
Meet Adishi Gupta, a boundary-pushing artist whose work is as bold, layered, and unapologetic as the title of the show was a part of—Disabled and Disorderly. With a style that’s as much about emotion as it is about rebellion, Adishi uses her art to explore identity, visibility, and the lived experience of disability. Whether her work is confronting stereotypes or celebrating the power of chaos, it’s always rooted in authenticity. We caught up with her to talk about her pieces in the show, the beauty of making a mess, and why disorder can be a form of creative power.
Advocacy
Laughing At My Nightmare Offers Emergency Relief
Shane has worked the last 10 years with his cousin Sarah Burcaw on the passion project they started together, Laughing At My Nightmare (LAMN). The non-profit organization donates equipment to those in need. Shane, who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), has also overseen $70,000 in scholarships to students with muscular dystrophy, of which SMA is a form of.
Media and Entertainment
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Making music you can see, feel and believe.
You may know him from one of the Super Bowls, or maybe from the TV show, Black Lightning . . . PBS? Or maybe, you don’t know him at all. But after this, you’ll remember his name: Wawa. Deaf rapper. Dip Hop originator. Disruptor of silence. When Warren ‘Wawa’ Snipe performs, the world listens differently. Your ears are not needed to understand what he’s saying. You just need to watch. To feel. To pay attention.
Reimagining Hollywood: Why This Moment Matters for Disability Inclusion
A Multi-Voice Interview Featuring Nancy Weintraub, Emily Ladau, and Nicole Lynn Evans
In an era when the entertainment industry is critically examining who gets to tell stories and who is represented in them, Easterseals Southern California has released Reimagining Hollywood: A New Lens on Disability Inclusion. This comprehensive report aims to shift industry norms and offers a roadmap for structural change, rooted in experience. Easterseals Southern California first explored disability inclusion in entertainment with its 2018 report, Abilities Unlimited, created in partnership with Variety to coincide with Easterseals’ centennial.
Deaf Insights
Belonging in a World Built for Sound
By Angela Lynn
Belonging is a word many people use, but few truly understand, especially when it comes to the Deaf community. This article is a warm invitation to pause, reflect, and sip on something thoughtful like a quiet cup of coffee with an old friend. It will help you understand what it is like to be Deaf in a sound centered world, and why creating spaces of true belonging matters so much.
Community Spotlight
High Fives Foundation
The High Fives Foundation was founded in 2009 by Roy Tuscany after he sustained a life-altering spinal cord injury while training for professional skiing. During his recovery, Roy received overwhelming support from his community, inspiring him to create an organization that would provide similar resources to others facing similar challenges.
No one should navigate the pain of EB alone: Debra Ireland is here
When skin is as delicate as a butterfly’s wing, life’s simplest acts—a handshake, a hug, or a stroll down the street—can feel like climbing Everest barefoot. This is the raw reality of living with epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a rare genetic condition where the skin’s layers refuse to stick together, making them prone to blistering and tearing at the gentlest touch.
Families with Disabilities
No One Gave Me a Guide, So I Became the Expert
In the last issue, I introduced you to the Special Needs Mama Bear—the fierce, unwavering advocate we become when the world doesn’t know what to do with our children or with us. But before the roaring and rising comes something quieter. Something harder. Before we become advocates, negotiators, and system navigators… we’re just parents. Often overwhelmed, under-supported, and left to figure it all out on our own. As mothers, we’re told our eyes should see possibility in our babies. Wonder. Joy. The sparkle of discovery. We’re told to dream of all that could be. But for many of us, that isn’t how it begins.
Feature Story
My Life in Three Parts: My AVM Story
In my younger years, life was kind. I had my mother, my aunties and uncles, my grandparents, neighbors, teachers, classmates, and friends. You could hear my voice in the church choir or see me in the streets during a Santacruzan or Flores de Mayo. I was among the top students in my class and known to be a dutiful, disciplined girl. But everything changed thirteen days before my grade school graduation.
Accessible Home Accessories
Smarter Blinds for Greater Independence - Leafi Home
For individuals facing mobility or dexterity challenges, something as simple as adjusting window blinds can become a daily barrier. Leafi, a Canadian-based smart home technology company, is lifting that barrier—bringing increased independence, comfort, and control into homes with their innovative device: the Nova by Leafi.
Health and Wellness
Briella Paton Feature Mental Health Answers
I am 17 years old! I have had Type One Diabetes for 13 years alongside my dad, who had begun his battle in 1986 at just 3 years old. I am a Christian and I enjoy attending my youth group, teaching Sunday school and church with my family and friends. I love spending time with my family and friends, I am without a doubt blessed with the best! I adore working with kids, and I plan on becoming a school teacher after high school. I am a competitive dancer, which has blessed me with several incredible opportunities to travel and meet incredibly talented people from around the world.
Breakthrough T1D is working towards a world free from Type 1 Diabetes with bold action
Let’s talk about type 1 diabetes (T1D).It’s about people who wake up every day knowing their bodies need extra vigilance just to stay alive. For Jessica Diniz, President and CEO of what was once known as JDRF—now rebranded as Breakthrough T1D—the mission is to make every day better for people living with it while working towards cures for tomorrow. Type 1 diabetes can be diagnosed at any age. Once thought to be a disease that only affected children, this autoimmune condition can be diagnosed in kids, teens, adults and even seniors. And in Canada? This country has one of the highest rates of new diagnoses globally.
Inclusive Employment
Inside South Africa’s Inclusive Employment Success Story
The Association for the Physically Disabled in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa (APD NMB), was established 84 years ago. This organisation has evolved into a remarkable force for inclusive employment, practical skills training and socioeconomic empowerment, not through speeches or symbolic campaigns, but through real, structured, everyday work.
In a country where an estimated 90% of people with disabilities remain unemployed, APD NMB did not wring its hands or wait for policy to catch up. Instead, it built systems that work.
Technology
MouthPad^ by Augmental: Rethinking Digital Access, One Tongue Tap at a Time
When it comes to designing assistive technology, listening matters just as much as engineering That’s something the team at Augmental understands well. Speaking about the company’s groundbreaking device, the MouthPad^, Virgie Hoban offers an inside look at how this small, tongue-operated interface is redefining digital access for users with limited mobility, and potentially for all of us.
From its beginnings in user-led design to the ongoing development of new features, Virgie shares how the MouthPad^ came to be, and where it’s headed next.
AI-Learners: A new kind of classroom magic
When the world slammed shut during the COVID years, most people baked bread, binge-watched TV series or finally cleaned out that spare room. Adele Smolansky did something else entirely. When she saw her younger sister struggling to learn during lockdown, she didn’t wait for someone else to help her sister through this period. She built AI-Learners, a platform designed to listen, adapt and celebrate the way every student learns. No more forcing square pegs into round holes. No more ‘one size fits all.’
What GAAD Reveals About the Internet’s Accessibility Crisis
Joe Devon doesn’t treat digital accessibility as a footnote in tech development. He presents it as a foundational flaw in the internet’s architecture, one that has been quietly ignored by the mainstream for far too long. And he should know. Fourteen years ago, he wrote a blog post that would become the spark behind Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), now observed on May 15th in over 20 countries and counting. Just one post, one idea, then a global ripple effect.
Snippets
Snippets – AfA Spring/May 2025 Issue
A horse therapy program in Namibia brings joy to children with learning disabilities
Through her program, Susan de Meyer creates a unique therapeutic environment that fosters emotional growth and communication skills in children who might struggle in traditional educational settings. The interaction between the children and the horses serves as a powerful tool for building confidence and improving social skills.
