Spring 2023
In this issue:
Scroll down to read articles from this issue
Note from the guest editor
Editor's Note
by Fred Maahs, Jr.
Greetings and happy spring! Welcome to our April issue of Melange, Accessibility for All magazine. My editor’s note will start on somber and solemn note. All of us in the disability community are probably already aware that we lost a very dear friend,…
Feature
A tale of two destinations
by Fred Maahs, Jr.
I want to start by saying that I am a loyal Marriot guest. For more than 20 years, I have chosen Marriott properties based on the level of accessibility I have come to expect. I am a Lifetime Titanium Rewards member. There are other brands, such as Hilton,..
The Google Maps Of Accessible Businesses: AbleVu is opening up local businesses to people of all abilities
For someone with different accessibility needs, going out to dinner or grabbing drinks is anything but a simple process. While there are many businesses across the country that have accessible facilities in place, not all of them are designed to make..
Deaf Etiquette
How much etiquette do we need to respect and understand each other without offending or patronizing others? Etiquette is essential to fostering mutual respect and understanding while avoiding any sense of superiority or condescension. “Etiquette is the..
Breaking Barriers: Anis Jerbi is making his mark on the world stage
by Yuki Muraille
Meet Anis Jerbi – a young, 20-year-old man from a small suburb in south Tunisia. Anis was born with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), commonly known as brittle bone disease. Brittle bone disease is a genetic disorder that affects the bones, causing..
Autism and Employment
by Bart Vulliamy
Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition of variable severity with lifelong effects that can be recognized from early childhood, chiefly characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication and by restricted or repetitive patterns of..
From struggle to opportunity : How reframing your mindset can transform your life
by Christine Staple Ebanks
Have you ever found inspiration in unexpected places? I know I certainly have. Sometimes, it’s in the midst of the struggles we face that we discover our inner strength, resilience and determination. During these tough times, we learn to see things..
Profoundly disabled Kiwi kid leads the world
by Shana Jones
Hamilton, New Zealand, 2017. Jenn Hooper, mother of two boys and Charley, a profoundly disabled 17-year-old-girl. A precious life worthy of the dignity so often taken for granted. A fierce determination to defy “acceptable” for an invisible sector of..
Talking with U.K. journalist and author Lydia Wilkins
By Lisa Guthrie Deabill
U.K. freelance journalist and public speaker Lydia Wilkins recently added another title to her resume—author. Wilkins, who has autism, published The Autism Friendly Cookbook in November, 2022. She also serves as ambassador for AccessAble, an accessibility..
Purple Lens – The future of web accessibility
Our Mission We seek to improve the community of disabled people with their day-to-day basic tasks. We help institutes and governments around the world, and the rest of the civilian businesses, achieve this goal by providing them with assistive technology..
Renee Bruns climbs to new heights, sets new records
American Renee Bruns tells us how she set a Guinness World Record for the most countries visited by a person in a wheelchair in a year. A.f.A. : Tell us about yourself and what brought you to where you are today. Renee: I was born with an undiagnosed..
Putting people first: creating accessible tourist attractions in Canada
By Katie Kirker, Rick Hansen Foundation
Canada is home to many world-renowned tourist attractions which helped draw 22.1 million visitors to our country in 2019. Yet with 1 in 5 Canadians, and over 1 billion people worldwide identifying as having a disability, ensuring these tourist destinations…
Talking with Tara Llanes
Tara enjoyed a successful professional mountain bike career as a five-time U.S. National Champion, an X-Games gold medalist, and multiple World Championship medalist before a bad crash. She went on to a successful professional career in adaptive cycling,..
I felt like the first wheelchair user in the "Caribbean" :
"A Caribbean" cruise and best places in Miami
By Werner Rosenberger
For the first time, I traveled with my wife and my two children (8 and 12 years) over the Christmas holidays to a warmer area, while the winter in Austria is very cold. We wanted to enjoy the warmth and took a Caribbean cruise on MSC Seascape, followed..
