By Louise Kinross Got a kid three to five years old? Show them this video about Mixmups, a new British stop-motion animation show for kids that includes disabled characters. It was written by Rebecca Atkinson, a children’s TV producer who is partially sighted and partially deaf. The 52-part series is...
Jenna Reed-Cote and Katrina Darielle Valdez mapped the accessibility of Vancouver for people with disabilities as part of a research project. Photo by Alexa Fernando By Louise Kinross Nearly 60 per cent of public buildings and spaces in Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa are not accessible to people with disabilities, or...
By Louise Kinross Last night I watched the new HBO documentary about Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double on the Harry Potter films: David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived. You may have seen the trailer. David was a teen gymnast hired to do dangerous stunts for then 11-year-old Daniel in 2000. Ten...
By Louise Kinross From my office window I have a perfect spot to watch the outdoor basketball court at the back of Holland Bloorview, nestled up against the tall trees in the ravine. It’s usually empty, but this summer and fall there was a flurry of activity as clinicians incorporated...
Rachel O’Hagan and son Beau By Louise Kinross Rachel O’Hagan is a teacher. So when her baby son Beau began having hand tremors, then losing strength, she remembered a former student who had a condition called spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). “I knew something neurological was happening, but doctors told me...
By Louise Kinross Dr. Janice Hansen is a highly skilled psychologist who assesses children with a variety of disabilities to identify the supports they need to thrive in school. She came to Holland Bloorview as a PhD student in 1990. When she graduated in 1994, she joined the hospital and...
Jean Hammond with daughter Ellie at a Raptors game during Holland Bloorview’s Capes for Kids. By Louise Kinross “Falling off the cliff.” For decades, that’s what families said happened when a child with a disability aged out of a comprehensive team of pediatric specialists who understood disability into a fragmented...
By Louise Kinross About 15 years ago, Don Meyer, founder of the Sibling Support Project, then based in Seattle, came to Holland Bloorview to give a talk about how parents can best support the brothers and sisters of a child with a disability. One of his tips was to make...
Idika Njoku (centre) and his parents By Louise Kinross Anthea Charles’ family was in crisis. When her autistic son Idika hit puberty, he began repeatedly running away from school, jumping on cars, having long meltdowns where he would throw things, and pushing his sisters. He even tried to jump out...
By Louise Kinross Click here for October’s BLOOM! Here are some quotes to pique your interest: -From a professor at Virginia Tech and amputee: “The desire to see technological development and fixing as THE solution to disability allows people to continue to build and justify a world that is inaccessible,...
By Louise Kinross “Lizzy, you have a magical light that shines from you and draws kids into a halo of safety.” That was written by a parent to describe Lizzy Luff, a therapeutic recreation specialist who works on Holland Bloorview’s complex continuing care unit. Lizzy first came to our hospital...
By Louise Kinross Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement critiques the idea that technology is a magic bullet that can erase disability. The book is written by Ashley Shew (above), a philosopher of technology and professor at Virginia Tech who became an amputee after cancer treatment. “Technoableism is a belief in the...
By Louise Kinross Jessica Slice is an Ontario author, social worker and adoptive mother whose book Unfit Parent will be released by Beacon Press in 2025. Jessica, who has a connective tissue disorder and neurological condition, and her husband David fostered and then adopted Khalil. Khalil is now six and...
By Louise Kinross I wanted to love this short documentary on The New York Times. It’s about twin boys entering their teen years. One, Rémi, is non-disabled and the other, Raphaël, has developmental disabilities that aren’t further described. It’s visually stunning, and the boys’ bond is palpable. But I finished...
By Louise Kinross This week the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States designated people with disabilities as “a population with health disparities.” That means they experience preventable differences in their health due to systemic discrimination. Previously, the NIH had funded research on health inequities faced by racial,...
By Louise Kinross Famous PEOPLE Players is a black light theatre company in Toronto that trains people with intellectual disabilities as performers. “Think of glow-in-the-dark life-size characters,” says founder Diane Dupuy (photo above), animated by actors hidden in black costumes. Players (photo below) learn to manipulate the puppets and props, which...
Joe Wong, right, with daughter Jillian, centre, and occupational therapist Salma Kassam. By Louise Kinross Joe Wong tried for three days to convince doctors at an Ontario hospital that something was seriously wrong with his daughter Jillian, 7, who was hospitalized for flu. On the third day the Mississauga, Ont....
By Louise Kinross Last year every Grade 1 student in Canada received a copy of Fast Friends, a picture book about classmates Suze, who uses a red wheelchair and doesn’t speak, and Tyson, her best friend. The book, selected for the TD Grade One Book Giveaway, was written by Peterborough,...
