Latest / Podcasts By Donna Jodhan / Remarkable World Commentary Episode #77: Ask Advocate Donna

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Remarkable World Commentary Episode #77: Ask Advocate Donna · Podcasts By Donna Jodhan

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  Podcast Commentator: Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP and MBA,
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  invites you to listen to her biweekly podcast,
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  Remarkable World Commentary.
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  Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts,
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  insights, perspectives and more with her listeners.
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  Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids,
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  especially kids with disabilities.
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  Donna is a blind advocate, author, site loss coach,
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  dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur,
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  law graduate, and podcast commentator.
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  She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge,
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  skills, and expertise in access technology and information as someone who has been
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  internationally recognized for her work and roles,
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  she just wants to make things better than possible.
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  Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello, I'm Donna, and welcome to the second Remarkable World commentary from me for the
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  month of February 2026.
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  I started in January to include the Ask Advocate Donna feature every month,
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  and this is a rollover from my Ask Donna Advocacy in Action podcast,
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  because after having received so much feedback,
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  comments, and thoughts from my listeners, I wanted to continue in this mode.
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  And every month I'll be bringing you the Ask Advocate Donna feature.
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  I have restructured it and what I'm doing is trying to share stuff with you and encourage
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  you to think on your feet when it comes to advocacy.
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  Be not afraid of advocacy.
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  Embrace it. Cherish it, and let's roll with it.
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  Okay. I have a quote I like to start with.
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  Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you.
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  And listen in such a way that others love to speak to you.
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  I like that quote. Okay, I want to start with a word game,
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  and many of my listeners have said to me that they really appreciate this word game because
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  I give you two sets of words, and I encourage you to think about how you
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  view these words. I'll tell you how I view these words.
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  And before I continue, please do not hesitate to send me your
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  feedback to Donna Jordan at gmail.com.
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  That's d o. N at. So let's dive into the
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  word game for this month.
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  Okay, here we go. What do you think of these two words respect versus
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  disrespect. Do you think that respect is something that advocates need to keep
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  uppermost in their minds?
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  Do you agree with me that respect is earned?
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  It is not given. It is earned.
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  It is not given. If you engage in disrespect.
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  I don't think that advocacy would be meaningful or productive.
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  Sometimes it is awfully difficult to avoid disrespect when engaging and communicating
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  with others because, you know, people either inadvertently or intentionally
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  give out disrespect either that they're angry,
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  upset, disappointed, or just plain old mad.
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  So they offer disrespect.
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  My advice to this is ignore the disrespect.
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  Just keep on going. Keep on showing respect and it will all come out in the better for
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  you. Okay, so here is the next set of words.
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  Courteous or Condescend.
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  Are some people courteous to you meaningfully,
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  or they're just being courteous for being courteous?
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  Sick do they? Condescend and condescension often comes when someone is
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  perceived to be overly courteous.
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  It comes across as being, you know, condescension or it's con.
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  It's being condescending.
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  One has to be really careful when it comes to the difference between courteous and
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  condescending. So courteous versus condescending.
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  What is it going to be?
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  I do my best to be courteous, but boy oh boy,
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  sometimes it is awfully difficult to avoid the condescension route.
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  Let's stay on the side of being courteous.
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  For what it's worth. Let's do our best to always be courteous.
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  Sometimes it doesn't take much and sometimes it takes a lot.
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  But courteous or courtesy is always better than condescension.
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  That's my word game for this month.
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  And now I have three stories to share with you for this month.
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  And let's see what you think of it.
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  Write to me at Donna Jonathan at gmail.com and tell me what you think.
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  Here's the title to the first story.
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  A blind student excluded from a play.
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  And I'm going to tell you now that a lot of these stories come from listeners providing
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  me or sending me their stories, and I think that they are worth my sharing
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  them with you. Here is a story.
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  Gala was told that she could not participate in the play in a play and why?
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  Because she was told that there would be no way for her to learn her lines if she could
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  not read, and she could not know when to enter the flow of the play.
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  She could not work with cues, and she would not know how to move around the
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  stage. The thing is, gala was told all of this by a teacher who never even took the
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  time to work with gala to find out how she did things,
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  what technology he used, what techniques she used.
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  But the teacher falsely assumed all because she was vision impaired.
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  She would not know how to deal with cues, how to move around the stage,
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  how to learn her lines, everything else.
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  What would you advise gala to do?
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  Well, I would advise gala first.
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  Don't give up gala. I would then advise gala to go to her parents with this.
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  I know it's a very bitter sea to swallow, a bitter pill to swallow.
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  But if gala wants to continue on in a meaningful way,
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  productive way, and be a part of everything she needs to go to her parents.
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  And this is what gala eventually did.
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  First she cried and cried about it.
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  And then she thought and thought about it.
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  You know, gala was a youngster.
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  I think she was about 12 years old and she took matters into her own hands after a few
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  weeks and went to her parents, who then went to the teacher involved.
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  It was a very tough fight, but everything worked out at the end.
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  The parent gala and her parents had to work very,
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  very hard to convince this teacher.
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  But it worked out. And there were other teachers that gala and her parents appealed
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  to, and they were able to help their colleague understand.
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  Okay. So what is advocacy in this case?
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  Advocacy is advocating for Gala to be a part of the play.
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  And who gets involved in advocacy gala, her parents,
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  her teacher and others.
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  Why is advocacy necessary?
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  Because we need to break down the barrier that is being presented to gala.
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  Not being able to participate in the play because it is perceived that she can't
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  because she is vision impaired.
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  How do you get involved in advocacy based on this case?
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  You get involved. You know the child, the student,
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  the student, the parent, the teacher, everybody.
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  And when do you get involved in advocacy?
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  In this case, when it is perceived that there is a barrier?
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  Okay, here's the second story and here's the title of this one.
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  No pet for a child with a disability.
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  Yes. In the home Itself.
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  And here is the story as related to us by a listener.
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  Carna had kept hounding her parents to help to have her or to get a pet for her.
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  Okay. She wanted so badly to have a kitten.
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  Her parents told her no, because they did not think that she would be
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  able to take care of the kitten.
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  And why? Because they felt that little Kala could not look after the kitten,
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  to clean his litter box, to give him his food,
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  to give him his drink, to groom him, and everything else.
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  Kala was in a wheelchair.
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  So what would you advise Kala to do?
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  I think I would advise Carla to again go to my parents,
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  but Carla needs to develop a plan as to how she would answer questions from her parents,
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  such as, well, Carla, how would you clean the litter box?
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  So Carla has to find a way to tell her parents,
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  or show her parents that she is serious about wanting the kitten and how she can take care
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  of it. Okay. How she can clean the litter box.
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  How she can give Kitty his food.
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  Kitty his water. Groom.
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  Kitty. I know it's kind of a lot for a kid.
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  I believe Carla was about ten years old, so it makes things.
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  Makes things even more interesting when the child is younger.
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  Maybe not thinking out clearly as to how they would look after their pet kitten.
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  And you can't blame the parents themselves for being apprehensive because,
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  you know, they think, well, our little daughter is in a wheelchair.
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  How is she going to look after the kitten?
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  So it's teamwork, it's team effort, it's team team everything between the child
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  and the parents. And it's a lot of hard work.
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  It may or may not work, but it has to start somewhere.
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  Okay, so advocacy is advocating for little Carla to have a pet kitten.
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  And who gets involved in this?
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  Carla and her parents and her family.
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  Family in the home. To start with, an advocacy is necessary because little Carla
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  really wants to have a kitten, despite the fact that she is in a wheelchair.
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  She has to show and convince her family that she can look after her pet kitten.
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  And how do you get involved in advocacy?
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  In this case, it's little Carla having to take the initiative.
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  It's hard for a ten year old, but there are lessons to be learned here.
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  And you get involved in advocacy when you really want to have something.
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  And oftentimes when you get involved in advocacy,
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  it changes attitudes. It changes perspectives.
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  It changes assumptions.
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  Let's remember that. All right.
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  Let's go to the third story for this month.
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  Okay. And it's all about a retiree who has been barred from a social
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  event. Not very nice, is it?
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  And here's the story that was submitted to us by one of our listeners.
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  Roy was too old, for he was told that he was too old to attend a social event in his
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  community. And the event had to do with attending a concert at a concert hall.
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  Roy was hard of hearing, but he used his hearing aids extremely
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  proficiently. He appealed to the event organizer,
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  but nobody was listening.
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  Now, on the surface I would say this is so trivial,
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  but when you take a deeper dive and you think of it,
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  you have on one side, Roy being very, very able to attend a concert
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  because he has hearing aids that enables him to listen to what's going on at the concert.
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  On the other side of the picture, you have organizers who say,
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  well, you know, Roy can't hear very well, so how is he going to hear what's going on?
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  How is he going to appreciate it?
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  And it all boils down to attitude perception.
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  The one side thinks, oh, because he can't hear very well,
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  how can he enjoy it? So therefore he is barred from attending the concert.
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  On the other side, you have Roy, who is perfectly able to enjoy a concert,
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  and I would advise Roy to go for it.
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  He needs to convince the organizers.
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  He needs to get others on his side.
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  You can't do it alone. I don't think he can do it alone.
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  But he needs help. He needs support.
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  Okay. What is advocacy here?
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  Advocacy is advocating for Roy to be at a concert despite his being hard of hearing.
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  And who gets involved?
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  Roy starts the ball rolling, and he starts by going to the organizers with
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  the well laid out plan to show them that, yeah,
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  he wears hearing aids or he uses hearing aids,
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  but he is perfectly capable of enjoying a concert.
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  Advocacy is necessary because Roy wants to attend the concert.
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  How do you get involved in advocacy?
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  It starts with Roy and he has to.
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  And I would say he needs to involve others to get them on his side to convince the
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  organizers. When do you do it?
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  When you want to attend the concert?
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  Of course. Okay. What is your advice?
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  What would you suggest?
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  Write to me at DonnaJodhan@Gmail.com and let me know what you think.
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  Okay, that's it for me for this month.
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  Month of February 2026.
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  Ask advocate Donna and I thank you for dropping by to listen in.
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  Take care and I'll see you next month.
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  Podcast Commentator: Donna wants to hear from you and invites you to write to her at DonnaJodhan@Gmail.com.
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  Until next time.