Latest / Podcasts By Donna Jodhan / Remarkable World Commentary Episode #84: Ask Advocate Donna

Transcript

Remarkable World Commentary Episode #84: Ask Advocate Donna · Podcasts By Donna Jodhan

• 0:12
  Podcast Commentator: Greetings, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP and MBA invites you to listen to
• 0:20
  her biweekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary.
• 0:24
  Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts,
• 0:27
  insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners.
• 0:31
  Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids,
• 0:35
  especially kids with disabilities.
• 0:38
  Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach,
• 0:42
  dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur,
• 0:45
  law graduate, and podcast commentator.
• 0:49
  She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge,
• 0:53
  skills, and expertise in access, technology and information.
• 0:58
  As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles,
• 1:02
  she just wants to make things better than possible.
• 1:07
  Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello there, and I'm Donna J.
• 1:09
  Jodhan, welcoming you to my Ask Advocate Donna for the month of April 2026.
• 1:18
  Hope everybody is doing well.
• 1:20
  And for this month I have lots to share with you.
• 1:24
  So let's get going. And I want to start with one of my favorite quotations.
• 1:33
  And it is this. Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you and listen in
• 1:42
  such a way. That others love to speak to you.
• 1:49
  Very powerful quote. And I want to start my my podcast with my little word game.
• 2:00
  And I want to thank those for having commented on it.
• 2:05
  And again, if you'd like to write to me at any given time,
• 2:11
  please do so at Donna Jordan at sterling creations.ca.
• 2:19
  That's Donna Jordan at sterling creations.ca.
• 2:25
  Okay, my gmail account is presently having some problems,
• 2:30
  but I hope to get it fixed very soon.
• 2:33
  Okay, let's look at the first pair of words respect versus disrespect.
• 2:42
  And in the case of an advocate, we want to ensure that we earn our respect
• 2:48
  because respect is never, ever given.
• 2:52
  It is earned versus disrespect.
• 2:55
  We don't want to be known as a person who is either disrespected or a person who
• 3:03
  disrespects others. So you got respect versus disrespect.
• 3:09
  Choose respect. Okay. Respect is when you give respect,
• 3:16
  and respect is when you gain respect.
• 3:20
  Okay. All right. How about the pair of words courteous versus condescend?
• 3:31
  You know, a lot of people these days are so very,
• 3:35
  very, I would say, aware of these two words, courteous and condescend.
• 3:43
  Courteous is when you take the time to give a very thoughtful response to someone or
• 3:49
  something. Condescend is when you are careless in your response,
• 3:55
  either via email or via face to face or via virtually.
• 4:02
  Be very careful. There's somewhat of a fine line between courteous and condescending.
• 4:09
  Again, courteous is when you take the time to be thoughtful in your response to the one
• 4:18
  that you're giving it to.
• 4:20
  Condescend is when you become careless and you say words that hurt others.
• 4:28
  Okay, that's my word game for this month, so let's move on.
• 4:34
  I have three stories to share with you, stories that have been sent in to me by
• 4:40
  others, and stories that I myself have lived.
• 4:44
  So let's look at story one.
• 4:47
  Okay? A kid who has been denied entry to a park to ride his scooter.
• 4:58
  And here is the story.
• 5:01
  Scotty. Little Scotty really wanted to ride his scooter in a park.
• 5:07
  Okay. Scotty was vision impaired, but his elder brother Damien,
• 5:16
  said that he would go along with Scotty, his little brother,
• 5:19
  and ride together with him.
• 5:24
  At the entrance to the park, Scotty was told that he could not ride his
• 5:30
  scooter by an attendant.
• 5:33
  When the attendant or when Damien, the elder brother,
• 5:38
  told the attendant that he would be riding with his little brother.
• 5:43
  The attendant became extremely angry and began to shout at the boys.
• 5:52
  Scotty started to retreat with tears in his eyes,
• 5:57
  but Damian stood his ground and he told his or told the attendant that he would be
• 6:07
  returning with his parents.
• 6:10
  And he did just that. The parents, the boys and the attendant all gathered
• 6:19
  together to have a cosy little chart, and other kids started to crowd around.
• 6:29
  What happened next? What do you think would have happened next?
• 6:34
  This is advocacy in action, folks.
• 6:36
  This is live advocacy.
• 6:39
  Okay. What is advocacy in this case, advocacy is when these boys,
• 6:45
  Damian taking the lead, decides to advocate for his little brother
• 6:51
  Scotty, because the attendant would not let Scotty in to ride his scooter.
• 6:57
  Okay. And who gets involved in advocacy?
• 7:02
  Damien, Scotty, the parents, the attendant, and then other kids.
• 7:09
  Okay. And why is it necessary in this case?
• 7:14
  It is necessary because the attendant refuses to let little Scotty ride his bicycle in the
• 7:21
  park. That's why advocacy is necessary.
• 7:27
  And how does one get involved in advocacy?
• 7:29
  You do it the way that Damien did first, by standing up to the attendant and then
• 7:35
  getting his parents involved, and then other kids,
• 7:40
  and then everyone gathering around for a cozy little church,
• 7:45
  cozy little chat. Sorry.
• 7:47
  When do you get involved in advocacy?
• 7:50
  When an issue directly affects you.
• 7:54
  Okay, here is the second story that I share with you for this month.
• 8:01
  Okay. A teacher refuses to teach a blind lady how to knit.
• 8:12
  This is one of the more common incidents that occur in our society today.
• 8:16
  It is getting better, but it's still there.
• 8:21
  And here is the story.
• 8:25
  Karen was told by the teacher of her knitting class that she could not participate.
• 8:34
  Because the teacher did not know how to teach her as a blind knitter.
• 8:44
  The teacher's assistant had offered to help, but the teacher was extremely steadfast.
• 8:53
  So Karen decided to leave and the assistant had followed her out and they had had a
• 9:03
  discussion. What do you think that discussion could have been?
• 9:08
  All right. Could it have been the assistant saying,
• 9:13
  you know, I think you're doing the right thing by just leaving the class or the
• 9:18
  assistant saying, okay, Karen, I will help you.
• 9:22
  Okay. The assistant probably did not criticize the teacher,
• 9:29
  but tried to patch things up, which I think did happen.
• 9:35
  What is advocacy here?
• 9:37
  And again, who is leading the charge from this picture?
• 9:41
  It appears that the assistant is because for.
• 9:45
  Whereas Karen left the class.
• 9:49
  The assistant followed her out and they had a discussion.
• 9:54
  Hopefully, and I think it did work out like this.
• 9:58
  The discussion was the assistant offering her assistant assistance and also offering to try
• 10:06
  and navigate this rough landscape between Karen and the teacher.
• 10:13
  So she wanted to negotiate.
• 10:15
  She wanted to engage and communicate.
• 10:18
  She was the main advocate.
• 10:20
  Okay. And who got involved in advocacy?
• 10:24
  In this case, it was the assistant who did.
• 10:27
  So why was advocacy necessary?
• 10:30
  Because the assistant saw that there was a problem here or a challenge here,
• 10:37
  and she wanted to be helpful.
• 10:39
  She wanted to be a mediator between Karen and her teacher.
• 10:45
  Good sir. How to get involved in advocacy in this case.
• 10:50
  Exactly how the assistant did it, by going out and following Karen and having a
• 10:59
  chat with her. When do you get involved in advocacy?
• 11:03
  You do. So when you think that something needs to be fixed and it is an issue near and
• 11:10
  dear to your heart. Okay.
• 11:14
  Excuse me. And here is my third story for this month.
• 11:19
  Okay. Story three. One that was shared with us.
• 11:24
  Okay. All right. A pottery studio that is closed to students with
• 11:33
  disabilities. And as an avid potter myself, I will tell you that I have seen instances
• 11:42
  where pottery studios, you know, refuse to take persons with
• 11:48
  disabilities. I've been extremely lucky.
• 11:51
  I've had two wonderful studios.
• 11:54
  One is called studio on the Hill by and run by Sean Kelly,
• 12:01
  and another one was Pleasant Potteries, run by a wonderful lady called Joan Spears.
• 12:08
  However, I was refused twice by pottery studios who did not want to teach me how to
• 12:16
  do pottery because I was vision impaired.
• 12:22
  All right. Here's a story.
• 12:28
  This pottery studio refused to accept students with various disabilities.
• 12:36
  These students all knew each other, and they decided to do something about it.
• 12:45
  They came together and crafted a Facebook post,
• 12:51
  and they posted their post asking for anyone who could help them,
• 12:57
  any studio or any instructor who could help them to,
• 13:01
  you know, pursue their pottery pursuits.
• 13:07
  And to find a studio to accept students with disabilities.
• 13:15
  You know what? This worked.
• 13:17
  That's the power of Facebook.
• 13:20
  Okay. So here we go now.
• 13:24
  What is advocacy all about?
• 13:26
  And in this case, we have the three persons with disabilities who knew each other coming
• 13:32
  together, crafting a very catchy Facebook post and putting it up on Facebook.
• 13:40
  Okay. And who got involved in advocacy.
• 13:44
  These three persons who were directly affected by what was going on.
• 13:51
  Why was it necessary here?
• 13:53
  I think everyone would agree it was necessary because these three persons were being denied
• 14:00
  the opportunity to engage in pottery by studios who did not want to accept them
• 14:09
  because of their disabilities.
• 14:12
  How do you get involved in advocacy?
• 14:14
  Again, coming together as these three students did.
• 14:20
  And when do you get involved in advocacy?
• 14:23
  When the problem directly affects you and those close to you.
• 14:28
  Okay, so there you have it.
• 14:33
  My three stories for this month from my feature Ask Advocate Donna for the month of
• 14:40
  April. Want to write to me?
• 14:43
  Please do so at Donna Jordan at Sterling creations.ca.
• 14:49
  That's STERLINGCREATIONS dot C a.
• 14:55
  So it's Donna Jordan, DONNEODHAN.
• 15:02
  Hopefully by next month, my gmail account would be fixed,
• 15:07
  and we will be back to regular operations.
• 15:12
  In the meantime, everybody, thank you for tuning in and listening in.
• 15:15
  I wish you a great rest of the month of April.
• 15:19
  Take care.
• 15:23
  Podcast Commentator: Donna wants to hear from you and invites you to write to her at DonnaJodhan@@gmail.com.
• 15:29
  Until next time.