Latest / Podcasts By Donna Jodhan / Remarkable World Commentary Episode #109: Ask Advocate Donna

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Remarkable World Commentary Episode #109: Ask Advocate Donna · Podcasts By Donna Jodhan

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  Podcast Commentator: Greetings, Donna J. Jordan, LLBAP and MBA invites you to listen to her
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  biweekly podcast, 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, sight 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.
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  As someone who has been 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: Greetings everyone. And I am Donna J.
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  Jordan, welcoming you to my September or the month of September,
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  ask advocate Donna My Remarkable World Commentary podcast for the month of
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  September. Ask ask advocate Donna Hope.
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  Everybody is doing well and let's get started for this particular episode of mine.
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  Okay, so let's start off with my favorite quote or one of my
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  favorite quotes. Okay.
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  Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you.
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  Listen in such a way that others love to speak to you.
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  Try this quote. It is very, very effective if you sit down and think
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  about it. It's all about using this or the words of this quote to engage in meaningful
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  communication. Give it a whirl.
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  Okay, now I'm going to move on to my word game.
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  And every in every segment, my word game consists of presenting you with
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  two pairs of words as they pertain to advocacy.
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  Okay. And more often than not, these words come up in the in the landscape
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  of advocacy. And I think it's a good way for us to really sit down and think about these
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  words. Give it a think for just a few minutes.
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  Okay, let's start off with commitments or compliance.
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  What does commitment mean?
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  Commitment means in the world of an advocate or the world of anybody who is serious about
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  what they do. You commit to doing something.
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  You commit to carrying out something.
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  You commit to saying, I'm going to do this and you do it.
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  It is a proactive word.
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  On the other hand, compliance means, well, you just comply.
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  You just follow the leader.
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  You're the sheep following the shepherd.
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  You know, you prefer to just simply react, not proact.
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  So again, commitment means proactive.
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  Compliance means reacting.
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  And as an advocate, you're often, often being called upon to decide whether
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  you're going to admit to commit to something or you're going to comply with something.
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  Now, does commitment necessarily mean complying?
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  And I don't think so. Commit is again, proactive.
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  Comply is reactive. You comply without really thinking about it.
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  You comply with saying, oh, I'm just going to do as I'm asked to do.
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  Commit is going a step further and saying, I'm not just going to comply,
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  I'm going to go out there and I am going to commit to a specific action.
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  So here we go. Complete commitment or compliance.
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  That is my interpretation of these two words.
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  Okay. Here it comes for the second pair of words,
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  an afterthought or a for thought.
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  In my humble opinion, an afterthought is this if you only do
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  something after everything else has been done.
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  And this can apply to anything in our lives.
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  An afterthought could be, well, you know, I'm invited to this birthday
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  party and I'm going to go and I'm going to have a good time.
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  That is your first mindset.
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  But then you think, oh heck, I should probably take a gift along with me.
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  That is an afterthought.
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  That, or an afterthought would probably apply to website developers and designers when they
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  develop a website. And then they say, oh, oh,
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  oh, maybe I should put in some accessibility features.
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  Maybe I should deal with accessibility.
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  That is an afterthought.
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  Same for management. You know, they develop these wonderful accessibility
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  not accessibility plans, but these plans to move forward for the next
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  year or two. And then they say, oh, we have employees who are,
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  are employees with a disability.
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  So maybe I, I should be putting in some thought into how they would fit into the
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  plan. Right? That is an afterthought because it was not thought of while the main plan was
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  being developed. That is an afterthought.
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  That is sort of a delayed Late reaction or just simply saying,
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  oh yeah, you know, I should put this in or I should do this after the main body of the
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  plan has been developed.
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  Whereas on the other hand, a forethought is including what should be
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  done or what must be done, or what ought to be done during the main
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  planning of your project.
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  Okay. An afterthought is a delayed thought.
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  A fourth thought, again, is being proactive.
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  This is my humble opinion.
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  Okay. A delayed reaction is an afterthought.
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  A proactive action is a forethought.
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  And this applies to almost anything in our daily lives.
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  Okay. So there you go.
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  Not just as an advocate, but as a person yourself.
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  Okay. Now, I want to go on to the stories that were submitted to us this month,
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  and they're interesting stories.
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  Here is the first story.
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  Wheelchair parking being abused.
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  Okay, so what does that really mean?
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  In my books, wheelchair parking being abused is when someone who really,
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  really is not using a wheelchair or who does not need a wheelchair,
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  just simply motoring in to the parking space designated for wheelchairs,
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  and they don't care. They just get out of their cars and walk to their locations.
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  That is wheelchair parking abuse.
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  Okay, that's what I think.
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  And you see that all the time.
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  You go to a mall and you see people going into these wheelchair parking spots.
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  They get out of their car and they literally run to the building.
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  They don't even have a wheelchair.
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  And in order for us to deal with this in a very meaningful manner.
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  Okay. What is advocacy in this in this situation is when we start to speak up
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  against those who are abusing wheelchair parking spots and who gets involved.
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  All of us do, not just the person using a wheelchair.
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  It's a matter of of consciousness or conscience or,
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  or doing the right thing of calling those out who are abusing wheelchair parking spots.
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  Why is it necessary? Because we need to speak up.
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  We need to trip those who are abusing the wheelchair parking spots.
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  How do you do that? It's from the ground up.
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  You start building awareness about what's going on.
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  You start attacking the consciences of those who are abusing it,
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  and then you go further up by going to, you know,
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  community members, by going to church members,
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  you know, by deciding if you go to your member of Parliament,
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  you go to your member of Congress, who you go to.
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  It's a long, drawn out thing, but starting from the ground up is the best
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  way to go. Okay. And when do you get involved in advocacy?
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  You get involved in advocacy.
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  In this case, when you honestly feel that your conscience needs to be pacified because
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  you see somebody abusing the wheelchair parking spot.
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  Okay, so this is one of the stories that was sent in to me by a listener who says,
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  you know, they've seen this going on.
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  They want to know what to do.
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  And that's what my piece of advice would be.
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  Okay, here's a second story.
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  Talking elevator not working correctly.
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  And again, this happened to Marisa in her condo building.
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  Marisa is a vision impaired person.
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  And, you know, for many months and even a few years,
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  she was advocating for an elevator to become a talking elevator so that she would know
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  which floor she was on or going to.
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  And she felt that, you know, it would make her life easier and safer if
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  the elevator would talk, as it, you know, went from floor to floor.
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  She approached her management office.
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  And in this case, we had success.
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  The management office agreed with her right away and decided to do something about it.
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  They were proactive. And this is a success story that I really enjoy telling you about,
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  because Marissa and her office management worked together to bring in talking elevators
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  into her condo complex.
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  All right. Good for you, Marissa, and congratulations to you.
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  What is advocacy in this case, advocacy is identifying a need and then
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  deciding to work with others to make this need a reality or to address this need.
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  And who gets involved.
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  Marissa to start with.
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  And then she then goes out there and she decides to talk to her management office
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  about it. Okay. Why is advocacy necessary?
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  Because there is a need to be addressed.
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  Marissa's need to want to have the elevator talk from floor to floor,
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  or as it goes, from floor to floor.
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  Okay. How does one get involved in advocacy again?
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  It's about Marissa and her management office working together to make this happen.
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  And when do you get involved in advocacy?
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  Again, it's all about when you think a need needs to be addressed.
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  You identify the need you want, the need to be addressed.
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  You think it's a legitimate need or requirement?
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  Okay. Congratulations, Marissa.
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  Here's a third story that was sent in to us.
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  All right. A person with a service dog denied at a restaurant.
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  This, unfortunately, is a very, very common problem.
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  And it may all boil down to the fact that owners of a restaurant may come from a
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  culture, may come from a culture where dogs are not dealt with in ways that they are
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  in North America and Europe.
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  And I'm not identifying any specific culture.
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  I'm just saying that because of a culture difference.
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  So in this case, Chris was denied access to a restaurant.
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  He went to a restaurant to enjoy a meal with some friends.
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  The friends were waiting for him.
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  But when he got to the restaurant, they would not let him in.
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  When he asked why, he was told, well, you have a dog and we don't,
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  you know dogs are not admitted to this restaurant.
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  His friends were watching for him and saw what was going on,
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  and they all got up in unison and came to the front to support Chris.
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  It was a bit messy because the you know, the owners kept saying,
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  we're not letting him in.
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  And the friend saying it is his right to be let in because this country has laws against
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  Not being let into a restaurant because of a service dog or a guide dog.
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  Okay, so there was a bit of a shouting match,
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  and eventually, thank goodness, the owners decided that they would comply
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  with Chris's request to have him and his dog enter into the restaurant.
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  Okay. Unfortunately, the police had to be called because the owners would not back down
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  and Chris, Chris and his friends would also not back down.
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  The police came and using their.
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  I wouldn't say their tactics, but using the methods that they were trained
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  to use, were able to get the owners to comply with the request to let Chris enter the
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  restaurant with his dog.
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  Okay, so what is advocacy here?
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  Advocacy here is standing up for your rights.
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  Chris standing up for his rights and his friends supporting him because it is his
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  right, or was his right to be able to enter that restaurant with his dog,
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  his dog being a guide dog or a service dog?
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  Okay, Chris was vision impaired, so him and his dog had to be,
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  you know, they were not to be denied entry into the restaurant.
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  They had to be, you know, their rights had to be adhered to.
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  Okay, this is Canada and those are the those are the laws and the rules.
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  And who gets involved in advocacy, Chris, to start with and then his friends.
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  So it was a combined effort.
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  Why is it necessary? Because Chris was being denied entry into this particular restaurant.
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  This is why advocacy was necessary in this instance.
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  How do you get involved in advocacy again?
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  It's a matter of combined efforts on the part of those involved and not backing down.
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  If you know that your rights are being infringed upon.
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  When do you do it? When it directly affects you.
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  Okay. All right. This is it for me.
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  For this month, I am Donna J.
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  Jordan. With this particular feature, ask advocate.
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  Donna. Please write to me with your story, and I would be pleased to talk about it,
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  discuss it, and share it with our listeners.
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  We have hundreds of thousands of listeners worldwide.
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  We post to over 45 media channels, and we have over 26 advocacy influencers
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  on our team. Do not hesitate to reach out to us.
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  Write to us at Donna johnson@gmail.com.
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  Again, Donna jordan@gmail.com, and that's spelled DONNAJODHAN.
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  Thank you very much for listening in.
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  Take care and see you again soon.
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  Podcast Commentator: Donna wants to hear from you and invites you to write to her at Donna jordan@gmail.com.
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  Until next time.