Latest / Podcasts By Donna Jodhan / Remarkable World Commentary Episode #80: Ask Advocate Donna

Transcript

Remarkable World Commentary Episode #80: Ask Advocate Donna · Podcasts By Donna Jodhan

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  Podcast Commentator: Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP 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, 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.
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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: Hello, I'm Donna Jodhan and welcome to my monthly advocacy podcast,
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  where I hope that you have questions for me and I have questions for you.
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  And I have thoughts to share with you.
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  Okay, so it's my monthly podcast called Ask Donna.
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  Okay. And it's called Ask advocate Donna.
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  Okay, so let's start off with this little quotation.
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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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  Okay, I love this quotation.
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  Okay, I want to start with my favorite word game and to sort of get your thoughts going
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  on my word game, I have two sets of words to give to you.
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  And here is the first one.
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  Professional or unprofessional.
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  Many times in the world of advocacy, professional versus unprofessional makes a
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  difference in whether or not you succeed or you don't.
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  It makes a difference in how far you can go in advocacy.
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  Make yourself professional and you'll see how the power of professionalism works for you.
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  Become unprofessional.
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  And soon doors and windows will start slamming in your face.
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  Professional versus unprofessional.
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  And here is another pair of words for you to consider.
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  Ordinary versus extraordinary.
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  What do you dream of? A dream that is just ordinary.
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  Or a dream that can be extraordinary.
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  In the world of advocacy, people love to look at the extraordinary.
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  It is not easy to get to the extraordinary.
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  I think, first of all, you got to shoot for the ordinary.
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  And after shooting for the ordinary, you then train your sights on the
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  extraordinary. Okay. Now, I have some stories to share with you that
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  listeners have sent to me and through my own lived experience as well.
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  Here is the first story.
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  Okay. A woman has been denied entry to her crafts class because
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  of her age. How do we advocate for this?
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  Okay. Brenda was told that she was too old to be in the crafts class.
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  Seniors were not eligible, she was told, and she was mortified.
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  She was horrified. Only those under the age of 55 were being accepted.
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  Brenda was 60. Brenda could not understand what was going on and so she approached the
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  administrators. At first they did not budge, but then Brenda thought,
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  well, you know, I need to go one step further.
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  And she went to the community centers, administrators themselves,
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  and she took her friends along with her.
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  The community center was sympathetic, but said that they could not do anything
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  about Brenda's dilemma.
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  What would you advise Brenda to do?
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  Okay, here is what I would advise Brenda to do.
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  First of all, what is advocacy?
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  Advocacy is when you stand up for yourself because you feel that you have been wronged,
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  not because you feel that you are entitled, but you feel that you have been.
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  You have been wronged.
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  And in this case, Brenda has a good case, because if she is being told that she cannot
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  be accepted into the crafts class because of her age,
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  I don't think that that is a proper reason.
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  And who gets involved in advocacy?
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  Brenda starts it all up and then Brenda includes her friends.
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  Why is advocacy? Why is advocacy necessary here?
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  Because Brenda feels that she has been wronged.
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  And in order to right a wrong, Brenda has to engage and in advocacy and use
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  this avenue to bring her friends along.
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  How do you get involved in advocacy?
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  By going step by step.
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  As Brenda did, first, she went to the administrators of the class
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  and they said no. Then she went to the community centers authorities and they said
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  no. So now she has to get involved more deeply in advocacy and figure out what's the
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  next step. Who does she go to after she has talked to the folks at the community center?
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  Okay, now for my second story.
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  All right. All right. A professional has been denied
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  access to a social event because of their culture.
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  Okay. And here is the story.
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  Ryan was told. That because he did not speak either Cantonese or Mandarin,
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  he could not attend. Ryan argued that because this was Canada and
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  because English and French were the main language official languages of Canada,
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  it was his right to attend this social event.
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  He should be granted access because of the language requirements.
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  Again, English and French being the official languages of Canada.
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  Okay. Those who were hosting the event said that they had a right to have their own
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  rules. Ryan argued that in Canada, everyone had a right to attend.
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  What would you advise Ryan?
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  Again, what is advocacy?
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  And in this case, advocacy is all about the right to attend a social event because the
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  official languages of Canada are English and French,
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  not Mandarin and Cantonese.
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  Who gets involved? Ryan starts the ball a rolling.
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  And he starts with himself and then builds his advocacy through friends and family.
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  Okay, why is it necessary here?
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  Because there's a strong case for saying that you cannot discriminate against someone
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  because of a language.
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  Okay. How do you get involved in advocacy?
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  By engaging and by communicating with others.
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  Okay. And when do you do this?
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  You do this when you feel that you have a good case for advocating for something.
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  A good cause or a good reason?
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  Okay. And now here is my third story of the month.
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  A family is unable to sell or set up a business because of the products that they
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  sell. And here is the story.
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  The Gregg family wanted to sell Amish products in their neighborhood.
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  They were told by the municipal municipality that they could not.
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  Because only products sold or made by a certain group could be sold there.
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  What would you advise the Gregg family to do?
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  Should they walk away and look for another place where they could sell their products?
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  Or if they feel strongly enough about this, they can just simply start the ball rolling
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  by looking for ways to advocate to sell their products.
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  This is not an easy nut to crack.
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  Okay, again, what is advocacy?
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  Advocacy in this case is wanting to sell your Amish products in a certain area.
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  Despite being told that these products cannot be sold because only another group or a
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  certain group can sell their products.
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  This is a good case for advocacy and who gets involved.
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  The Greg family has to start the ball rolling and they have to put their case together,
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  get their documents together, go step by step.
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  Why is advocacy necessary in this case?
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  Because the Greg family is being told that they cannot sell their Amish products in this
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  area. Only a certain group.
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  We need to find out. Why should it be only a certain group and not the Greg family's
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  products? How do they get involved in advocacy?
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  Like I said before, we start the ball rolling and they build support and they build help
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  from those around them.
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  When to get involved in advocacy in this case because they feel or believe that they are
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  being wronged? Okay. All right.
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  Those are my three stories for this month.
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  I hope you enjoyed my feature.
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  Ask Advocate Donna and I will see you next month.
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  Have a great day. Buh bye for now.
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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.