HAPPY NATIONAL ACCESSABILITY WEEK!
I have never been good at keeping up with the Blog but this is my commitment to myself and to all of you as life is about to get started again. Over the past 5.5 months I have been dealing with some health issues that did more than set me back, it made me still.
A pressure sore is a wheelie's worst nightmare. The first one I had almost took me out fourteen years ago. This time I knew what I was doing and took it seriously with daily nursing visits, bedrest, no working out and a lot of TV. I probably could have made more progress while I was down but I was too busy getting caught up. When you’re always moving at a million miles a minute it is easy to put aside the boring, important bookkeeping and adult responsibilities. I think that even more than dealing with the pressure sore, it was tackling those tasks that I hate that was the really difficult thing to deal with. I didn’t understand some of the things I was embarking on and needed to ask for help.
This is my reminder to you that it is ok to ask for help, in anything, for anything. The worst thing that can happen is that the person can say "No." The best outcome is that they will help you accomplish that task even if they hate you by the end of it! ( I don’t think she hates me but I know she’s proud and happy the process is now done. You don’t need to know what the project was, just know it was a lot of emails and paperwork. It was painful!)
Thankfully, things are getting better and I am able to be on the move again. Being still made me appreciate the small things in life that we often take for granted. I guess what I am trying to say is, take time to smell the roses and do your paperwork.
When it comes to accessibility, I have been on the move over the past couple of years trying to figure out how I can make my mark on the world in terms of making things more equitable and accessible. It hasn’t been easy but it has been a very eye opening experience. I know what I have to deal with on a daily basis but hearing other people's perspectives and struggles shines a new light on the situation.
I have an amazing network of accessibility advocates and influencers that are going to change our world. This is not just me saying this, but I am actively watching how the world is starting to take notice of just how inaccessible our society truly is. With festivals like the upcoming ACCESS FEST put on by AccessNow, the landscape is changing. We are no longer sitting in the shadows or taking a back seat to our God given rights. We are taking up space and letting our voices be heard.
Although we are nowhere close to where we need to be here in Canada, I have a ton of hope and optimism that things will get better, perceptions will continue to change and we won’t need to keep talking about accessibility because universal design will be the norm.
