Outlook on Radio Western

Outlook on Radio Western
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Inspired by The Canadian Federation of the Blind, Outlook is a show about accessibility, advocacy, and equality. Hosted by two siblings who were born blind. Heard on 94.9 Radio Western every Monday from 11 AM to noon.

  1. 3d ago

    Outlook 2026-04-20 - Holding Court With One Court

    Well sports fans, holding court and One Court - it’s snowflakes in April, along with it being National Volunteer Week with its benefits to the community and yet with a historical track record of exploitation of people with lived experience of disability. As you can tell, it’s another Outlook with a mixture of topics this week. We’re back, all of us, and live in studio - sister/co-host Kerry is thrown off her train of thought, with soundscape of her recent Irish train trip to Limerick with BF Barry and Oyster. Students at Western are finishing up for another year and we’d like to thank The Gazette for their article written featuring us and the show this year. We’re all talking what shows and movies we’re into lately, Kerry and Barry are sharing about their return travel back to Canada with stories of their Air Canada cabin manager friend Elizabeth and on pushing back on the airline policy of passengers with disabilities waiting till the end for assistance while telling the story of a rather inappropriate discussion about Canada with an assistant bashing Canada and our weather and Canadians, even though they are a representative of the airline as they talk as they guide us through the airport. Kerry recently held court in a hotel lobby in Dublin, meeting and greeting friendly Irish and international travellers, and shares all about her conversations and orientation of her surroundings using her listening skills and AI and technology. Travel is a multi sensory experience and soundscape and riding the rails especially, in Ireland, brings all sorts of adventures, as topics, to us here on the mic, even as brother/co-host Brian turns Barry’s mic down for a time. Brian shares about the discovery of the One Court device, a way of making sports more accessible and inclusive, as a tactile experience and allowing us to enjoy and follow the games (be it baseball, football, soccer, or basketball). It’s a home run with the "One Court” and for more information on this device, check out: https://www.onecourt.io

    58 min

  2. Jun 21

    Outlook 2026-04-13 - A Mid April Mixed Bag Monday

    “Are you really blind?” We three don’t usually get questioned on whether or not we’re really unable to see, but in a large room with around eight hundred people, BF Barry had the question posed to him as he held a mic and called out the guy, on stage, with the bag over his head. It’s a somewhat x rated April mixed bag show, last one from Ireland to Canada for a while, with Sibling’s Day having happened recently, but one difference between Canada and Ireland is that the word “siblings” isn’t used in the latter like it is in the former. We spoke, back in February on our third Family Day show, about the word “siblings” with our brother and sister as our guests once more, while this time brother/co-host Brian shares how he learned since then that the word doesn’t exist in Spanish either. This week on Outlook we speak on sister/co-host Kerry, BF Barry, and Oyster’s recent adventures which include head injuries acquired in a hotel lobby, more lack of braille on the floors above, and inaccessible room menus. They share about getting over the “not Covid” along with fuel shortages and bus station closures, Brian describing his recent experience taking public transportation in Toronto, while Barry and Kerry were having to look for assistance from other travellers after being escorted by a security guard over the bridge when Dublin practically shut down (image description Brian reads painting the picture of a famous Irish capital city’s street in the midst of country wide fuel protests by farmers). This was after their trip, down south, to Limerick City to see a live recording of their favourite Irish podcaster who just so happens to call himself “Blind Boy,” even though he’s not actually blind, known for wearing a bag over his head. We all share our thoughts on someone calling themselves blind when they are not. Also, the upheaval across Ireland produces flashbacks of the 2022 winter Ottawa trucker convoy and the chaos that too caused as we discuss how such protests, while reflecting real and serious issues in both countries, can create very real and serious barriers, especially for people with disabilities. From north to south - travels lately and everything from stab vests to moon launches on this latest one. For more on Blind Boy and his podcast, go here: https://shows.acast.com/blindboy

    59 min

  3. Jun 2

    Outlook 2026-04-06 - An Easter Monday Mixed Bag Scramble

    It’s an April scramble, we’re celebrating the birth of a few friends of the show, and it’s two months exactly till the big performance - sister/co-host Kerry finally appears, BF Barry in the background. This week on Outlook we’re talking getting sick/on our own and together, VoiceOver gestures, and kidneys on the mind. Kerry can’t handle the germs, brother/co-host Brian reflects on his first kidney transplant surgery day from our mom (April 6, 1999), and poor Oyster the guide dog is recouping. Brian shares about his band’s first show coming up (Supply and Demand), King Orca, and we’re all already planning details of the evening. We’re remembering braille on cassette tapes and Kerry is brought back to 1996 through Cup of Soup. Kerry holds onto her fear that Canadian/Ontario hospitals and the healthcare system won’t be functioning like she’s used to as she and Barry both tell the story of an up close encounter with the NHS (National Health Service). I’ll look out for you and you look out for me. Compassion osioeorhcpijsie … religion … oauelkwjnfvljelijr as Kerry cuts out, Brian tries to rain things in (April showers) and scrambles to end the show - Canadian flurries and a blur of Easter Monday into Easter Tuesday. As this episode is being shared as a podcast in early June, Brian’s band King Orca’s show is coming up on Saturday 6 June at Supply and Demand Pizza and Beer in London. Doors 8 PM. Would love to see you there if you’re in the area. You can listen to a couple of their songs here: https://kingorca.bandcamp.com/album/the-ceramicist

    55 min

  4. May 23

    Outlook 2026-03-16 - Blindness 101, The Before, With Actor, Advocate, Athlete Jennie Bovard

    Our guest for this one says: I’m so keen now on representation and demystifying things for people and inviting them in and like: “Hey, understand my experience. I’m not the weird character you saw in that movie. Do not fear me. I’m a human being. I’m Jennie”. This week on Outlook we’re speaking with advocate, actor, and athlete Jennie Bovard, from her home in Halifax, about her experience with low vision, about her humorous Accessible Media Inc. scripted series “Pretty Blind,” and about the "Low Vision Moments" podcast that inspired the television program. She shares why she decided to get involved as a trainee to facilitate Blindness 101 workshops in her province, the people and industries she’s hoping to bring the workshop to, and about how if she doesn’t take up the challenge, who else is going to? Jennie was born with a condition which impacts the body’s ability to make pigment in the hair, skin, and in the eyes which has taken her on a journey to accepting her Albinism, in working for the younger generations with Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority (or APSEA) and and into educating others (after encounters like the one on an airplane where she was handed a question written on a napkin about what her magic powers were) and trying to figure out how to push back on the stigma of such an obvious physical difference. Even plants and animals have Albinism in nature which highlights the awesome diversity that exists in all living things on the planet. Tomayto tomato when it comes to language sometimes, but we hear from Jennie about her preferred wording for her genetic condition and hope to dispel some of the myths that exist around Albinism out there, in North America and beyond, as we know that just having one friend with it growing up, like sister-co-host Kerry did, only means you are familiar with one person’s lived experience of what is clearly a visible disability. . She also tells us more about how she used to try to blend in and play down some of the condition’s issues in the attempt to not stand out. We ask Jennie what her takeaways were from spending a few days, training with Kerry and the other Blindness 101 facilitators, in Vancouver last November at the Blind Beginnings office and she tells us: When you’re hunkered down and not only spending time together but you’re spending time actually collaborating and working together and having discussions about the workshop and why we’re all there, I think you become faster friends because you know what one another is about and what you’re passionate about and close borders and good food together that all helps too." Kerry agrees that it was a pleasure getting to know Bovard, along with the others, during their time in British Columbia and we hope you will check out this episode and learn more about Jennie's advocacy work, in media and in sports and education, along with hearing her firsthand lived experience of Albinism with Albinism Awareness Day coming up on June 13th. Check out the “Pretty Blind” series by going to: https://www.amiplus.ca/welcome And, as we kick off this one announcing the availability of The Western Gazette’s issue with Outlook featured in it, we’re once more here including a link to the online version of the article: https://westerngazette.ca/culture/the-voice-of-activism-the-kijewski-siblings/article_d025e980-1680-4eb5-a189-b4f2f89ea6f5.html

    58 min

  5. May 2

    Outlook 2026-03-09 - International Women's Day With Writer & Filmmaker Kerra Bolton

    After first spending a magical week in community together in Mexico nearly a decade ago, sister/co-host Kerry has taken multiple classes and workshops from writer and filmmaker/producer Kerra Bolton such as - Writing with Your Ancestors: Infusing Memoir with Family History and Say It Plain. “It’s very hard in writing and what I’ve noticed among writing students is that a lot of times when they are afraid to be vulnerable, they will write about something instead of writing through it...I get it, when I was writing about learning how to swim in my forties, which ended up becoming my first film: “Return of the Black Madonna,” it was hard to be vulnerable. And so, I had to really write through it and not just write about a subject,: says the adventurous Kerra about an experience like going from first putting your face into a pot of water to eventually finding buoyancy in the ocean. Kerry first met Kerra at a writing workshop in San Miguel de Allende, far from any body of water, back in 2017 and they have stayed in touch ever since, following each other’s life stories as time has gone on. This week on Outlook, for Kerry’s now annual International Women’s Day episode, she speaks with her friend and kindred spirit about their time together in San Miguel as Kerry shares an unforgettable offer Kerra made near the end of that week; one female supporting the other in the midst of some first time independent world travel jitters. Concerning themes of race, trauma, and legacy, Bolton has been published in places ranging from online community Sweatpants & Coffee to CNn. She has worked on projects such as the documentary Detroit Rising which explores restorative justice in Detroit schools, communities, and nonprofit settings. These two friends discuss finding joy, metaphors around black and white and night and day along with white fragility and the running from the feeling of any discomfort in standing up for a better, more equitable world. They talk through when to speak (up and/or out) in social media spaces or on their own platforms, for example, and when to sit in silence with ourselves as women. focusing on personal growth or embodiment practices. Also, they could and do spend a bunch of time around cultural critique of the treatment of women such as Beyonce and Taylor Swift in the country music genre, the differences in how some female artists are given breaks and chances in belonging in certain creative spaces more than others. During March’s Women’s History Month, these two cover women in pop culture, bond over having similar spelled/sounding names, and they also share their literary love of Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery who once said: "When I lose anything in this life I like to think I may find it in the next. After all, everything in the universe goes in circles - day and night, the seasons, the roll of the planets around the sun. Everything comes back to its starting point and begins again." Both Kerra and Kerry, like Anne of Green Gables pals," remain kindred spirits with their shared love of this iconic literary character, like Anne Shirley, one fictional and two real life writers utilising writing for self expression, and through work as advocates in the differing work they do from their little corners of the world, until they can one day meet IRL once more. In the meantime, check out Kerra’s How I Made A Film Without Film School newsletter over on Substack: https://waterinmybones.substack.com Or go to her website: https://kerrabolton.com

    58 min

  6. Apr 19

    Outlook 2026-03-02 - Blindness 101, The Before, With Returning Guest Blaine Deutscher

    For 2026’s "Blindness 101" workshops, offered this year with no cost to recipients and facilitated by Blind Beginnings Society out of British Columbia, our guest this week says, on bridging the gap: "The biggest bonus is it’s free. For this year, we’re literally doing a workshop that any company if they were to call and have a talk on autism in the workplace the person that they call would wanna be paid. We’re doing a workshop that will help in so many ways because blindness is one of those conditions that is overlooked in so many ways and it hopefully will bridge that gap and build relationships with people and make life easier for all parties involved.” This is the month where we in Ontario spring ahead with the clocks, whereas two provinces west of us, they do not. March dawns, and with it dawns the beginning of 2026’s Blindness 101 program with our first 101 guest of the month, coming to us over in the province of Saskatchewan. A new month and this week on Outlook we’re speaking with return guest (having first been on with us during Covid), Blaine Deutscher, whom sister/co-host Kerry finally met in person late last year in Vancouver at the Blind Beginnings office after having met virtually through Canadian Federation of the Blind meetings in recent years. The two of them, along with several others, gathered together in B.C. for a weekend of training to become official Blindness 101 workshop facilitators. First we catch up with Deutscher, with the start of the 2026 Paralympics, on Blaine’s love of adaptive sports including golf and hockey, the latter of which he’s been playing for over twenty years. He’s glad to see the sport spreading across things like age range and geographically across Canada and internationally. For background on his life including sports, check out our guest’s first visit to this show almost exactly five years ago: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-03-22-discussion-with-blaine-deutscher/id1527876739?i=1000514107207 Whether it be the unfair and inconvenient policy trains, buses, and airlines expect that people with disabilities and service animals provide up to 48 hours notice if we expect assistance or the abundance of inaccessible forms we’re required to fill out, these are all disability related barriers some of us deal with. Blaine uses the example of manual vs motorised wheelchairs and the reasons a wheelchair user might want to have both modes of mobility at their disposal. It’s the same for white canes and/or guide dogs, his most recent being Oscar who will be eight in April. Like all who’ve had a guide dog, he has to decide if he’s going to train for another and speaks on some of the growing cons that exist when it comes to ridiculous ignorant policies and fears happing with companies like Uber, when anybody is going to have times when they are tired and don’t feel like walking, when a bus or other vehicle would be faster. Kerry and Blaine discuss the team that he and Oscar are and how they worked as a team to navigate through the city of Vancouver last November compared to his life in Saskatchewan when it’s forty below or he’s trying to find the right bus and listening in hopes that the audible announcements for bus numbers is working or not. Today we have a conversation about selling yourself and specifically for these lived experience workshops. For more on Deutscher’s viewpoint on this stuff, Blaine says: "I can read a book once and be like, "oh that was a really good book." I can read it the second time and be like, "I don’t remember that in this book." Yes you can have an agency come and speak, but then you can have us come and speak and even if the workshop was identical, there’s always something because it’s a different perspective every time that you might learn something different." So join us for this first part, a before from this before and after “Blindness 101” with Blaine as Blaine and Kerry look back and reflect on their training weekend and how the group bonded, practiced, and connected, through learning how to facilitate “Blindness 101”. And if you are a business, organisation, or other group who might be interested in having a “Blindness 101” workshop (free of charge in 2026), if you are located in Saskatchewan, Ontario, or elsewhere in Canada then reach out to us, Blaine (deutscherblaine@gmail.com), or by going to their website: https://www.blindbeginnings.ca/blindness-101-workshop Or by emailing us here at Outlook and we can pass on any requests to the appropriate provincial facilitator: outlookonradiowestern@gmail.com as we hope this will eventually spread to all provinces and territories not just British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. (Later in March on Outlook we’ll be speaking with Nova Scotia’s facilitator so stay tuned here and for the rest of the year for “the before and after”.

    59 min

  7. Mar 25

    Outlook 2026-02-23 - Puzzles, Action & Access, Rare Disease Day 2026

    Life is one giant puzzle and we spend it simply gathering up all the pieces we can and attempting to put them in some sort of working order. This week we’re talking the puzzles of life on Outlook - it’s nearly Rare Disease Day, an awareness day that is on the final day of February each year, as every four years it will then fall on February 29th, the rarest day of the year. Sister/co-host Kerry is sharing about recently looking into other possible conditions to add to the diagnosis she and brother/co-host Brian seem to be dealing with, as we also discuss more about the rare syndrome we have already been diagnosed with: Senior-Løken syndrome which includes our retinal blindness, kidney disease, and scoliosis. Kerry explains why she’s taking things to the next level and what she’s doing such as applying to get into a clinic in Toronto for connective tissue disorders and Brian explains the where and when and what of Senior-Løken. Kerry brings props into the studio for this one including a giant marble model of the Earth Barry gifted Kerry and the braille heart puzzle she gave BF Barry for Valentine’s Day to illustrate how difficult it can be to sort out proper medical diagnosis for a wide array of physical and mental and emotional symptoms like ours. Also, to make a heart the right way up with the braille in its proper place. For years, as patients and spending plenty of time at children’s hospitals, there were always puzzles to keep kids occupied, on tables in waiting rooms. Our older brother follows the steps, as he did when he came in, fully equipped, to figure out what the issue was with Kerry and Barry’s surround system speaker while our grandfather always had someone’s homemade wooden puzzle for us to figure out when we visited. Other members of our family have always had double jointed fingers, extra flexible feet and hands, enough that a few hundred years ago we could have been in sideshows, but with Kerry’s latest symptom of daily foot pain we’re reflecting back on our medical past while Kerry receives tests like an ECG of her heart to try to find out more about a possible hyper-mobility condition such as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. We discuss running into our old Braille transcriber at a community spaghetti/lasagna dinner, sports including Canada’s hockey losses in the Olympics and fantasy baseball starting up again, while BF Barry and Kerry announce they’ll be flying with the leprechauns in March, springing once more four or five hours into the future with the clocks about to change and spring ahead. But before March we’re finishing up February as the boys share about birthday month and Family Day, which Barry fits right in on, with the weekend guys night to celebrate our brother-in-law’s birthday a day after Barry’s and BF Barry looks Kerry up by searching her rare conditions, with a rough sounding voice which might be a clue into all the talking that went into attending guy’s night. We’re extra rare and BF Barry believes it. Dare to be rare and check out more about Rare Disease Day and this year’s theme of “Action and Access” with the voices of the rare youth and their voices for change: https://www.rarediseaseday.org

    59 min

  8. Mar 14

    Outlook 2026-02-16 - Barry Presents The Return of the Kijewski Sighted Siblings

    Sibling: each of two or more children or offspring having one or both parents in common; a brother or sister Regular co-host BF Barry isn’t used to this term, being from Ireland where the word is less commonly used and more something clinical, a word a social worker might use. He is an only child so we figured he’d be the perfect person to moderate this year’s Family Day sibling episode. This week on Outlook, in honour of it being Family Day, Outlook is doing our third one of these (after sibling episodes both in 2021 and 2022) and after taking a few years off of doing this themed show: us four Kijewski siblings are back together. We start by covering pets, like we often do the weather with our other guests, talking new dogs added to the gang since we last recorded one of these: bulldog Ethel having joined our brother’s family (along with first bulldog Norman back in 2020) and including sister Kim’s “big, dopey sweetheart” Otis the Golden Doodle. And we can’t forget Barry’s guide dog Oyster in the midst of it all. Sister Kim’s family are down to zero bunnies after last count of eleven and we even cover brother Paul’s longtime pet snake Meekus. From pets to wild animal encounters, Paul shares how he first got fascinated by snakes on a 1992 family vacation in Florida. While the sisters recount a surprise interaction with a rattlesnake on a gravel path, in the woods, at the camp all four of us attended as a pre-grade eight graduation class trip where Kim was sister/co-host Kerr’s guide for the week. From pets and wildlife to children/nieces and nephew updates, Paul and Kim share about the ages their children are now at. Paul’s Sophia is in high school, all grown up, and going for her driver’s permit at the end of this year while Kim’s daughter Mya is in third grade and liking school, nots so much until she is there, but enjoys a good old snow day when she can get it growing up in snowy Canada like we four all did. The nephews (Reed and Max) are growing up too. Max is an old soul and constantly surprises his mother and father, melts his mother Sue's/Paul’s wife’s heart with the things he says. Kim’s Reed is heading for the same camp we all attended, near to Kerry’s favourite memorable spot on the rocks by the water, heading for graduation from eighth grade and onward to high school next year. Kerry will only be down the street if he ever needs somewhere to go for lunch. Barry inquires whether our sibling’s peers ever said anything mean about Paul and Kim having younger siblings who were blind, but the answer is surprising, more hopeful and positive than that. Then, he asks them if they ever liked to tease us because we couldn’t see them, however their answer is a regular, boring one whereby we all recount tormenting each other in equal measure (sneaking up on one another) just like any other sibling might do. We all get along rather well and our memories are of growing up in a family like any other, the usual fighting over the TV, as only child Barry ponders what it might be like to have such close bonded relationships as we’ve been lucky enough to have. We talk the effort our sister and brother make to learn enough braille to make holiday cards for us in accessible formats, while this next generation continues, in curiosity with our niece having made braille bookmarks to hand out to her teacher and classmates in the past. It’s a good, old fashioned family conversation about snakes and dogs and kids. Barry says, in regards to doing this show with the four of us: A good bunch you’s are. While oldest sibling Paul says in reply: We like talking to you. You are a good dude. And so BF Barry leads us through this familial chat as part of our family now. Maybe next year he will do an episode where he and our sister and brother-in-law have a chat about what it’s like joining the Kijewski family along the way. Check out the previous two Family Day (sibling episodes) here: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2021-02-15-family-day-with-the-kijewski-siblings/id1527876739?i=1000509546236 https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/outlook-2022-02-21-family-day-2022-return-of/id1527876739?i=1000551891982

    59 min
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5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Inspired by The Canadian Federation of the Blind, Outlook is a show about accessibility, advocacy, and equality. Hosted by two siblings who were born blind. Heard on 94.9 Radio Western every Monday from 11 AM to noon.

Information

  • Creator
    Outlook on Radio Western
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    351
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    Outlook on Radio Western

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