Accessible Future

Simon Jones
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1.3 Billion people with disabilities are excluded by a world that isn't designed for them. Dismantling those barriers is no easy task - but it starts with education. After 15 years in the accessible vehicle industry, host Simon Jones is stepping into the role of a student to platform the voices fighting for a more inclusive world. From physical infrastructure to digital design, we explore lived experiences from disability advocates, tech innovators, policy makers, and more. Join us every second Wednesday as we learn how to build a more accessible future, together.

Episodes

  1. Growing Up a Young Caregiver, Now Fighting for Change - With Chrissy Sadowski

    16H AGO

    Growing Up a Young Caregiver, Now Fighting for Change - With Chrissy Sadowski

    Chrissy Sadowski spent years caring for her mother, who has MS, without anyone calling it caregiving. She was a teenager seeking help who was told no. She was a young adult who grew up in a house full of unknowns and ambulance visits and learned to move on. It wasn't until she was 38 years old, sitting in a room with the Young Caregivers Association, that it clicked. She had been a young caregiver the whole time.   Now Chrissy works for the YCA. Canada's only dedicated young caregiver organization and she's using everything she lived through to build the support system that didn't exist when she needed it. She's also living with MS herself, navigating a condition that was invisible for 15 years before her right leg started to change.  In this episode, Chrissy talks about what it actually means to be a young caregiver, including why a five-year-old reading to their sibling so a parent can shower counts, and what the healthcare system keeps getting wrong. She shares the story of her son Darius going missing last summer, how first responders initially responded, and how that incident turned into police training and a vulnerable persons registry coming to Niagara Region.   She also talks about group home wait lists, the gap in respite care, and what she'd say to every parent, educator, and healthcare professional who still doesn't know this population exists. 👋 Guest - Chrissy Sadowski Instagram - instagram.com/freshprincesschris/ YCA - youngcaregivers.ca 🔗 Follow Accessible Future Podcast  YouTube: youtube.com/@AccessibleFuture Instagram: instagram.com/accessible_future Facebook: facebook.com/people/Accessible-Future/61586380868685 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/accessible-future Email: accessiblefuturepod@gmail.com   If you found value in this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating on your platform. It helps more people find the show.   ⏰Chapters 0:00  Intro 1:29  What is the Young Caregivers Association? 11:01  What does an accessible future look like? 14:29  Growing up a young caregiver — without knowing it 19:07  Living with MS — from invisible to mobility aid 22:03  How disability changes the way the world treats you 27:13  Sharing the reality of MS on social media 30:04  Advocating for people with intellectual disabilities 33:03  Darius goes missing — and a registry gets built 37:12  One thing every listener should understand 39:15  Where to find Chrissy and YCA 40:33  Simon's closing thoughts

    41 min
  2. Blindness Is a Spectrum. Ignorance Isn't - with Beth Deer

    MAY 6

    Blindness Is a Spectrum. Ignorance Isn't - with Beth Deer

    Beth Deer is a reporter and podcast host for AMI, Canada's accessible media broadcaster, and shares life as a blind person with her followers under @the_blind_girlie. She was born with optic nerve hypoplasia and lost the functional vision she grew up with at 13 following a surgery that went wrong. In this episode: her Zootopia theory of what an accessible world actually looks like, the difference between navigating with a white cane versus a guide dog, the story of her guide dogs, and why the kindness of strangers is both the biggest barrier and the best thing about being blind.👉 In This Episode •  What optic nerve hypoplasia actually is, and why Beth's level of vision confused specialists for years • The surgery at 13 that changed everything • Her Zootopia theory of accessibility: what a world looks like when it's built for everyone from the start • The difference between travelling with a white cane and a guide dog, and what that gap reveals about how society sees disability • Patronus: the guide dog who loved crowds, hated fetch, and whose illness brought vets across North America together rooting for him • The 18 months without a guide dog. What independence actually means for day-to-day life and mental health • Parenting while blind: What's genuinely hard, and what isn't • Why the biggest barrier in Beth's life isn't a broken curb or a missing ramp   👋 Guest - Beth Deer Instagram: instagram.com/the_blind_girlieTikTok: tiktok.com/@the_blind_girlie AMI Reflections Podcast: https://www.amiplus.ca/Reflections   🔗 Follow Accessible Future Podcast  YouTube: youtube.com/@AccessibleFuture Instagram: instagram.com/accessible_future Facebook: facebook.com/people/Accessible-Future/61586380868685 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/accessible-future Email: accessiblefuturepod@gmail.com   If you found value in this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating on your platform. It helps more people find the show. ⏰Chapters  0:00   Introduction 0:56   Beth's Background — From England to Canada 3:34   Losing Her Sight — Optic Nerve Hypoplasia 8:20   What an Accessible Future Looks Like 10:43  What a Guide Dog Actually Does 15:54  What People Get Wrong About Blindness 18:28  Patronus, Churro, and the Guide Dog Journey 31:07  How Society Views Disability 33:25  Parenting While Blind 35:59  One Thing Every Listener Should Know 36:55  Outro

    38 min
  3. Transit is Accessibility: The Missing Link with Luke Mellor

    APR 22

    Transit is Accessibility: The Missing Link with Luke Mellor

    Most conversations about accessibility focus on ramps, apps, and adaptive features. Luke Mellor thinks there’s a missing link. If transit itself doesn't show up when you need it, or doesn't go where you need to go, none of the rest of it matters. Luke works at Pantonium, a Canadian company that builds on-demand transit software rooted in the paratransit space. In this episode, he breaks down why technology can be a barrier just as easily as it can be a solution, how a near-empty Belleville night bus became one of Ontario's first successful on-demand transit deployments, and what transit poverty looks like in both urban cores and remote Indigenous communities. He also makes a case that most on-demand transit pilots fail not because the technology doesn't work, but because transit agencies don't go big enough to find out.   👉 In This Episode • Why adding technology to transit automatically creates new barriers. And what Pantonium does about it • The 'perfect app' problem: how a flawlessly accessible app can still fail the person using it • The Belleville story: a night bus nobody rode, 300-400 stops made available on demand, and a 300% ridership jump • What transport poverty looks like when you map income data over a transit network • How Indigenous communities across Canada are navigating the chicken-and-egg of transit access and economic opportunity •  The dialysis case: why reliable transit is, for some people, a matter of life and death • What Luke would tell a room full of transit directors today   👋 Guest Luke Mellor - Pantonium Reach out at www.pantonium.com    🔗 Follow Accessible Future Podcast  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AccessibleFuture Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accessible_future/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Accessible-Future/61586380868685 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessible-future/ Email: accessiblefuturepod@gmail.com   If you found value in this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating on your platform. It helps more people find the show.   ⏰Chapters  0:00 Cold Open  0:12 Intro  1:45 Luke's Background  3:10 What is Pantonium?  5:20 Accessible Future Philosophy  9:00 Removing Barriers in Practice 13:30 Fleet & Vehicle Accessibility 17:00 Right-Sizing for Communities 21:30 What is Macro Transit?  26:00 The Belleville Story  31:30 Transport Poverty 36:00 Indigenous Communities & Transit 42:30 Connectivity in Remote Communities 45:00 The ROI of Transit Investment 52:30 Message to Transit Directors 55:30 How to Reach Pantonium 56:00 Outro

    29 min
  4. Congratulations, Not Condolences - Celebrating Down Syndrome with Jubilee Dueck-Thiessen

    APR 8

    Congratulations, Not Condolences - Celebrating Down Syndrome with Jubilee Dueck-Thiessen

    Jubilee Dueck-Thiessen is the Executive Director of the Manitoba Down Syndrome Society. She started with MDSS as a student, spent years at L'Arche Winnipeg leading community programs and a major accessibility-focused art exhibit, and has now returned to MDSS to lead the organization. In this episode, she makes a case for seeing disability not through a medical lens, asking what's wrong and how to fix it, but through a social one: asking what barriers society has built, and how we start tearing them down. From reframing Down syndrome diagnoses as something to celebrate rather than apologize for, to questioning whether our standards of independence and productivity were ever designed for everyone, Jubilee brings a perspective on disability rights and inclusive community that's worth sitting with. Connect With Manitoba Down Syndrome Society: Website: https://manitobadownsyndromesociety.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ManitobaDownSyndromeSociety/ Instagram: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mbdownsyndromeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mbdownsyndrome Connect With Us Facebook: facebook.com/accessiblefuture Instagram: instagram.com/accessiblefuture Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/accessible-future/ Email: accessiblefuturepod@gmail.com Chapters: 00:00 — Introduction 01:21 — Meet Jubilee Dueck-Thiessen 03:21 — From university volunteer to Executive Director 05:19 — What MDSS does and who it serves 07:24 — The accessible future: barriers we need to remove 07:38 — Medical model vs. social model of disability 10:26 — Why the productivity mindset hurts everyone 11:19 — What to say when a family gets a Down syndrome diagnosis 12:40 — The Eden Project: an accessible art exhibit at L'Arche 17:11 — Barriers to accessing nature 18:57 — Mutual care: moving from one-way to community support 21:00 — The L'Arche model and how it shaped Jubilee's work 22:29 — The cliff: what happens when young adults leave the school system 23:45 — Why disability organizations are being asked to do more with less 26:08 — How government and agencies can better align 26:43 — Burnout in the nonprofit sector and leading as a neurodivergent person 30:12 — Wrap up

    31 min
  5. Barrier Free Living: Building an Inclusive Community with L'arche Winnipeg

    MAR 25

    Barrier Free Living: Building an Inclusive Community with L'arche Winnipeg

    In todays episode of Accessible Future, host Simon Jones sits down with three members of L'Arche Winnipeg, Grace, Mira, and Jordan, to talk about what barrier free living actually looks like when it goes beyond ramps and wheelchair access. L'Arche is built on the idea that people with and without intellectual disabilities can live together, share a home, and grow from one another. Not as a program, but as a way of life. The conversation gets into the family model, the Community Circle day program, interdependence over independence, and why accessible relationships matter just as much as accessible spaces to the disability community. Plus the Walk with L'Arche is coming up May 3rd, and they'll tell you everything you need to know. “An accessible future isn’t just about accessible spaces. It’s about accessible relationships.” - Mira, L’Arche Winnipeg Guest Links • Website: https://www.larchewinnipeg.org • Walk with L’Arche:  https://www.larchewinnipeg.org/get-involved/the-walk/register-for-the-walk-with-larche/ • Jordan 411 Sports Show: https://www.youtube.com/@jordan411sports2 Connect With Us • Facebook: facebook.com/accessiblefuture • Instagram: instagram.com/accessiblefuture • Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/accessible-future/ • Email: accessiblefuturepod@gmail.com Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:23 Meet the Guests: Jordan, Grace & Mira 4:19 What Does an Accessible Future Look Like? 7:29 The Community Circle Program 11:23 Life at L’Arche: Jordan’s Perspective 12:29 The Family Model & Mutual Relationships 17:15 Living In, Grace’s Year Inside L’Arche 19:21 Interdependence vs Independence 23:23 What Does Belonging Really Mean? 25:00 The Walk with L’Arche — May 3rd 31:15 Final Reflections: What Would You Pass On? 35:18 Outro

    36 min
  6. Assume We’re Coming: Accessible Design with Peter Tonge

    MAR 11

    Assume We’re Coming: Accessible Design with Peter Tonge

    What does a wheelchair fencer, criminal defence lawyer, datascientist, and accessibility auditor have in common? They're all Peter Tonge, and he's here to challenge how organizations think about disability inclusion.   In this episode, host Simon Jones sits down with Peter Tongeof Peter Tonge Consulting to explore what accessibility really means beyond the building code. Peter has been a wheelchair user since age four, worked as a data scientist at Statistics Canada, and earned his law degree at the University of Manitoba — all of which informs his uniquely practical approach to accessibility advocacy.   They cover why airlines damage wheelchairs on 25% of flightsyet somehow manage to transport racehorses safely, the real difference between legal compliance and cultural inclusion, how to make your website accessible for screen reader users, and what it actually takes to shift an organization's accessibility culture from checkbox to genuine commitment.   "An accessible future means assuming we're coming —not treating disability as an afterthought."   Guest Links Peter Tonge Consulting: petertongeconsulting.comTalking Rotary Podcast: talkingrotary.buzzsprout.com Connect With Us Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1HWP4o1yXo/?mibextid=wwXIfrInstagram: instagram.com/accessiblefuture⁠Email: accessiblefuturepod@gmail.com  Chapters: 00:00 Cold Open - Wheelchair Damage at 30,000 Feet 00:30 Welcome & Introduction to Peter Tonge 02:45 Wheelchair Rugby, Fencing & Sailing — Life Outside of Work 07:02 Growing Up as a Wheelchair User Since Age 4 10:09 From Statistics Canada to Law School 12:29 What Does an Accessible Future Look Like? 14:16 Airlines Transport Racehorses Safely — But Not My Wheelchair 20:48 Inside Peter Tonge Consulting 25:04 Gaps vs. Barriers — A Critical Distinction 35:22 Simon's Takeaways & Preview of the next Episode

    37 min
  7. Welcome To The Accessible Future

    MAR 5

    Welcome To The Accessible Future

    1.3 billion people are excluded by a world that isn’t designed for them. Dismantling the barriers 1 in 6 people face is no easy task - but it starts with education. In this trailer, host Simon Jones introduces a brand-new journey into the world of accessibility. By day, Simon works at MoveMobility, building wheelchair-accessible vehicles in Canada. Through his work, he has realized that while physical mobility is vital, there is a much broader world of accessibility to explore. From digital design to workplace culture and beyond. Stepping into the role of a student, Simon invites you to learn alongside him as he sits down with global experts to discover how we can build a more inclusive world. What’s Coming Get a sneak peek at upcoming conversations, including: Accessibility Audits: Insights on how businesses can make their physical spaces and websites more inclusive.Inclusive Cultures: How organizations can shift their daily operations to make accessibility a "matter of course".Shifting Perspectives: A conversation with the Manitoba Down Syndrome Society on how barriers are often rooted in how we value people rather than just physical obstacles.Accessible Tech: Exploring on-demand transit and the importance of keeping software applications simple and compatible with assistive tools.Join the Conversation - We want to hear from you! What does an accessible future look like to you, and what barriers need to be removed to reach it? Subscribe now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your favourite shows to catch our first full episode next week. New conversations will be released every two weeks after that. Let’s build an accessible future - together.

    3 min

Trailer

About

1.3 Billion people with disabilities are excluded by a world that isn't designed for them. Dismantling those barriers is no easy task - but it starts with education. After 15 years in the accessible vehicle industry, host Simon Jones is stepping into the role of a student to platform the voices fighting for a more inclusive world. From physical infrastructure to digital design, we explore lived experiences from disability advocates, tech innovators, policy makers, and more. Join us every second Wednesday as we learn how to build a more accessible future, together.

Information

  • Creator
    Simon Jones
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    7
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Simon Jones
  • Show Website
    Accessible Future