What New York Magazine got wrong about intellectual disability

By Louise Kinross A fascinating piece came out in New York Magazine earlier this week called How Smart Do You Have To Be To Raise A Child? It raises excellent questions about the rights of disabled parents, including those with intellectual disabilities, to care for their kids—noting that 37 American states make a disability reason enough to terminate those rights. However, one statement in the piece never should have made its way past a...

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In Lucy Jones' hands, disability and style are a perfect fit

By Louise KinrossLucy Jones, 24, is described as one of the world’s brightest entrepreneurs by Forbes Magazine. Forbes named her to its 2016 30 Under 30 list for her work designing clothes for people who use wheelchairs: "Her modular pieces incorporate features like added fabric on kneecaps and elbows, zippers that run the length of the arm, and snaps and magnets that make dressing easier," Forbes says.Lucy, originally from Wales, now works...

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This sister is solid gold

By Louise Kinross Kaya Cosgrove, 10, wears metallic pink Doc Martins, loves the vampire romance series Twilight, and wants to be a labour and delivery nurse. She’s also sister to two brothers with autism—Liam, who is 12, and Phoenix, who is 2. Kaya’s mom Susan is raising the children on her own, so Kaya is a big support to her family. BLOOM asked Kaya about her experiences as a sibling. BLOOM: What’s it like to have two brothers with autism? Kaya...

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BBC Ouch: Brothers, sisters and disability

By Louise Kinross BBC Ouch is a fabulous British blog and podcast dedicated to telling the stories of people with disabilities. I'm listening to this almost hour-long discussion among people with disabilities and their siblings of a variety of ages. Also interviewed are a mom and her younger children, one of whom has cerebral palsy, autism and vision loss. Interesting chat about sibling issues in families raising kids with disabilities. BBC...

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This bereaved mom lives with no regrets

By Louise Kinross When her son Jordan was 10 days old, doctors told Cheryl Runstedler he was going to die. Jordan was born at 24 weeks weighing one-and-a-half pounds with many disabilities and medical problems. Instead, “I had him for five years,” Cheryl says, and until his death last September, she and her husband Joe filled his life with fun. “I have over 100 videos of him and thousands of photos. In March before he passed away he was...

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Parents of disabled kids can least afford hospital parking fees

By Louise Kinross Wow! In Scotland patients and families don't pay for hospital parking. According to this fascinating article in the Ottawa Citizen, officials there said it went against the concept of universal access to health care. In Ontario, Health Minister Eric Hoskins has frozen rates for hospitals that charge more than $10 a day, and called for multi-day passes that discount rates by 50 per cent.  How do the Scottish hospitals...

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'My visits are seldom welcome:' Life as a geneticist

A few years ago we ran a post called 'Everytime I see her I feel guilt.' It was about an article in the American Journal of Medical Genetics by Dr. Malgorzata (Margaret) Nowaczyk, a pediatrician and clinical geneticist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. In the article, Margaret said: "Doctors write stories to give voice to the human element of the illness story that modern medicine has taught them to ignore. Doctors' stories...

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'Have no fear' doesn't apply in advertising

By Louise Kinross "You've got to see this video," a friend of mine messaged me. "It's for that new song Renegades. I had no idea what it was about and it's so cool." I pulled the video by X-Ambassadors up (they play the Air Canada Centre this Saturday).  It leads in with a blind athlete talking about growing up with a disability and how she learns through touch. Then there's footage of a couple of guys navigating...

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On a conversation

By Louise Kinross I was in an unusual situation last night while chatting with a small group of people I didn’t know.One said she was doing an internship in a day program for adults with mental disabilities. This happened to be a program I had visited and had qualms about.“What do you think of the program?” I said.“It’s good. They do painting, and crafts, and games, and talk about the weather.”The last one, about the weather, didn’t sit well...

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A son's disability gives this dad a deadline for adventure

By Louise Kinross Yesterday I heard a fabulous podcast on The New Family, a Canadian blog by Brandie Weikle that shares unique stories about all the different ways a family can come together and live.  The New Family has dug up some incredible stories that include raising children with disabilities.  Yesterday's podcast Seizing The Day With Your Family was about one dad's pursuit of world travel when he learned his son's degenerative...

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Mapping out the future, with a little help from my friends

By Tina Szymczak “I’ll never be good enough,” my son Corbin, 12, muttered, over and over again, as he tried to fit his five-foot frame into my lap. We were about to head out to drop him off at his treatment centre, when he simply fell apart. His despair was overwhelming and heart wrenching. I felt helpless. Our family was concerned that the treatment centre was using punishment, rather than positive supports, to manage his behaviour, and that...

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A face is only part of the story

Producer and photographer Tanya Workman, right, with Charlene Guenette. Tanya interviewed and took photos of Charlene for The Difference Project. By Louise Kinross Tanya Workman produced a fascinating audio documentary called What happened to your face? that aired on CBC Radio’s The Doc Project on Dec. 8. Tanya is a Toronto journalist and photographer who has a craniofacial condition called Moebius syndrome. It typically causes some...

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