'I'm making a play about normality'

"My name is Jacob," begins the film Natural Disorder, which played last month at the Hot Docs international film festival in Toronto. "The first time people meet me they get an instinctive impulse to either run away from me...or to kill me." Jacob Nossell is a Danish stand-up comedian with cerebral palsy. "He could have been 'deselected' by scientists and his parents before he even was born," reads a press description of the documentary....

Read More

Why do rehab clinicians need training in 'hope?'

By Louise KinrossA fascinating document on the role of hope in children's rehab caught my attention. “Offer hope training to clinicians” is one of three recommendations by the Parenting Matters research team at the Centre for Research on Children and Families at McGill University in Montreal. Parenting Matters, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, is studying what it means to parent a child with a disability like autism, Down...

Read More

Why I love being an online college student

By Chantelle Fogarty-GriswoldI’m 26 years old and I have severe spastic cerebral palsy. From as far back as I can remember I loved school and I loved to learn. I hated PA Days, weekends, holidays and summer vacations. If I had it my way, school would be 24 hours a day, seven days a week. From a young age I dreamed of becoming a teacher. From Grades 1 to 12 I had an educational assistant who helped with my physical needs, such as taking notes...

Read More

A prosthesis, and a work of art

By Megan Jones In 2013, McCauley Wanner and Ryan Palibroda did what stereotypically passionate artists are wont to do: they quit their jobs, sold their cars, and moved across the country to pursue a dream. But their story wasn’t a cliché. McCauley and Ryan were working on an unconventional art project—a series of bright, fashionable covers for prosthetic legs.The undertaking had begun in 2010 as a university project. At the time, McCauley was...

Read More

New book explores sibling emotions about disability

By Louise Kinross Perfect is a new children's book about the birth of a baby with a disability, told from the perspective of her older brother.  In a piece she wrote for The Scottish Book Trust, author Nicola Davies said she "wanted to write a story that gave a space for children's feelings, that allowed the 'unsayable' to be said."  Nicola, whose mother is deaf, writes that one of our problems is our hesitation to talk about...

Read More

Canada's first inhospital pain program turns girl's life around

By Megan Jones Staci Berman has been in pain for two years. It started at a basketball tournament in April of 2014. As Staci, then 11 years old, ran up the court with the ball, she was pushed from behind. All of her weight went to her right leg, and she suddenly felt a jolt—a harsh, shooting pain that travelled up her leg to her hip. She and her family soon realized that the injury wasn’t a typical one. In the weeks that followed, the...

Read More

'Endless Abilities' screens tonight at Holland Bloorview

In 2012, a young man with a spinal-cord injury and his three best friends travelled across the U.S. to meet with disabled people participating in any kind of adapted sport. Endless Abilities is the resulting documentary and it airs tonight at Holland Bloorview at 6 p.m. as part of the ReelAbilities Film Festival. Free tickets can be reserved in person at TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King St. W) daily from 10 a.m., over the phone at 416-599-8433 and online. If you have any trouble accessing tickets, please e-mail lhanson@hollandbloorview.ca with...

Read More

The best care? It's personal, 'not prescriptive'

By Louise Kinross Carolynn Gludish has worked as an inpatient nurse at Holland Bloorview for nine years, primarily with children who are in rehab following catastrophic trauma or painful bone surgeries. She now coordinates our day program. When BLOOM asked for clinicians who would share a candid look at their work in children's rehab, Carolynn stepped up.BLOOM: Why did you go into nursing?Carolynn Gludish: I’ve always enjoyed the mystery...

Read More

Why my sister was the best maid of honour

By Kayla Smith When my sister Christy was born, I had a lot of plans and dreams that grew to fill the empty spaces in my life. I think this happens when little-girl wishes come true. Most of my aspirations were pretty typical. She would be my best friend, my late-night confidante, the student in my classroom, and the mannequin in my hair-salon. My partner in crime. My taste-tester. My maid of honour.  Fast-forward 10 years, and...

Read More

Why does this New York Times piece lead with slurs?

By Louise Kinross This “news analysis” story in The New York Times yesterday got under my skin.The headline Giving A Name, And Dignity, To A Disability is at odds with the lead, which stands as the first paragraph: “IDIOT. Imbecile. Cretin. Feebleminded. Moron. Retarded.”The piece is about the language used to describe people with intellectual disability, suggesting that each of these names was at one time considered benign: “Offensive...

Read More

This family drops the disability 'to do' list and loves life

Checkout the latest in our A Family Like Mine series! Don't forget you can click CC in the lower right for closed captioning. Meet Holland Bloorview family leader Donna Cappelli, who is mom to Julian, 15, a soccer enthusiast who has cerebral palsy, and his brother Dante, 17, and married to Gerardo. Julian’s greatest challenge is uncontrolled movement, Donna says. “If he tries to do something, his body does the opposite. It’s like him doing a marathon every single day.”   Donna’s advice for other parents? “Try to live your...

Read More

Aren't humans more than what we 'do?'

By Louise Kinross “What do you do?”It’s a question I used to ask when I was young and meeting someone new at a party. It was a way of learning about a person, but, if I’m honest, it was also a way of measuring them. What were their interests? How educated were they? What kind of job did they have?I can’t remember the last time I’ve used that line. I imagine it dropped out of my vocabulary over the last two decades, since my son with disabilities...

Read More