Please Make Your Voices Heard, But Try To Be Safe About It

If you’re going to break our current rules about large public gatherings, a march to protest ongoing systemic racism and the tragedies it brings is certainly a worthy reason to do it. But please, try to remember that those gathering rules don’t exist just because. They’re meant to protect us, because we’re still in the …

No National Service Dog Team Standard! Yea!

I have a happy update to the Canadian service dog team standards story. They have scrapped it! I guess all the comments, meetings with MP\s, and whatever everyone else did convinced them that a one-size-fits-all standard does not work, as we all knew it wouldn’t. Of course, there are articles like this one that make …

I Was On The News Talking About Fake Service Dogs

I didn’t realize it when I woke up yesterday, but I was going to be on the news by the end of the day. Don’t worry, it wasn’t for something scary or stupid. I guess an old friend from school ended up talking to a reporter about the problem of disservice dogs and how businesses …

Delta And United Could Be Rolling Out Kind Of Bad Service Animal Policies

I have been meaning to write about this for a while, but I was hoping to disentangle everything and be able to have a very coherent response with a clear way forward. But that isn’t happening, and it still needs to be written about. Back in mid January, Delta Airlines decided it had had enough …

My Thoughts On The Draft Canadian Service Dog Team Standards

Very happy edit: The standard has been withdrawn! I have said over and over that we need to deal with fake service dogs, mostly because those dogs don’t have the training to behave properly in public. They either make messes or attack others, making it hard for the real service dog teams to go about …

Have Your Say On A Newly-Forming Canadians With Disabilities Act, And Do It Soon!

I meant to write this, and do this, a while ago, but well…better late than never. The federal government is trying to build a Canadians with Disabilities Act similar to the ADA I think. They want our input. Because I’m lame, I’m only putting this up a week before the public consultation period closes. So, …

Audio Voting Machines Are Impractical And Braille Candidate Lists Have Been Around A While. How Did I Not Know These Things?

A bit in this article about the challenges of accessible voting for the disabledcaught my eye. At the polls, visually impaired voters will now have access to magnifiers and voting screens that let in more light, as well as previously available resources like braille candidate lists and templates that, theoretically, allow a person to mark …

A Wee Bit Of Good News For Blind Voters: We Have Useful Braille To Go With Those Numbers Now, Apparently

In my post the other day, I made mention of the disappointing lack of accessible voting machines in the upcoming federal election. Yes, yet again blind folks are stuck with nothing but that metal dealy with the braille numbers on it and our capacity to hope for the best. But as Carin just pointed out …