Why I started Diverse Abilities on 2023 and where we are going next.

I did not start Diverse Abilities Programs Inc. because I believed people did not care about inclusion.

I started it because I realized something very different.

Most people want to be inclusive. They just do not always know how.

What do I say?

Should I offer help?

How do I offer it without making assumptions?

What if I say the wrong thing?

Is this actually accessible?

What barriers am I not noticing?

Those questions are everywhere. In classrooms. Workplaces. Businesses. Community organizations. Public spaces. Even among people who genuinely want everyone to feel welcome.

I saw an opportunity to help bridge that gap.

From awareness to practical understanding.

Diverse Abilities Programs Inc. was created to change how disability is viewed and understood through lived experience, practical education and real conversations.

I did not want to simply tell people to “be inclusive.”

I wanted to help people understand what to say, what to do, what to notice and how to respond when real-life disability situations happen.

That became the foundation of our aDAPT programs: Disability Awareness Practical Teaching, guided by our IDEAL principles of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Language.

Over time, the programs have grown. 

We have worked with students, educators, businesses, organizations and communities. We talked about apparent and non-apparent disabilities, respectful communication, accessibility versus usability, inclusive workplaces, tools and devices, changing abilities, vision loss and the everyday barriers people may not recognize until someone points them out.

The more conversations we have, the clearer our purpose has become. 

Then Vanessa became part of the story.

Diverse Abilities may have started with my lived experience, but it was never supposed to suggest there is one disability experience.

That is one of the reasons Vanessa Pettinger has become such an important part of our programs and their development.

Vanessa and I are both blind and our experiences are still very different.

My vision loss happened gradually. Vanessa’s happened suddenly following a car accident. We have different life experiences, different perspectives and sometimes different strategies for accomplishing the same thing.

That is exactly the point.

Two people can share the same diagnosis and still experience disability very differently.

Vanessa brings her own lived experience, knowledge, ideas and passion to Diverse Abilities. Together, we can have richer conversations and continue developing programs that recognize there is rarely one answer, one accommodation or one way of navigating life.

Simplifying our programs while expanding our reach.

As Diverse Abilities has grown, so has the number of programs we have created.

Now we are simplifying.

Our website and aDAPT programming are being centred around three core areas:

Youth aDAPT. Community aDAPT. aDAPT Workplace Inclusion.

This does not mean the programs and topics we developed along the way are disappearing.

Quite the opposite.

Our IDEAL Team Building concepts are now woven into Workplace Inclusion. 

Accessibility & Usability are tailored within Workplace Inclusion for architects, engineers, developers, construction and renovation professionals, designers, property managers, product developers, post-secondary institutions and other industries.

Seniors aDAPT can be tailored through Community aDAPT, including practical tools, devices, techniques and scam-awareness education.

Accessibility, respectful communication, disability awareness and inclusive thinking are being introduced through Youth aDAPT so young people can begin thinking differently about the products, inventions, spaces and communities they may one day create.

We are combining, not eliminating.

aDAPTing to Vision Loss is growing too.

Our aDAPTing to Vision Loss work is also evolving.

Lived-experience presentations about blindness and vision loss remain an important part of what Vanessa and I offer. Now we are expanding beyond presentations into consultation and practical problem-solving for people experiencing vision loss, families and sighted supporters.

We can share strategies, resources, tools and devices that may make everyday life easier while helping people explore different ways of accomplishing familiar tasks.

We are also developing online learning for sighted supporters to help reduce some of the overwhelm families can experience when someone begins losing their vision or loses their sight quickly. 

There is another audience we want to reach: eye-care professionals.

Optometrists and ophthalmologists have expertise in the eye itself.

We bring expertise in the lived experience of the people navigating vision loss.

Bringing those perspectives together can help connect clinical care with the realities of everyday life after someone leaves the appointment.

Our learning is moving beyond workshops

Something else has happened as Diverse Abilities has grown.

We have realized that education does not have to end when a presentation ends.

That is leading us into new ways of continuing the conversation.

Designs by Diverse Abilities, is bringing inclusion and disability awareness into apparel, allowing messages that matter to travel beyond a classroom, workplace or presentation.

We are also preparing to introduce the We’re Not The Same Inclusive Learning Collection, beginning with our upcoming book series.

The books will introduce children to characters with different abilities, experiences and ways of navigating their world without making disability the only thing that defines them.

Resources for teachers and educators will help continue those conversations in the classroom, giving adults practical ways to talk about disability, differences, accessibility, inclusion and belonging with children.

It is another way of doing what Diverse Abilities was created to do in the first place:

Give people the tools to have conversations they want to have but may not know how to begin.

We are still evolving.

Diverse Abilities Programs Inc. looks different today than it did when I started it.

I hope it always will.

Growth should teach us something.

We listen to the people in our classrooms, workplaces and communities. We listen to the questions people ask. We notice where barriers continue to exist. We learn from our own lived experiences and from experiences different from ours.

Then we aDAPT.

Our programs may evolve. New resources will be created. New voices will join the conversation.

The reason we started remains remarkably simple.

People want to be inclusive. Sometimes they just need the knowledge and confidence to know how.

That is the gap Diverse Abilities Programs Inc. was created to help bridge.

Explore our website to discover Youth aDAPT, Community aDAPT, aDAPT Workplace Inclusion, aDAPTing to Vision Loss and the growing collection of resources, sponsorships or partnerships opportunities from Diverse Abilities Programs Inc.

We are not finished building. We are just getting better at understanding what needs to be built.

Reach out to Vanessa and I at Diverseabilities.ca 

Follow us on Facebook, Linkedin and instagram. 

Image description 

Text reads education. Conversation. Inclusive tomorrow.

Real people. Real experiences. Real change.

Two women walk along a path towards the skyline with their white canes. The backs of their shirts read:

Different journeys, same purpose.

Inclusion changes everything.

The sign next to them reads: youth, community, workplace, vision, loss, resources, what’s next…