Month: November 2025

In this inspiring episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan sits down with Accessibility Commissioner Christopher Sutton to explore how his lived experience of deafness, foster care, isolation, and later receiving a cochlear implant has shaped his leadership and passion for system-wide change. He reflects on being told “no” throughout his childhood and how supportive parents, mentors, and his own determination pushed him to become a TV anchor, an entrepreneur, and a policy leader who now works to ensure that “other little Christophers and Donnas” grow up with fewer barriers and more role models. Drawing on his education at Gallaudet and the Ivey Business School, he explains how combining governance training, public policy expertise, and lived experience enables him to bridge communities, convene tough conversations, and embed human-centred accessibility into real-world decision-making.

In this inspiring episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan welcomes blind sailors and leaders Karoline Bourdeau and Chris Jonas from Blind Sailing Canada to demystify what “blind sailing” really looks and feels like. Together they trace Karoline’s journey from clinging nervously to the corner of a boat to becoming an avid racer, and Chris’s perspective as both a competitive helm and long-time volunteer. They vividly describe the sensory world of sailing without sight, tracking the wind by how it hits your face and ears, listening for the changing sound of water on the hull, feeling heel through the tiller, and using the luffing of sails as an audio cue that something needs to be trimmed or adjusted. Along the way they dismantle the idea that sailing is only for the young or athletic, stressing that there’s no real age limit so long as a person has enough strength and agility for the conditions at hand.

In this uplifting episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan welcomes Ed Henkler, founder of The Blind Guide, to trace his move from the Navy and a long corporate chapter to a purpose-driven life shaped by his mother’s vision loss and years of service with an association for the blind. He explains how an unexpected early retirement nudged him toward assistive-tech innovation and advising startups, then unpacks the origin of The Blind Guide, including the ethic of offering an arm rather than grabbing one. Ed shares his “choose to thrive” philosophy, outlining six progressive levels that start with basic daily living skills and build toward personally defined peaks, illustrated by sensory-rich experiences, new hobbies, and elite pursuits that show what thriving can look like in practice.

In this deeply moving episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan welcomes longtime friend Dan Thompson, educator, technologist, and community builder, for a candid conversation about hardship, faith, and grit. Dan traces a childhood marked by isolation and abuse, the moment he left home after graduation and survived briefly on the streets, and the steady rebuilding that followed through marriage, service, and a stubborn refusal to accept limits. He recalls fundraising feats and his stint as Illinois’s first blind disability adjudicator, where he had to fight for basic accommodations, early lessons in self-advocacy that would shape his life’s work.

In this insightful episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan welcomes community builder Ian White to trace his path from congenital glaucoma and a thriving career in corporate interior design to sudden vision loss in his early 40s, and the reinvention that followed through community, advocacy, and leadership. White explains how a small peer circle became the CCB Toronto Visionaries, now ~170 strong, built to break isolation through relaxed social spaces and rich information-sharing, and he paints an “audio picture” of their White Cane Week Experience Expo, a three-part trade show, forum, and community dinner designed to help people “discover what’s possible.”

In this practical episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan looks at why real estate agents need better awareness training to serve clients with disabilities. She connects the dots between a rapidly aging population, the supply of truly accessible homes, and the responsibility of developers and agents to know where accessible properties are and what features they must include. Donna spells out concrete checks. location convenience, step-free entry, kitchens with reachable counters and storage, bathrooms and hallways wide enough for wheelchairs, and space that works with mobility aids.

In this timely episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan reflects on her show’s evolving format, then zeroes in on a pressing question. do today’s mainstream insurance products truly protect people with disabilities. She surveys the crowded landscape of policies, from home and condo coverage to life and fire insurance, and argues that too many offerings still lack the relevance and muscle needed to address disability-related realities. She calls for agents and companies to deepen their awareness, to design coverage that actually matches lived needs, and to meet customers where they are.