Remarkable World Commentary Episode #77: Ask Advocate Donna

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In this practical episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan introduces her monthly “Ask Advocate Donna” feature, an advocacy-focused segment designed to help listeners think on their feet, build confidence, and approach everyday barriers with courage and strategy. She opens with a favorite quote about speaking and listening with care, then leads a quick “word game” that contrasts respect vs. disrespect and courteous vs. condescending, urging advocates to keep respect front and center, ignore disrespect when it arises, and aim for genuine courtesy rather than talking down to others.

Donna then shares three listener-inspired stories that turn real-life challenges into advocacy lessons: a blind student excluded from a school play because of assumptions about learning lines and stage cues; a child who uses a wheelchair being denied a kitten because adults doubt her ability to care for it; and a hard-of-hearing retiree barred from a community concert despite using hearing aids effectively. In each case, Donna breaks down what advocacy looks like, who should get involved, why speaking up matters, and how persistence, often with support from parents, allies, or the broader community, can change attitudes and remove unfair barriers.

TRANSCRIPT

Podcast Commentator: Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP and MBA, invites you to listen to her biweekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary. Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts, insights, perspectives and more with her listeners. Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids, especially kids with disabilities. Donna is a blind advocate, author, site loss coach, dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator. She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise in access technology and information as someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles, she just wants to make things better than possible.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello, I’m Donna, and welcome to the second Remarkable World commentary from me for the month of February 2026. I started in January to include the Ask Advocate Donna feature every month, and this is a rollover from my Ask Donna Advocacy in Action podcast, because after having received so much feedback, comments, and thoughts from my listeners, I wanted to continue in this mode. And every month I’ll be bringing you the Ask Advocate Donna feature. I have restructured it and what I’m doing is trying to share stuff with you and encourage you to think on your feet when it comes to advocacy. Be not afraid of advocacy. Embrace it. Cherish it, and let’s roll with it. Okay. I have a quote I like to start with. Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you. And listen in such a way that others love to speak to you. I like that quote. Okay, I want to start with a word game, and many of my listeners have said to me that they really appreciate this word game because I give you two sets of words, and I encourage you to think about how you view these words. I’ll tell you how I view these words. And before I continue, please do not hesitate to send me your feedback to Donna Jordan at gmail.com. That’s d o. N at. So let’s dive into the word game for this month. Okay, here we go. What do you think of these two words respect versus disrespect.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Do you think that respect is something that advocates need to keep uppermost in their minds? Do you agree with me that respect is earned? It is not given. It is earned. It is not given. If you engage in disrespect. I don’t think that advocacy would be meaningful or productive. Sometimes it is awfully difficult to avoid disrespect when engaging and communicating with others because, you know, people either inadvertently or intentionally give out disrespect either that they’re angry, upset, disappointed, or just plain old mad. So they offer disrespect. My advice to this is ignore the disrespect. Just keep on going. Keep on showing respect and it will all come out in the better for you. Okay, so here is the next set of words. Courteous or Condescend. Are some people courteous to you meaningfully, or they’re just being courteous for being courteous? Sick do they? Condescend and condescension often comes when someone is perceived to be overly courteous. It comes across as being, you know, condescension or it’s con. It’s being condescending. One has to be really careful when it comes to the difference between courteous and condescending. So courteous versus condescending. What is it going to be? I do my best to be courteous, but boy oh boy, sometimes it is awfully difficult to avoid the condescension route. Let’s stay on the side of being courteous. For what it’s worth. Let’s do our best to always be courteous.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Sometimes it doesn’t take much and sometimes it takes a lot. But courteous or courtesy is always better than condescension. That’s my word game for this month. And now I have three stories to share with you for this month. And let’s see what you think of it. Write to me at Donna Jonathan at gmail.com and tell me what you think. Here’s the title to the first story. A blind student excluded from a play. And I’m going to tell you now that a lot of these stories come from listeners providing me or sending me their stories, and I think that they are worth my sharing them with you. Here is a story. Gala was told that she could not participate in the play in a play and why? Because she was told that there would be no way for her to learn her lines if she could not read, and she could not know when to enter the flow of the play. She could not work with cues, and she would not know how to move around the stage. The thing is, gala was told all of this by a teacher who never even took the time to work with gala to find out how she did things, what technology he used, what techniques she used. But the teacher falsely assumed all because she was vision impaired. She would not know how to deal with cues, how to move around the stage, how to learn her lines, everything else.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: What would you advise gala to do? Well, I would advise gala first. Don’t give up gala. I would then advise gala to go to her parents with this. I know it’s a very bitter sea to swallow, a bitter pill to swallow. But if gala wants to continue on in a meaningful way, productive way, and be a part of everything she needs to go to her parents. And this is what gala eventually did. First she cried and cried about it. And then she thought and thought about it. You know, gala was a youngster. I think she was about 12 years old and she took matters into her own hands after a few weeks and went to her parents, who then went to the teacher involved. It was a very tough fight, but everything worked out at the end. The parent gala and her parents had to work very, very hard to convince this teacher. But it worked out. And there were other teachers that gala and her parents appealed to, and they were able to help their colleague understand. Okay. So what is advocacy in this case? Advocacy is advocating for Gala to be a part of the play. And who gets involved in advocacy gala, her parents, her teacher and others. Why is advocacy necessary? Because we need to break down the barrier that is being presented to gala. Not being able to participate in the play because it is perceived that she can’t because she is vision impaired.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: How do you get involved in advocacy based on this case? You get involved. You know the child, the student, the student, the parent, the teacher, everybody. And when do you get involved in advocacy? In this case, when it is perceived that there is a barrier? Okay, here’s the second story and here’s the title of this one. No pet for a child with a disability. Yes. In the home Itself. And here is the story as related to us by a listener. Carna had kept hounding her parents to help to have her or to get a pet for her. Okay. She wanted so badly to have a kitten. Her parents told her no, because they did not think that she would be able to take care of the kitten. And why? Because they felt that little Kala could not look after the kitten, to clean his litter box, to give him his food, to give him his drink, to groom him, and everything else. Kala was in a wheelchair. So what would you advise Kala to do? I think I would advise Carla to again go to my parents, but Carla needs to develop a plan as to how she would answer questions from her parents, such as, well, Carla, how would you clean the litter box? So Carla has to find a way to tell her parents, or show her parents that she is serious about wanting the kitten and how she can take care of it.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Okay. How she can clean the litter box. How she can give Kitty his food. Kitty his water. Groom. Kitty. I know it’s kind of a lot for a kid. I believe Carla was about ten years old, so it makes things. Makes things even more interesting when the child is younger. Maybe not thinking out clearly as to how they would look after their pet kitten. And you can’t blame the parents themselves for being apprehensive because, you know, they think, well, our little daughter is in a wheelchair. How is she going to look after the kitten? So it’s teamwork, it’s team effort, it’s team team everything between the child and the parents. And it’s a lot of hard work. It may or may not work, but it has to start somewhere. Okay, so advocacy is advocating for little Carla to have a pet kitten. And who gets involved in this? Carla and her parents and her family. Family in the home. To start with, an advocacy is necessary because little Carla really wants to have a kitten, despite the fact that she is in a wheelchair. She has to show and convince her family that she can look after her pet kitten. And how do you get involved in advocacy? In this case, it’s little Carla having to take the initiative. It’s hard for a ten year old, but there are lessons to be learned here.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: And you get involved in advocacy when you really want to have something. And oftentimes when you get involved in advocacy, it changes attitudes. It changes perspectives. It changes assumptions. Let’s remember that. All right. Let’s go to the third story for this month. Okay. And it’s all about a retiree who has been barred from a social event. Not very nice, is it? And here’s the story that was submitted to us by one of our listeners. Roy was too old, for he was told that he was too old to attend a social event in his community. And the event had to do with attending a concert at a concert hall. Roy was hard of hearing, but he used his hearing aids extremely proficiently. He appealed to the event organizer, but nobody was listening. Now, on the surface I would say this is so trivial, but when you take a deeper dive and you think of it, you have on one side, Roy being very, very able to attend a concert because he has hearing aids that enables him to listen to what’s going on at the concert. On the other side of the picture, you have organizers who say, well, you know, Roy can’t hear very well, so how is he going to hear what’s going on? How is he going to appreciate it? And it all boils down to attitude perception. The one side thinks, oh, because he can’t hear very well, how can he enjoy it? So therefore he is barred from attending the concert.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: On the other side, you have Roy, who is perfectly able to enjoy a concert, and I would advise Roy to go for it. He needs to convince the organizers. He needs to get others on his side. You can’t do it alone. I don’t think he can do it alone. But he needs help. He needs support. Okay. What is advocacy here? Advocacy is advocating for Roy to be at a concert despite his being hard of hearing. And who gets involved? Roy starts the ball rolling, and he starts by going to the organizers with the well laid out plan to show them that, yeah, he wears hearing aids or he uses hearing aids, but he is perfectly capable of enjoying a concert. Advocacy is necessary because Roy wants to attend the concert. How do you get involved in advocacy? It starts with Roy and he has to. And I would say he needs to involve others to get them on his side to convince the organizers. When do you do it? When you want to attend the concert? Of course. Okay. What is your advice? What would you suggest? Write to me at DonnaJodhan@Gmail.com and let me know what you think. Okay, that’s it for me for this month. Month of February 2026. Ask advocate Donna and I thank you for dropping by to listen in. Take care and I’ll see you next month.

Podcast Commentator: Donna wants to hear from you and invites you to write to her at DonnaJodhan@Gmail.com. Until next time.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA
Global Leader In Disability Rights, Digital Accessibility, And Inclusive Policy Reform
Turning policy into progress for people with disabilities.