Remarkable World Commentary Episode #110: One Size Does Not Fit All

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In this reflective episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA presents her first solo podcast for September and builds it around a single argument: one size does not fit all. Thanking listeners who have written in, she makes the case that no template can meet every situation, because every person with a disability has a unique requirement and a unique set of needs, a mistake she admits making herself at times, and one she calls a lack of respect. It applies, she says, whether you are a phone rep, an agent, a teacher, a government department, or any other type of entity.

She then unpacks the assumption that lies underneath it. People hear blind or vision impaired and conclude the person has no vision at all, which she calls a very false statement. She walks through the range instead: functional vision, where a person moves independently but needs glasses for distance or close reading; low vision, where a screen can be read only with special devices and only slowly; minimal vision, her own, where light, dark and shadows come through; and no vision at all. The same spread exists for hearing loss, she notes, a person may be categorized as having hearing loss, but how much? Her story of the month comes from a listener who used her Mental Stretch technique, built on drawing on the different senses, after unwittingly becoming a victim of online dating. A perpetrator nearly extracted a large sum with an untrue story, but the listener sat down, gathered their resources and their thoughts, spoke to trusted friends, and recognized the scam just in the nick of time.

TRANSCRIPT

Podcast Commentator: Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, and MBA invites you to listen to her bi-weekly 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, sight 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: Greetings, everybody. And I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your host for the Remarkable World Commentary. And this is my solo podcast for September, my first solo podcast for September. Hope everybody is doing good. So I want to thank everybody for all those who have taken the time to write to me. Those who have taken the time to give me their feedback and tell me what they’re thinking. Thank you everybody. So for this month, month of September, my first solo podcast, I want to talk about this topic. All right. One size does not fit all. And I’m praying and hoping that the rest of the world is listening somehow, and that this statement will help others to realize that, no, one size does not fit all. Right. And yes, it does not fit all. We’re all not the same. We’re all very unique people in our own way. We’re each very unique people in our own way. Okay. And why do I say this? One size does not fit all. You cannot use a template to match, or to meet, every single situation in a landscape where there are too many different types of situations, there are too many different types of circumstances. When I say one size does not fit all, I mean that in the case of a person with a disability, it is simply not possible to say one size will fit all.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Every single person with a disability has a unique requirement and a unique set of needs. Okay. This is a definite, definite mistake that so many of us make, including me at times, but I don’t think it applies. I don’t think it is appropriate. It’s a lack of respect really in many, many ways. Saying one size fits all — one size does not fit all. Okay. It doesn’t matter if you are a phone rep or agent, or a teacher, a government department, or any other type of entity. One size does not fit all. Too many people fall into the trap of thinking that because one is blind or vision impaired, there’s only one set of requirements to be done. And they think that because a person is blind or vision impaired, that person has no vision. And that’s a very, very, very false statement. The word, or the term, blind or vision impaired, sight impaired, a person with sight loss, applies to different persons with different types of, or different levels of, vision loss. So if you say a person who is blind or vision impaired, that person could be someone with functional vision. That is, they can get around on their own, but they need glasses to help them see things at distances or read things close up.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Then you have the person with low vision. Again, can probably see a screen, can probably read a screen, but can only do it reading with special devices, and they do it reading very slowly. Then you have the person who has minimal vision, like myself, probably can see light and dark and shadows. And then you have the person with no vision, can’t see anything. And I may not even be touching on all of the levels of vision loss, but what I’m trying to say is that when one is told that a person is blind or vision impaired, or a person with sight loss, it does not mean that that person is totally blind. Okay. All right. There are different levels of vision loss that fall under the category of blind or vision impaired, and it is the same for other types of disabilities. Persons with hearing loss. There are different levels of hearing loss amongst persons with hearing loss. Okay. I hope I’m making sense or saying it clearly enough. Again, hearing loss applies to different levels of hearing loss, not just one level. So a person may be categorized as a person with hearing loss, but how much hearing loss does this person have? Again, what I’m trying to emphasize here is that one size does not fit all, okay? Each person with a disability is a separate case to be considered.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: I don’t like using the word case, but each person with a disability has a unique need. All right. My story of the month is one that was sent in to us by someone who has used my Mental Stretch technique to help them out. My stretch technique emphasizes using different senses like sense of smell, sense of hearing, sense of touch, sense of feeling, sense of sight. And for this month, I have someone who has sent in their experience of using my Mental Stretch to help them as an online dating victim. This person, or this listener, inadvertently or unwittingly became a victim of online dating. I guess they went into it with their eyes half closed, or maybe their eyes shut, so to speak, became a victim of online dating because the person who was encouraging them or inviting them to date did not provide them with the true details, and they ended up almost having to pay a lot of money to this… this… almost having to pay quite a bit of money to the person who was inviting them. I can’t seem to get the word right now.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Perpetrator. That’s it. The perpetrator almost, almost got this poor old victim to pay them a bunch of money because they gave them a [stress SOS? 00:09:40] — gave them a story that was not true. But the victim was able to deal with it after having sat down, used our mental techniques and our Mental Stretch. And they got their act together, gathered their resources and their thoughts, spoke to some trusted friends, and realized just in the nick of time that the perpetrator was only a perpetrator and no one that had any good intention of dating in a meaningful, committed and open manner. That’s my story for this month. Someone who was a victim of online dating and someone who used our Mental Stretch, which is built on the use of using different senses to help them get out of it. So you use a sense of smell. Sense of touch. Sense of hearing. Sense of feeling. Sense of taste. Sense of sight. Your five senses. This is it for me. For this month. For my first Remarkable World Commentary solo podcast, I’m Donna J. Jodhan. Please write to me at donnajodhan@gmail.com and let me know how you’re doing. Okay? Write to me at Donna Jodhan, donnajodhan@gmail.com. Take care now and see you again real soon.

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.