Remarkable World Commentary Episode #69: Looking Back and Looking Forward

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In this reflective episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan takes a “look back and look ahead,” revisiting the personal and professional highs and lows of 2025 while calling out ongoing systemic barriers facing people with disabilities. She flags, in particular, the absence of a dedicated Canadian minister for disability issues and criticizes government “workarounds” that lean on surveys and unpaid participation, expecting people with disabilities to donate their lived experience, knowledge, and expertise rather than be properly compensated.

Donna then turns to what she wants 2026 to bring: stronger accessibility and usability, especially in an app-driven world, along with deeper public understanding of what accessibility really means. She also shares a proud year-end roundup of the many interviews she’s conducted and her goal to promote the podcast more widely, before spotlighting her “Transitioning to a New World” initiative to support kids and young adults preparing to leave high school, including weekend camps focused on confidence, independence, trust, and respect, closing with warm wishes for the end of 2025 and a better 2026.

TRANSCRIPT

Podcast Commentator: Greetings.

Podcast Commentator: 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 there. I’m Donna Jodhan, your host for the Remarkable World Commentary. It’s my second podcast for December, and today I’m in a mood to look back and look ahead. My dad always used to say that it is better to just look ahead, but sometimes I cannot help but look back. And what has happened for this year? So many things have happened for me personally and professionally. And as I sit here reflecting and, you know, just thinking about things, we still don’t have a minister designated for issues on disability here in Canada. Not sure why. I guess Prime Minister Carney has a lot on his mind with the tariff wars continuing with the United States, with all kinds of things hemming him in re the economy, the climate, the tariffs, everything else. So it’s no wonder that somehow he has forgotten to designate a dedicated minister for disability issues. But you know what? Government departments are still using workarounds or I call it workarounds. All right. To take advantage of lived experiences of persons with lived experiences, knowledges, knowledge and skills and expertise to get the information that they seek and you know it’s not right. And what I mean by this is that they’re not paying for lived experiences. They’re not paying for expertise. They’re not paying for knowledge or skills. They’re using workarounds. Workarounds like surveys work around like asking for people to participate in research projects. And they’re not unabashedly unashamed to do this. They’re not wanting or they’re not in a mood, or they’re not in any way ready or willing to pay.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Persons with disabilities for their lived experiences, their knowledge, their expertise and their skills. And sometimes, or more often than not, they have the nerve to say, well, you know, it’s your obligation to do this because you’re helping your community. And I say to this. When I say to my fellow community members, don’t pay any attention to this so-called excuse or reason. Stick up for your rights and make sure that you are paid for your expertise, your knowledge, your skills, and your life experience. Okay. Another thing I find is that apps need to be made more accessible and usable. We’ve come a very, very long way. But in the world of apps where everybody and everyone, companies, entities, everybody is using apps, apps, apps, apps to process things, to gather information, everything like that. It still needs to be made more accessible and usable, and it is my hope for 2026 that we can continue to work with developers and designers to make this possible. Okay, so looking forward to 2026. I hope and pray for greater accessibility and usability, more understanding, more awareness of the true meaning of accessibility and usability. And despite the fact there has been a great, great damage done to disability equity and inclusive inclusiveness, do we still can hope that accessibility and usability remains at the forefront? I want to promote my podcasts more widely. I’ve had a great year thus far. I’ve done several interviews with oh my gosh, a plethora of different interviewees, ranging from the CNIB to Air Canada to Inner Search to Doctor Allen Chase of the Eye Retreat organization.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Elections Canada Louise Gillis of ex president of the ECB. Rob Lattanzio of arch doctor Leo Bissonnette, my dear friend Larry Lewis, my other dear friend, and so many more. David Baker, the Charter Challenge champion lawyer Diane Bergeron, Alan Moore, so many to name Ian White, Robin East, my dear friend Abby Baker, okay. And many more to come. Abby belongs to the chess British Chess Association, our blind Chess Association. And then I have Alex Barrasso of the United States Blind Chess Association. I’ve interviewed all of these wonderful, wonderful people and more. Oh, and there’s Kathy Saliba of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority and Cathy Nyfors of the Vancouver Airport Authority, Sonia Ganga Papalia of the Canadian Transportation Agency. Thank you, everyone, and thank you to my dear friend Erin, for walking the walk with me and helping me to make these interviews possible. So I’d like to promote my podcast more widely, and the same for my transitioning to a New World initiative, where I am going to be working with kids and young adults, kids preparing to leave high school. I want to help them transition to a new world. I want to produce weekend camps where I get them to start believing in themselves, to build their confidence, their independence, and show them how to obtain trust and respect. These are my wishes and hopes for 2026, and I wish all of my listeners a happy end of year 2025 and a wonderful 2026. See you in 2026. Bye for now.

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.