Here’s what’s making news in the CUDRG this fall.
1) Ryan Patterson’s exhibit Transnational Representation: Canada and the founding of Disabled Peoples’ International, 1981, based on his CUDRG-supported research at the Mennonite Central Committee in Winnipeg, is complete and ready to go live online soon. This will be part of third virtual exhibit on transnational histories of disability and technology, to add to the two existing ones.
2) Dominique Marshall and Ryan have hired 2 new research assistants for the SSHRC funded Disability Futurity seminar series. Julia Aguiar and Chloe Dennis will lend their extensive experience in web design, event planning, and public outreach to the project. With their help, the CUDRG website will host closed-captioned video of all seminars, transcriptions of the presentations and discussions, and described video for images and presentation text. The first seminar is on November 20 (https://cudisabilityresearchgroup.wordpress.com/2019/10/28/disability-futurity-e-seminar-series-full-shedule/) and all are welcome.
3) Here’s what Roy Hanes has been up to:
May: Took over responsibility as Acting Chair of the Disability Studies Minor.
June : Paper presentation “Disabled in the Academy” Canadian Disability Studies Association Conference, Social Science and Humanities Congress, Vancouver British Columbia.
June : Paper/panel discussion “Violence toward women with Disabilities.” Canadian Disability Studies Association Conference, Social Science and Humanities Congress, Vancouver British Columbia.
June: Became Chairperson for the Persons with Disabilities Caucus of the Canadian Association for Social Work Education.
June: Represented the CUDRG with Adrian Chan at a consultation meeting with the New Zealand, Minister of Disability.
June: Consultation: Met with a delegation of German Parliamentarians- Embassy of Germany to discuss disability, employment and educational experiences in Canada.
June- July: External Examiner Review of “The Lived Experiences of First Generation of Immigrant Women with Physical Disabilities living in Canada: Intersections of Gender, Ethnicity, Physical Disability and Immigrant Status.” PhD. Thesis.
June: As a member of the City of Ottawa Accessibility Advisory Committee reviewed and addressed a number of site plans for parks and roadways to ensure that they meet accessibility standards.
July -August: Developed paper pertaining to Canadian immigration policies and people with disabilities for a conference in Cologne, Germany.
August- present: Supervising MSW thesis: “Autistic Perspectives of Autism Funding in Ontario.”
August: External Examiner for History MA Thesis Defense: Academic Accessibility: A Case Study of Carleton University 1942 to 2019.
4) Adrian Chan contributed the following news items: The afternoon of Friday October 4, was 3rd Annual READi Symposium featuring Emily Glossop from the Abilities Center Ottawa and Hannah MacLellan. You can find their biographies and more information at
His colleague, Courtney Edwards, is still testing the pedagogical metarials she produced for the virtual exhibit “Envisioning Technologies”. Thus far she has gotten positive and interested responses.
4) Brittany Clayton has completed testing of both current virtual exhibits on both Mac and pc in terms of accessibility. She has found that google Crome is the best thing with which to view the exhibits.
5) Hollis Peirce defended his MA thesis successfully this Summer on the history of accessibility at Carleton University. He is now working on a research project on Accessibility of Electronic Payment Terminals, funded by Accessibility Secretariat Income Security and Social Development Branch , Employment and Social Development Canada
6) Beth Robertson and Dominique are working at the early stages of the IDRC funded project Gendered Design in STEAM. Their team has reviewed expressions of interest from Lower and Middle Income Countries, several of which touch on technology and disability.
7) Beth worked on the recording and archiving of the Royal Assent of the Federal Accessibility Bill this Summer. The documentary film that emerged from this adventure can be found here: http://bit.ly/accessible-canada. And the archives here: http://bit.ly/CarletonCollections . this is what the Head of Archives and Special Collections at Carleton writes: We’ve just acquired some unique footage at Carleton. The new Accessible Canada Act C-81 received royal assent on July 21. A film crew followed and interviewed key people on the day, including the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Senator Jim Munson, James van Raalte, Sinead Tuite, Bill Adair and Frank Folino. Two and a half hours of raw footage from the July 21 proceedings are archived at Carleton University’s MacOdrum Library. The footage takes viewers behind-the-scenes with the people whose determination brought the Act to reality. The Carleton University Disability Studies research group is particularly excited about having this in our Library’s Special Collections. People collect what we deem important from a moment in time. But, people with disabilities are often excluded from the historical record. If you’re interested in what’s being done so far with the footage, there are a couple 5-minute videos here and also a documentary coming out December 3, the UN International Day of Disabled Persons. We would like to thank BDO Canada for their active involvement in this project, demonstrating their commitment to identifying disability issues in Canada and providing strategic solutions to address them. Their support helped to give this project legs, paving the way for more exciting developments in the promotion of accessibility.
8) Dominique worked with Carleton Building services and eightfold technologies at a project to make Paterson Hall’s elevator accessible via smart phone technologies. The technology is now being tested, and a virtual exhibition will record the adventure.