Last week on the blog I told you about speaking at the World Travel Market, Africa 2024 as part of two panels discussing accessible travel. A few days afterwards I was approached by Tarryn Tomlinson, the leader of one of those panels, asking if I’d be willing to travel to Durban to speak at another similar event, Africa’s Travel Indaba. I jumped at the chance. The Indaba is Southern Africa’s largest travel convention, with participants from the travel and hospitality industries across Africa and the world. I was told they were expecting 15 000 people this year, including exhibitors, speakers ..read more

A few years ago much of my work revolved around accessible travel and tourism. At the very least, that was the major focus of my podcast, A Different Way of Seeing. Rather, A Different Way of Travelling, as the show was then called. Yet somehow, apart from my trips overseas, my focus seemed to have shifted over the past few years. Which was why it was so exciting for me to be asked to be part of not one, but two inclusive travel panel discussions at the World Travel Market, Africa 2024 conference during April. The first panel was hosted by Warrior on Wheels, an organisation that gives childre ..read more

I thought it was about time I updated you on the work I’m doing to relaunch Fiji’s book, Paws for Thought. I have now finished all the changes I wish to make to the manuscript and have moved onto my final few tasks before submitting the text to my amazing editor, Melanie Harvard, of Harvard Ink. You may be wondering what those final tasks are. I am deciding what images to include in the new parts of the book and am creating image descriptions so that any of my readers who are unable to see the pictures can also get a sense of how cute my beautiful girl was. Then it will be time to send the ma ..read more

Two weeks ago I mentioned the impact that stories have on so many aspects of my life. Everything I shared in that post was brought home to me in a chance conversation I had a few days ago. Here’s what happened. I recently had to go for some routine medical tests. When I arrived at the offices, the receptionist remembered me from a previous visit when I had been accompanied by guide dog Fiji. After exchanging pleasantries, she told me how much better she understood the work being done by guide dogs, how the dogs are trained and that she also had a deeper appreciation of what it was like to be ..read more

I first became fascinated by stories when I was a young girl. I vividly remember spending hours reading my children’s Bible and losing myself in the stories. While I admit that it didn’t leave me with a particular religious zeal, it certainly did have a significant impact on my life. I recently found myself reflecting on how much of my life is dominated by the art of storytelling. As an author, speaker, songwriter, and poet I am constantly sharing stories of different types with my audiences. I use them to illustrate points and add dimensions to my messages. As a podcaster I am privileged to ..read more

I recently had the opportunity of exploring the concept of making the visual world accessible to the blindness community through the use of audio description. It was the subject of a podcast episode with Shakila Maharaj, the managing director of ShazaCin Accessible Media, who is one of the foremost proponents of audio description in South Africa. For those who aren’t aware of audio description, it is an additional audio track that gives information of what most people are able to see. It is used in movies, television, live theatre, ballet, as well as in heritage and art spaces. It is a powerf ..read more

I’ve had the opportunity to be a guest on a number of podcasts this year. In my own show, A Different Way of Seeing, I am able to offer other people a place to share their stories, but I seldom share much about myself. Being a guest on other people’s episodes allows me to dive more deeply into aspects of my life, my thoughts, and my work. It’s also often a lot of fun! One of the shows I appeared on recently was the Successful Self-employed and Disabled Podcast, with host Chris Mitchell from#DefineYourself. During the conversation we spoke about my transition from traditional employment to self ..read more

Being up on stage and sharing my thoughts about inclusion and diversity in the workplace has to be one of my favourite things to do. Which is why I was so excited to find myself standing in front of an audience again as a keynote speaker at a Road Accident Fund disability awareness day recently. And what a fun event it was! For me, there were three great opportunities that came out of this particular event. The first I’ve already mentioned – the chance to speak on a topic that is fundamentally important to me. Second was the amazing connections I made during that event – connections that I ho ..read more

Over the past few weeks I’ve started working on the second edition of Fiji’s book, Paws for Thought: Seeing the World Through the Eyes of a Guide Dog “. I knew I wanted to update the book following Fiji’s passing, to close the circle, so to speak. But I had no idea when I’d feel able to do so. My fear was that I was still too wrapped in the grief of losing my gorgeous baby girl, and that working on the update would be too sad for me. However, when I began, I found what actually happened took me by surprise. Yes, revisiting the book did cause a degree of sadness. But by far the dominant feelin ..read more

Considering my friends, colleagues and social media connections, I recently concluded that there appear to be fewer people with disabilities working in mainstream employment than there are in disability-related organisations. I found myself wondering why this is. from conversations with people, both within and outside the disability community, it appears the reasons may be complex. Generally, it appears that people with disabilities feel unwelcome in mainstream employment, citing examples of inaccessible recruitment, hiring and onboarding processes, and significant challenges due to attitudin ..read more