Ophélie Lechat

Glorious weather in Montreal this week. Heat and sunshine and a bit of humidity, but I don’t complain. I had to read a weather forecast for this TV class I’m taking, and I nearly burst out laughing when I read, after announcing 29 degrees for Montreal, that it was 9 and raining in Vancouver.  Ha! Take that, west coast envy.

I volunteered at the AEBC conference this weekend and learned about, among other issues, the problem with the availability of accessible media. The CNIB will be pulling out of library services by 2012 and it’s not clear who will take over. I can’t imagine not being able to borrow library books, or having to fight with my province to gain access to reading materials.

(Another I’d-never-thought-of-that tidbit: the newer digital touchpads on Interac and credit card terminals are quite problematic for visually impaired people: the choices are to carry cash all the time, or give the cashier your PIN so zie can run the transaction. Hmm.)

Attending the conference was… I’m trying to avoid “eye-opening”, but it really was. First, I learned how difficult it is to avoid visual language when directing someone to a location: “it’s behind him, on that side, after the blue door”.  I also learned that I’m slightly allergic to dogs, which means I was sniffling through one of the presentations, in a small room with about 20 service dogs.

Finally, I learned that when your service dog gets sick, it can be a very scary experience. The bond between a person and their service animal is special, unique, incredible.