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Amazing Race Canada

Screenshot image of woman pointing at ASL alphabet chart on tv

Did you watch The Amazing Race Canada Tuesday evening???
Did you see biggest secret I kept since April, the race occurred at my old alumni Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf (SJW) in Belleville, Ontario. The show used my ASL alphabet chart!!! I am so honoured to have my illustrations with my logo displayed on the amazing show. 

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Parks Accessibility Conference

Hi. I’m Leah Riddell, artist of the card you just scanned from. I’m honoured and thrilled to be chosen to design for the Parks Accessibility Conference to teach you sign language. Their slogan is “Make Canada’s National Parks Accessible”. I completely agree! We CAN make this happen. A first step to inclusive communication when encountering visitors in the parks is understanding and communicating using some signs! Are you ready to learn?

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Healthy Communications

The term “Better Hearing and Speech Month” leaves an unpleasant taste in my mouth. Every May this event is celebrated and meant to bring awareness about communication disorders and hearing health. I realise that was last month, but I’ve been sitting on this thought and trying to find a way to express it in a way that makes people receptive to hearing me out. I can’t help but feel that this celebration is negative towards all deaf people or those who communicate differently. It is in my experience that society’s expectations of its citizens are that we are to speak perfectly, hear fully and live well free of deafness. For the purpose of clarity I’m referring to audiology in this blog.  

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Lip Reading is Hard

Look at this amazing group. Our first mix and mingle event of the We Can Community of Women Entrepreneurs at Seaway Coworking. This happened on Tuesday May 17. It was a nice change of scenery. I had the pleasure to meet new people, and we network about our businesses. It’s inspiring; learning of their progress, their success and how far they have come. Most of us started with We Can to thrive when the pandemic hit.
To be honest, I was a nervous wreck. It has been two years of us meeting virtually. I would easily hide behind the camera…

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Deaf Representation

I am not asking permission at the seat of the table. I am pulling up my own chair, to bring you awareness about the issues important to certain individuals to have a voice.

There has been an increased recognition of diversity, equity and inclusion within organizations or institutions. They have adjusted their policies to have proper representation in their workplace. Women and visible minorities, people with disabilities have been often included in the policies. That has not been the case for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or deafened. 

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A Small Gesture?

Couple days ago I posted about my experience at Metro, and it was shared widely. It reached out to this young woman’s mom to which she privately messaged me. Her daughter was happily surprised to see the impact of my experience. She told her mom… “It was just a small gesture.” But it wasn’t. I