Hello!
It has been a long time since I have updated this blog. My last posting was in 2018, announcing the initiation of The PROUD Project—now fully actualized! Below you will find a detailed breakdown on what I have been working on these past years with PROUD.
PROUD is an anti-ableist, bilingual research and advocacy hub focused on social justice and health equity.
Today, we have six team members: Aruna Mitra and I are both Executive Directors of PROUD; Isabelle Avakumovic-Pointon is our Research Associate while she completes her PhD in history at the University of British Columbia; Lark Huska is our Social Media and Communications Officer; Charlotte Flameng is our bilingual Research Assistant; and Zephyr Mitra generously serves as our Secretary of the Board. Our Board of Directors is currently composed of myself, Zephyr, Bonnie Severin as the Board’s Treasurer, and Board Member Negar Hashemi. We are currently looking for a new board member.
In its eight years of existence, PROUD has completed a wide array of research accomplishments. To learn about what me and my team have been up to, keep on reading. To stay up to date with what PROUD is up to, follow The PROUD Project on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, and Bluesky. To get in contact, reach out to [email protected].
Broadcastability
Firstly, we have a podcast! Broadcastability is a bilingual podcast by, for, and about persons with disabilities. We currently have three published seasons, with our most recent one focussing on researchers doing anti-ableist work. Find episodes at Broadcastability.ca, Apple, Spotify and YouTube, or on most major streaming platforms. We are planning the fourth season which will drop in the fall of 2026.
Five Nations Study
Our biggest research project to date has been our Phenomenological Analysis of Disability and Employment in Belgium, Canada, France, the UK, and the USA. In this study, we interviewed physically disabled employees; employers who hire people with physical disabilities; and co-workers who work with disabled colleagues so that we can more fully understand the conditions which foster the integration of qualified adults in the workplace. As researchers, we want to know how individuals and organizations successfully hire and integrate individuals with physical disabilities.
The scope of this project covers five different countries: Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium. It was a multilingual effort. Taking a multi-country approach allowed us to understand the experiences of disabled employees under different liberal democracies and cultures. The research compares these experiences and has created a set of findings from the materials. Finally, the rich data that we gathered from many different participants will allow us to advise and contribute to government policy discussions regarding inclusiveness, equity, and diversity for persons with disabilities in the workforce.
We are currently writing up the results of this study in both French and English. A large summary article of our research is currently under review at Disability and Society. We are producing smaller, more focused articles that highlight each of the 5 nations.
We are planning research which evolves from this work. We are taking our findings and want to test them for reliability. We also want to expand our investigations to verify and augment what we learned from our work in Canada, the UK, the US, France, and Belgium.
Intersectional Accessibility Mapping Project with Occupational Therapy Students
In the fall of 2024, PROUD collaborated with the University of Toronto’s Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, offering a unique fieldwork placement for Masters of Occupational Therapy students. Fieldwork placements provide an opportunity for occupational therapy students to integrate theoretical and practical knowledge and develop professional behaviours and clinical skills as a requirement for professional qualification. PROUD’s Aruna Mitra (Co-Executive Director) and the Research Project Manager jointly supervised eight students over the seven-week LEAP placement: Leadership Emerging/Enhancing, Advocacy, Program Planning and Evaluation. The goal of LEAP was to identify and map daily accessibility barriers faced by disabled individuals.
The MScOT students took to Toronto’s Church and Wellesley Queer Village as their area of interest. Using PROUD’s innovative intersectional approach to understanding accessibility, the students surveyed the neighbourhood’s external and internal spaces. They analyzed the physical, sensory, cognitive, social, features of an environment that influence disabled persons’ ability to live, work and socialize in the area. The MScOT students researched accessibility features in specific locations such as restaurants, bars, retail stores, a community centre, and the LGBTQ2S archives. The goal was to map each location’s features using a mapping software (ArcGIS) as a prototype for creating a map containing accurate and relevant information which would be useful with functional limitations. Through interacting with the physical space, the MScOT students developed detailed data collection surveys for each location, documenting external and internal accessibility. Details included entrance doorway width, the number of steps, alternative accessible entrances, length, width, and elevation of ramps, interior layout, location of restrooms and features included. They also documented other accessibility features not commonly captured in accessibility surveys such as noise level, lighting features (e.g. strobing) and automatic external defibrillator (AED) locations.
These prototype maps provide a level of detail that is useful for people who face a variety of barriers. For example, someone wanting to celebrate a birthday who has a mobility impairment and who has a friend who uses a guide dog and hearing aids, needs to know about more than “level access.” PROUD’s maps indicate the layout of tables and chairs, the noise levels, and areas for the dog to relieve itself. Locations are rarely “fully accessible.” For example, a location may have an automatic door at the entrance but this does not necessarily mean that the location is fully barrier-free. By taking this granular approach to mapping the accessibility of spaces, PROUD hopes to demonstrate that accessibility is rarely a binary issue.
Interact with the Accessible Mapping Project here!
PROUD Fellowships
In 2024, we introduced the PROUD fellowship program. During the 2024-2025 round, we took on five fellows:
- Ness Maloney: a PhD candidate in Socio-Cultural Anthropology at the University of Toronto, Maloney has conducted ethnographic research with disabled self-advocates and care services in the Cook Islands, as well as past projects in New Zealand and Tonga.
- Walter Rafael Villanueva: a Mad-identifying scholar, Villanueva is a PhD candidate in the Department of English and holds research positions at the Centre for Global Disability Studies and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
- Keegan James: a Master of Information Student with the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto and holds a diploma in Indigenous Community and Social Development from Georgian College and a Bachelor of Social Work from Toronto Metropolitan University.
- Kayla Saunders: a student in the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program at the University of Toronto, Kayla holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Gender and Women’s Studies from York University, where she was first introduced to critical disability studies.
- Matthew Palynchuk: a PhD candidate in Political Theory and works in contemporary, Anglo-American political philosophy. In particular, his work focuses on disability and what social movements for disability justice can contribute to philosophical debates around egalitarian justice.
This year, we have a new fellow, Jennifer Fane, PhD at Signal49 Research in Vancouver, B.C.
Currently, we are working to produce more episodes of Broadcastability, expand our Accessible Mapping Project, and publish our findings in journals. Please feel free to visit www.theproudproject.ca and get in contact!