Karlen Communications
Disability Rights Advocacy

This web page is the first in a series of topical resources related to disability rights and inclusive society. The resources are primarily focused on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and how countries around the world are implementing the convention. Resources are grouped by region or by topic

I've created a new resource page on Digital Access versus Accesibility that has some samples of how adaptive technology reads ina ccessible digital content.

On December 3, 2024, the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities, I participated in a podcast on the Business of Integration.

COVID-19 Advocacy for Access to Information

One of the things I quickly found during this pandemic is that those of us with disabilities didn't have access to accessible reliable information at the same time everyone else did. Videos may be descriptive in the process of hand washing but were lacking captioning, PDF documents had no Tags and were therefore inaccessible, short slide presentations with text were posted on social media without audio or video description, and the list goes on. After being active on twitter and LinkedIn, I was interviewed for or authored the following on the "pandemic" of inaccessible information.

Access & Inclusion in Tertiary Education, Post-COVID-19 Part 3 ACDET

CTV News: Disabled Canadians feel excluded from COVID-19 messaging.

Navigating COVID-19 for the Visually Impaired.

Protect Rights of People with Disabilities During COVID-19, Human rights Watch.

Advocating for digital inclusion - Mohawk instructor raises awareness, Mohawk College.

Disability, Access to Education and the Pandemic.

Town Hall on People with Disabilities and COVID-19, April 7, 2020 sponsored by the Ontario Autism Coalition and the AODA Alliance

COVID-19 interview on The Interactive Accessibility Podcast(April 2020)

AllyHam (Hamilton Ontario) Meetup April 9, 2020

AllyHam Meetup Handout

Human Rights Watch Interview on Instagram May 6, 2020

Town Hall on Students, Parents and Teachers with Disabilities and COVID-19 sponsored by the Autism Coalition and the AODA Alliance.

Changing the World with Inclusive Edcation, Guest Blog, Microsoft Humans of IT, May 2020.

Access & inclusion in Tertiary Education, Post-COVID-19 Part 3 Podcast, Australian Disability Clearninghouse in Eduction and Training (ADCET), May 2020.

Disability Awareness Training Resource

Resource on Disability Awareness Training by Karen McCall.

Globally Defining Inclusive Quality Education Standard

Creating a Global Inclusive Quality Education Standard presentation at the Accessibility Conference, University of Guelph, May 2016.

Globally Defining Inclusive Education presentation at CSUN Conference March 2016.

Note: Not all following publications are accessible. many of the PDF documents, although dealing with inclusion, are not tagged or are properly tagged. Hopefully this will change as we move toward a more inclusive society and as the Incheon Strategy states "Make the right real."

Legislative Review of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. The PDF document is accessible.

Public Transport

Emerging Trends in Specialized Transport in Rural Communities: Exposing the Myths (2014)

Access to Digital Content

Accessible PDF and the Potential of PDF/UA

UNICEF Forum on the Rights of Children and Youth with Disabilities 2013

As part of the meetings during the week of the UN General Assembly, we gathered at UNICEF Place for the second forum hosted by UNICEF. It was a day of information, discussion and conversation.

Comments on the UNICEF Forum on the Rights of Children and Youth with Disabilities 2013