What if the biggest barrier to healthcare isn't the clinic, but getting there?

For more than two decades, Paul Siller has run the Rocky View Regional Handibus Society, a rural charity that gets people to the appointments, groceries, and everyday places they can't reach on their own.

In this episode of the Accessible Future Podcast, Paul and host Simon Jones reframe what accessible transportation actually means: why Paul stopped using the word "handicap," how a single bus can serve three towns in one run, and why he calls transportation a foundation of health that almost no one budgets for.

It's a grounded look at the systems behind disability, inclusion, and barrier-free communities in rural Alberta, and the people left stranded when the ride isn't there.

In this episode:

• Why "transportation barriers" works better than "disability," and what shifted when the language changed
• How one bus covers 4,500 square kilometres and 600,000 km a year on about a third of a city's budget
• The rural access gap: ten communities around Calgary, zero hospitals
• What happens to someone's independence when the ride disappears
• Making councils care, using a story instead of a statistic

🔗 Learn more about the Rocky View Regional Handibus Society, including how to support or volunteer: https://www.rockyviewbus.ca

🔗 Follow Accessible Future Podcast

YouTube: youtube.com/@AccessibleFuture

Instagram: instagram.com/accessible_future

Facebook: facebook.com/people/Accessible-Future/61586380868685

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/accessible-future

Email: accessiblefuturepod@gmail.com

If you found value in this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating on your platform. It helps more people find the show.

⏰Chapters

0:00 Welcome to the Accessible Future Podcast

1:18 Inside the Rocky View Handibus Society

5:59 What an Accessible Future Looks Like

9:20 When the Rules Ignore Accessibility

13:02 Dropping the Word "Handicap"

16:59 Barriers, Not Disability

21:17 Transportation Is a Foundation of Health

23:06 Telling the Story to Make Councils Care

25:16 What Paul Wishes People Understood

27:37 Thank You to the Drivers

#AccessibleFuture #Accessibility #DisabilityInclusion #BarrierFree #AccessibleTransportation #DisabilityRights #InclusiveCommunities #RuralTransit #DisabilityCommunity

Kelly Thibodeau builds her work around one idea: accessibility is personal.
The founder of Squarely Accessible joins Simon to talk about what inclusive design actually means online, and why so much of it comes down to a single choice, including people on purpose, or excluding them by accident.

Kelly shares the story of watching her mom's world shrink as technology moved on without her, the business case most organizations overlook, and where to start when accessibility feels too big to tackle.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why Kelly says accessibility is personal, and the story behind Squarely Accessible
• What an accessible future looks like when everyone can do the everyday things — applying for a job, filing taxes, catching up with friends
• The difference between being intentionally included and accidentally excluded
• Why 80% of disabilities are invisible, and what that means for the content we publish
• The numbers brands miss: 1.3 billion people worldwide, and the customers lost to barriers
• "Do you want it, or do you need it?" — moving past compliance to actually caring
• Small starts, why there's no such thing as "100% done," and how to begin anyway
• Masking at work, and building workplaces where people don't have to hide who they are
• "Nothing about us without us": working with disabled people, not just for them
  👋 Guest - Kelly Thibodeau, Squarely Accessible

Website: squarelyaccessible.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kthibodeau

Level It Up: levelitupmb.ca

🔗 Follow Accessible Future Podcast

YouTube: youtube.com/@AccessibleFuture

Instagram: instagram.com/accessible_future

Facebook: facebook.com/people/Accessible-Future/61586380868685

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/accessible-future

Email: accessiblefuturepod@gmail.com

If you found value in this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating on your platform. It helps more people find the show.
⏰Chapters0:00 Intro1:28 What an accessible future looks like4:07 Her mom, and why accessibility is personal8:10 Inside Squarely Accessible12:03 Want it vs. need it: beyond compliance17:48 Training, invisible disabilities & the business case24:25 Neuroinclusion, autism employment & a final word32:33 Wrap-up

Chrissy Sadowski spent years caring for her mother, who has MS, without anyone calling it caregiving. She was a teenager seeking help who was told no. She was a young adult who grew up in a house full of unknowns and ambulance visits and learned to move on.

It wasn't until she was 38 years old, sitting in a room with the Young Caregivers Association, that it clicked. She had been a young caregiver the whole time.

Now Chrissy works for the YCA. Canada's only dedicated young caregiver organization and she's using everything she lived through to build the support system that didn't exist when she needed it.

She's also living with MS herself, navigating a condition that was invisible for 15 years before her right leg started to change.

In this episode, Chrissy talks about what it actually means to be a young caregiver, including why a five-year-old reading to their sibling so a parent can shower counts, and what the healthcare system keeps getting wrong.

She shares the story of her son Darius going missing last summer, how first responders initially responded, and how that incident turned into police training and a vulnerable persons registry coming to Niagara Region.

She also talks about group home wait lists, the gap in respite care, and what she'd say to every parent, educator, and healthcare professional who still doesn't know this population exists.

👋 Guest - Chrissy Sadowski

Instagram - instagram.com/freshprincesschris/

YCA - youngcaregivers.ca

🔗 Follow Accessible Future Podcast

YouTube: youtube.com/@AccessibleFuture

Instagram: instagram.com/accessible_future

Facebook: facebook.com/people/Accessible-Future/61586380868685

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/accessible-future

Email: accessiblefuturepod@gmail.com

If you found value in this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating on your platform. It helps more people find the show.

⏰Chapters

0:00 Intro

1:29 What is the Young Caregivers Association?

11:01 What does an accessible future look like?

14:29 Growing up a young caregiver — without knowing it

19:07 Living with MS — from invisible to mobility aid

22:03 How disability changes the way the world treats you

27:13 Sharing the reality of MS on social media

30:04 Advocating for people with intellectual disabilities

33:03 Darius goes missing — and a registry gets built

37:12 One thing every listener should understand

39:15 Where to find Chrissy and YCA

40:33 Simon's closing thoughts