Diversity Champion: TELUS Spark

Participants play Disability Jeopardy. For the full gallery,
click the image above.

We wanted to extend a huge thank you to the team at TELUS Spark, the Calgary Science Centre, for inviting us in to facilitate a Diverse-Abilities event this month.

Participants braved a snowy Calgary evening and it was refreshing to see such enthusiasm and active participation in learning more about disabilities from the staff at Spark.

The evening started with a competitive round of Disability Jeopardy, where three teams competed in a test of knowledge about disabilities, accommodation and accessibility. From there, the team at Spark were challenged to complete our disability simulation activities which included playing Nintendo Wii with a vision impairment, concentration exercises, wheelchair races and more. All of the activities are designed to show participants what it may be like to live with a certain disability, the barriers which may exist, and how simple accommodations can overcome these challenges.

Jolee Coulter, Manager of Daily Programs at the Science Centre, talked with us after the event to discuss her thoughts what her staff was able to gain from the event.

"These activities were absolutely perfect for the group we have, a mix of silly and learning, which is what we do for our visitors here. One of our greatest challenges at TELUS Spark is accommodating wheelchair users and older people with mobility issues. For our facilitators, the wheelchair races were a great way to understand what it means, and how it feels, to be in a wheelchair and how to better interact with our customers who use them."

Thank you once again Jolee for inviting us in and to the entire team at Spark for your enthusiastic participation. We took many photos and you can see the entire gallery of the event by clicking on the image above.