Heather Morgan

Preventing Trauma for Complex Care Patients

I first entered the new wing of the Hospital for Sick Children in February 1993 – just over 27 years ago. Since that time I have had operations, birthed babies, spent time in the NICU, attended outpatient appointments, spent time in the ER, spent time with my kids as inpatients all in this building. IContinue reading “Preventing Trauma for Complex Care Patients”

Let’s Talk About (Disability &) Sex!

Had an incredible time today as I was interviewed on a podcast about disability, where I got to talk about not only being disabled, but being part of a disabled family, and the highs and the lows of that. One of the questions I was asked was, How do your different disabilities play a roleContinue reading “Let’s Talk About (Disability &) Sex!”

How I Can Help

Sometimes it’s hard to describe what I do as a coach – and why you might need a coach – because it can vary so greatly. So here are a few thoughts: If you are the parent of an LGBTQ child, struggling to know how to support your child, I can help. If you areContinue reading “How I Can Help”

Universal Design: Bathrooms

The next stop in our Universal Design series is one that we use every day – the bathroom! Bathrooms are critical to our physical and emotional well-being, but are also an incredibly major issue for accessibility far before most of us would consider ourselves disabled! There are three main issues to address when it comesContinue reading “Universal Design: Bathrooms”

Canaries

What do you know about canaries? I’m about to do a deep dive. Surprisingly enough this directly relates to disability advocacy. According to Wikipedia, canaries were used to detect carbon monoxide in coal mining from around 1913, when they realized that toxic gases such as carbon monoxide or asphyxiant gases such as methane in theContinue reading “Canaries”

Perspecticals

My new chair has given me a new perspective on the world. It’s incredible to me to be able to sit taller than I could ever stand, and it makes me realise the power of different perspectives or lenses on how we see and understand the world – our perspecticals. The lens we use toContinue reading “Perspecticals”

Straightening the Walls

“What are you doing today?” “We’re straightening the walls.” (Wishes they had said something exciting like “the roof is going up”, then thinks about it for an extra second and realises the last thing I’d want is a roof on top of crooked walls…) “Good. I appreciate straight walls!” Watching a house be builtContinue reading “Straightening the Walls”

Universal Design: Entryways, Hallways and Room Layouts

We started with our discussion of Universal Design Considerations with Zero Barrier Entries. So the logical next step would be Entryways, Hallways and Room Layouts.

Disability From All Sides

I live at an interesting intersection. I am a disabled woman raising disabled kids. Which means I spend time in both “disabled” spaces and “special needs parenting” spaces. I know disability from both sides. I know what it’s like to worry about your children and their disabilities. I know what it’s like to haveContinue reading “Disability From All Sides”

Perspective

Perspective is an interesting thing, isn’t it? When we were in Toronto this week, we stayed in a condo overnight and I had this unusual view out my bedroom window. Everything seemed both larger and tinier than in real life… Some perspectives are comfortable for us. Others leave us feeling off-kilter. Having lived my entireContinue reading “Perspective”