Envisioning New Meanings of Disability and Difference focuses on changing perceptions of difference.
The project gives women with disabilities and physical differences the opportunity to represent themselves in their own words and images. In a series of workshops, women with disabilities and physical differences will create artworks. These works which will include images and stories will culminate in a dynamic multimedia exhibit.
This approach bridges practice and community-based research. The project explores the use of narrative and arts-based methods to engage health and social service providers, the media and the broader public in re-visioning meanings of difference interwoven across cultural images and interactions.
This project is a collaborative effort among various leaders in women's, disability and health sectors across Ontario including:
Carla's research explores representations and narratives of body and identity across the life-span. She is founder and former director of the National Eating Disorder Information Centre and the Body Image Project at Women's College Hospital.
Joëlle developed the Compass Training Centre which focuses on building inclusion, fostering positive workplace culture and promoting organizational learning.
Fran works in the violence against women movement with a focus on women with disabilities and deaf women. She has presented and written on gender, disability, sexuality and body.
Over the last 20 years, Colette's work has ranged from direct intervention to advocacy and coalition building. She teaches part time at Nipissing University on issues related to family violence.
Lorna has over 17 years of experience in the area of difference and disability in Canada and the United Kingdom. She also co-founded and managed the Building Bridges project.
For more information, contact:
Lorna Renooy, Project Manager
Envisioning New Meanings of Disability and Difference
Tel: 416-351-3733
Fax: 416-351-3746
lrenooy@ywcapeterborough.org
