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My Brain AVM Story: Every Four Years

Municipal elections have rolled around again, and last week I went to an  all-candidate’s meeting in my community. I wouldn’t have done this before my Brain Avm Surgery and stroke.

Image Description: A hand placing a voting slip into

a ballot box over a white background. 

Content Warning:  Ableism, Accessibility, Politics

This wasn’t the all Candidate’s meeting for all people running in my municipality – that had happened  the previous week. This one was only for those running for Municipality Mayors and Deputy Mayors. I was okay with that. They were the ones that I really wanted to speak to.

Four years ago, I stood up at the general all-candidates meeting and asked my municipality’s candidates about their plans for making my community more accessible. It wasn’t an easy thing to do. Particularly since my Brain Avm surgery and stoke, I’m not very good with verbally expressing myself if I don’t the words written on a piece of paper in front of me. I lose words, I mix up word order, and I lose track of what I’m saying, especially if I’m tired.

My decision to ask a question had been last-minute – I’d been working in another area of the building and didn’t think I’d make it to the meeting, and when I did manage to with just a few moments to spare, I didn’t have prepared remarks, and was very nervous about speaking off-the-cuff. I’d been writing the blog for about three years, and had spoken to community members one-on-one about accessibility, but the prospect of my first act of advocacy in front a large audience had terrified me.

But I got through it. And last week, four years later, when the moderator opened the meeting to questions from the audience, it seemed perfectly natural and only a bit scary to line up at the microphone and wait my turn to ask the candidates in my municipality about their plans for making communities as accessible as possible. The moderator asked that all candidates respond.

I’m not sure why it seemed so much easier this time, to stand up and ask about something so important to to me. Maybe it’s because I’ve had some practice since 2014 talking to people in my community about accessibility and how important it is. Maybe it’s because I’ve become increasingly comfortable in my own skin as I’ve gotten older. Maybe it’s because I’ve become increasingly aware, the further I come along in my post brain AVM surgery and stroke journey, that a lack of accessibility affects a lot more people in my community, residents and visitors, than I thought –  especially given that its population of senior residents is significantly higher than other Ontario communities. I do feel like I’ve found my advocate’s voice now, and I know it’s not so easy for others to speak up, so it’s time for me to get more serious about advocating in my own community for those who, for whatever reason, feel that they can’t.

But I wasn’t thinking all that the other night when I stood to line up at the microphone. I just heard them call for people who had questions and thought, “Well, time to get up.”

I don’t know where this will lead. I’m kind of looking forward myself to finding out.

The post My Brain AVM Story: Every Four Years appeared first on Girl With The Cane.



This post first appeared on Girl With The Cane, please read the originial post: here

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My Brain AVM Story: Every Four Years

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