Disability History Month Part 1 - Love is Blind, At Least According to Ruth Vallis

About this episode

Ruth Vallis discusses her experiences as one of the first students integrated into regular classrooms in Toronto and her career in rehabilitation.

September is Disability History Month in the city of Hamilton. This September the Triple Vision team is collaborating with the Accessibility Hamilton Alliance and students from McMaster University to bring listeners a podcast per week focussing on disability history as told through books. In this first podcast Ruth Vallis talks about her book Love is Blind which details her life as one of the first eight students to be integrated into Toronto’s regular classrooms in 1969. She then goes on to talk about her education in England as a physio therapist and her working life at the top rehabilitation clinic in Toronto. "maybe someone who could see could look around and see what is going on here, not for blind people. So that was very, very challenging. And it almost overcame me. I almost wanted to not live anymore. But suddenly I got a grip and things got better. By the time I graduated I could have stayed living in England." Triple Vision especially wants to thank Tim Nolan, director of the Accessibility Hamilton Alliance, and the students who helped out with preparing and editing these podcasts – Ava Antolic, Enya Lee and Amy Jun. Thank you very, very much! We literally…

People in this episode

Guest: Ruth Vallis

Topics covered

• disability history
• education
• integration
• personal narrative
• rehabilitation
• advocacy

Keywords

• Disability History Month
• Hamilton
• Love is Blind
• integration
• rehabilitation
• education
• Ruth Vallis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Accessibility Hamilton Alliance, McMaster University

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• Disability History Month Part 4 - A Two-Spirit Journey Can Take a Long Time, Mc-Nee Chacaby · September 25, 2025 · 37 min
• Disability History Month - "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark" A Discussion of Acclaimed Canadian Children’s Writer Jean Little · September 18, 2025 · 47 min