BLOOM combines real family stories with the best expert advice, plus the latest news and opinion on disability.
Check out the latest BLOOM
Read our new stories, with links to mainstream disability news and shoutouts to people making the world more inclusive.
Mom knits 'special needs' story into art
Kathryn Ruppert-Dazai (above) is a Toronto textile artist who plans to create an art series called A Failure to Thrive. These large-scale...
'P-what?' A dad teaches doctors about child's rare condition
Yesterday a dad came to visit me.His name is Syed Haider and his daughter Zahra, 5, has pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration ...
There isn't a detour around grief
A very wiseperson—Julie Keon, who wrote What I would Tell You: One Mother's Adventure with Medical Fragility—told me that youcan't gr...
Why is beauty essential for disabled children, but not adults?
In 2006, Holland Bloorview broke the institutional mould when it opened the doors of an extraordinary building that would operate as a ch...
When a clown is the best medicine
Lorrine Peruzzo anticipated the daily unpacking and packing of special dressings in her daughter Katie's pressure sores with dread.Katie,...
My girl Nydia swims butterfly with one arm
This morning I saw Nydia Langill swim in the Parapan Am Games. This is a photo of Nydia (in black swimsuit closest to front) from an earl...
A helping hand? It depends on your kid's perspective
A recent piece in Business Insider features this photo of a girl born without a hand who gets a new pink bionic one thanks to 3D printing...
Are you a special-needs parent? Dream, fail, do it again!
When my son was about two-and-a-half, I called a family support line at Holland Bloorview and the kind voice at the end of the line was J...
Are we really from a different planet?
Editor's note: No, this piece is not related to my Facebook post about my "bad day" today. It happened a few days ago. But I couldn't get...
Focused on access: Photographer launches new app
Maayan Ziv found her life passion by accident. After landing in New York on a high school trip, her power wheelchair broke down.She could...
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