WEBINARS

🌍 What does it take to move beyond compliance and create workplaces where every employee feels supported and included? In this powerful conversation, Emma Brown—founder of Whimble—sits down with Sydney Elaine Butler, founder of Accessible Creates, HR/DEIA consultant, and disability employment coach. Together they explore how organizations can shift from simply meeting legal requirements to building cultures of genuine belonging. Sydney’s journey into accessibility started at a young age, shaped by lived experience and a passion for helping others. Today, through Accessible Creates, they partner with organizations to reimagine HR practices, recruit and retain diverse talent, and design workplaces where employees don’t just survive—they thrive.

✨ Topics covered:

• Beyond compliance: Why checking boxes isn’t enough for true inclusion.

• Employee voices: How listening deeply—both to what’s said and unsaid—uncovers hidden gaps.

• HR with empathy: Why inclusive leadership is about culture, not just policies.

• Breaking silos: How knowledge-sharing across teams builds more equitable organizations.

• The future of work: What proactive inclusion looks like in practice.

👤 Guest: Sydney Elaine Butler Sydney is the founder of Accessible Creates and a neurodiversity & disability employment coach. They specialize in HR, DEIA, and accessibility training, helping organizations integrate intersectional, human-centered practices into recruitment, retention, and workplace culture.

🧡 Host: Emma Brown Emma is the founder of Whimble and a systems thinker building more accessible communities through tech and care innovation.

💬 What does true inclusion mean in your workplace? Drop your thoughts in the comments, and don’t forget to follow for more conversations on accessibility, employment, and culture change.

What does harm reduction look like when it truly includes everyone? In this urgent and eye-opening conversation, Atticus Hawk—leader in accessibility, healthcare policy, and harm reduction—joins Emma Brown, founder of Whimble, to explore the intersections of disability, toxic drug supply, and systemic exclusion in Ontario. From pioneering the first university course on harm reduction for information professionals, to building programs that centre 2SLGBTQIA+ Disabled and other vulnerable communities, Atticus shares insights from both academia and frontline advocacy. Together, they discuss the systemic barriers that keep people unsafe, and what it really takes to build compassionate, inclusive harm reduction practices.

✨ Topics covered:

• Harm reduction in libraries: why librarians are increasingly frontline responders to overdoses, how Atticus created the first harm reduction course for information professionals in North America, and what the response from staff and students has been.

• Navigating systems: the challenges of translating pain, accessing medication, and advocating within bureaucratic structures like Ontario Drug Benefits and healthcare policy.

• Dignity and care: the importance of small gestures, respecting consent, and client-directed support — from overdose response to personal care. Ableism and sadism in healthcare: how institutions often deny or diminish the rights of people who use substances, people with cognitive disabilities, and unhoused populations.

• Substance use disorder as disability: reframing the opioid crisis within disability justice and exposing systemic failures like the ban on peer-to-peer injections and closure of safe consumption sites.

• Hope and change: examples of harm reduction innovations (like naloxone training and harm reduction vending machines) and how empowering people with practical tools creates real, life-saving impact.

👤 Guest: Atticus Hawk Atticus is a researcher, advocate, and harm reduction innovator. During their PhD in Information Science at the University of Toronto, they designed and taught the first harm reduction course for information professionals in North America.

🧡 Host: Emma Brown Emma is the founder of Whimble and a systems thinker building more accessible communities through tech and care innovation.

💬 Share your thoughts in the comments, and don’t forget to like & subscribe for more conversations on accessibility, justice, and systemic change.

What does it take to build truly barrier-free communities? In this inspiring and energizing conversation, Luke Anderson—engineer, accessibility leader, and co-founder of the StopGap Foundation—joins Emma Brown, founder of Whimble, to talk about the urgent need for inclusive design, the power of community action, and the ramps that have become icons of accessibility across Canada. After sustaining a spinal cord injury in 2002, Luke was suddenly introduced to a world full of barriers that made everyday life unnecessarily difficult. Frustrated but determined, he channeled that experience into founding StopGap: a movement that has since placed brightly painted ramps in more than 60 communities across the country and sparked new conversations about accessibility, dignity, and inclusion.

✨ Topics covered: From injury to action:

• How Luke’s personal journey led to the creation of StopGap and its mission.

• The “one small step” problem: Why a single step at a storefront can feel like a hundred—and how ramps transform independence.

• Community collaboration: How StopGap partners with local leaders, businesses, and volunteers to shift perspectives and break down barriers.

• Beyond ramps: The broader movement toward policy change, education, and truly accessible design.

• The human side of accessibility: Why collaboration, creativity, and empathy are just as important as engineering solutions.

👤 Guest: Luke Anderson Luke Anderson is the co-founder of the StopGap Foundation, a licensed professional engineer, and a Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal recipient. His leadership has sparked a national conversation about accessibility through advocacy, education, and community-driven action. He’s also a nature lover, avid meditator, and aspiring harmonica virtuoso.

🧡 Host: Emma Brown Emma is the founder of Whimble and a systems thinker building more accessible communities through tech and care innovation.

💬 Drop your thoughts in the comments, and don’t forget to like & subscribe for more conversations on accessibility, design, and community change.

In this timely and empowering conversation, Erica Carson-Sami joins Emma Brown, founder of Whimble, to debunk myths about workplace accommodations and share concrete ways employers can build environments where disabled employees thrive.

Drawing on over 15 years of professional and volunteer experience in the disability community, Erica shines a light on misconceptions, like the false belief that accommodations are expensive or burdensome and instead reframes them as cost-effective, creative solutions that benefit entire teams.

✨ Topics covered:

• Accommodation myths: Why most workplace accommodations cost under $500—or nothing at all—and how thinking outside the box changes the game.

• Performance & attendance: Research that challenges stereotypes about absenteeism and productivity among employees with disabilities.

• Benefits of inclusive hiring: Beyond “doing the right thing”—how accessibility drives innovation, retention, and organizational strength. Manager mindsets: Shifting away from fear and resistance toward curiosity and equity in supporting employees.

• Practical strategies: How employers can foster belonging through communication, flexibility, and respect for lived experience.

👤 Guest: Erica Carson-Sami Erica is a fierce advocate for the disability community with 15 years of experience as a professional and volunteer. As founder of CARCO Disability Strategies, she empowers individuals with disabilities to confidently advocate for their workplace needs, while helping employers build inclusive practices through training, panels, and thought leadership.

🧡 Host: Emma Brown Emma is the founder of Whimble and a systems thinker building more accessible communities through tech and care innovation.

💬 Share your takeaways in the comments, and don’t forget to like & subscribe for more conversations on accessibility, justice, and workplace inclusion.