Video transcript: Seeing the Invisible: Meaghan’s Journey with the Accessibility Passport

Video length: 4:57 minutes

In live action, a young woman wearing a black t-shirt and dark jeans walks across a dirt trail toward a grassy patch. The woman is carrying a skateboard with cartoon designs on the underside. A concrete skateboard ramp is to her right, under a leafy tree. Late afternoon sun shines over her. Soft music plays. The woman narrates the scene.

Woman: Living with a disability presents differently for everyone.

The woman sits to the side of a small skateboard park, which is surrounded by trees and a multi-story building, and lit by the low-lying sun. She has long, curly dark hair. A skateboarder, who is blurred, pushes off with one foot and coasts along the concrete in front of the woman.

The scene cuts to the woman, now sitting in a grey chair, in an office environment with red-and-white walls. There is a large concrete planter full of leafy plants to the side. The woman wears a blue denim jacket over a white shirt, and she has a blue-and-white paisley bandanna tied around her neck. Her nose is pierced with a small hoop, and she wears glasses with a brown-and-black spotted pattern on the frames. Black text displays her name and job title.

Text displays: Meaghan Isaacs, Communications Advisor

Meaghan’s words are delivered in a mixture of voice-over paired with office footage, and clips of her interview in this setting.

Meaghan: In my situation, I have chronic conditions that I’ve lived with my whole life, but where I found the passport particularly helpful is with an episodic disability I live with, and my episodic disability involves vestibular migraines, and when I experience those...

Bright fluorescent lights shine in an office setting. Someone walks along a green patterned carpet, past a row of tan office cubicles with black trim. Two green emergency exit lights hang over the person.

In a dark room, a fluorescent light on the ceiling blinks irregularly.

Meaghan: ...usually when it’s triggered by fluorescent lighting, long exposure to lighting like that, I get these dots.

A long row of cubicles stretches along an open area in the same office. A woman in a white hoodie sits at one cubicle. At another cubicle further down, a man in a black shirt is also working at a computer. There are tall windows with white blinds. The walls and ceiling are white, with fluorescent lights, but a row of yellow walls form small divisions to the side of the area.

Three monitors are set up on a desk, which also holds a phone, and a pink thermos with marble-style designs. Two monitors feature data applications in predominantly black, white and grey, while another monitor displays a chat application.

Three blurry, large circles obscure the image of the monitors. A prism of colour lines the right edge of each circle. The circles flicker, giving them an appearance of static.

Meaghan: It almost looks like O’s that are really bright, and it starts like that in my vision.

Back in the interview setting, Meaghan holds her hands in circle shapes, right in front of her face. She waves her hands back and forth to demonstrate movement.

Meaghan: And when I try to focus on anything in front of me, which at work tends to usually be a screen, because I work on websites, my vision blurs, and I have to really be out of any strong light when that happens.

The camera moves at chaotic angles over the same desk with 3 monitors. The blurry circles are now absent, but the camera’s movement blurs the image as a whole.

In a room with red-brown walls, a woman with curly dark hair, who appears to be Meaghan, doubles over, covering her face with her hands. Her nails are painted red. She sits on a grey couch with wooden armrests. The footage is blurry.

Now sitting up, the woman rubs her temples. Her eyes are closed.

Meaghan: And it can cause other symptoms depending on the amount of exposure, such as nausea, fainting, pretty intense dizziness,

The woman is lying down in a dark room, her hands on her face. She wears a black short-sleeved shirt. Her hands cover her face.

Back on the grey couch, Meaghan, rubs her temples and cheekbones with her fingers. A large window next to her is lit up in white.

Meaghan: And so that brings with it mobility issues, when I can’t get to an environment where I’m away from strong lighting.

Meaghan walks through an open-plan office area, dressed in a short-sleeved black top and dark-grey cargo pants, and carrying a black laptop. Tall green plants stand behind the divider. A colleague sits at a white table with white chairs, a grey booth seat and a red-brown divider. They have a laptop open to a website with a colourful logo. A long glass panel is to the right of the 2 people. Meaghan stops at the colleague’s table. They begin a conversation.

Meaghan: Pre-passport, the way that our workplaces are set up for enabling disability in the workplace is that it heavily relies on people managers, and approaching someone with something as vulnerable as your health, and trusting people to understand what you’re communicating about what you need – it creates a lot of difficulty in establishing a comfort level, even approaching these conversations.

The image focuses more closely on Meaghan, which shows the colleague’s laptop in greater detail. The multicoloured image is a compilation of several people’s silhouettes, including at least 2 people in wheelchairs.

Meaghan is now shown from the back. The colleague, who has dark glasses, sits across from her at the table.

Meaghan sits in her interview.

Meaghan: And that is a really important piece that I think the passport also protects people from, is that you don’t have to divulge any specific medical condition or circumstances.

Meaghan sits in a dimly lit office, at the desk with 3 monitors. Her laptop shows a video conversation with a woman.

The image focuses on the laptop. The woman Meaghan is talking to has her hair in a high bun, and is wearing a white t-shirt with grey stripes, along with black headphones.

Meaghan: I know what’s best for my health. I know what my barriers are.

Meaghan types on a keyboard, looking at one of the monitors, which has multiple black-and-white applications open.

Meaghan: I know what those solutions can look like, because I’m the person in the body that’s experiencing these symptoms.

The monitors are on Meaghan’s desk, out of focus. Her laptop is open to a messaging application. Meaghan is clicking a black computer mouse.

Meaghan speaks from her interview setting.

Meaghan: The number one most important thing about the passport is that autonomy and empowerment that it puts back on employees living with disabilities to manage their own health, and trust in employees that we know what’s best for ourselves.

In sped-up footage, Meaghan is shown sitting at her desk from a top-down angle. As time passes, she opens and closes applications, and types at her computer. A black divider separates her from a colleague at the next desk, who is working at a computer.

In close-up, the light from the monitor shines on Meaghan’s glasses.

Meaghan speaks from her interview setting.

Meaghan: When you have it laid out on paper like that, what your barriers are and what those solutions are, for me, it really allowed me to clarify where I should be asking for help, in the workplace and outside of the workplace.

Meaghan stands at the skateboard park, holding her board. She watches the other skateboarder coast in front of her.

Meaghan: Last year, I didn’t get to skate at all, due to the balance issues that I have.

Her skateboard is standing on its end, with its cartoon underside showing. In the blurred background, 2 skateboarders are skating, both wearing white tops and black pants.

Meaghan looks out onto a flat concrete area with several low platforms, as a skateboarder passes in front of her.

Meaghan sits cross-legged, surrounded by several other people in the same position, in a yoga studio. Her hands are in prayer position. She wears a green long-sleeved top and black pants. Behind the group is a large window, alternating in stripes of frosted and unfrosted glass.

In the same yoga class, she is positioned with one arm stretched out. Except for one arm, the entire image is blurry.

Meaghan: Yoga is a big part of my life as well, and something that I’ve worked really hard with my vestibular physiotherapist to be able to get back to.

Lying on her front, Meaghan uses her arms to pull herself upward. She uses her hands to support herself and looks up at the ceiling.

In her office, Meaghan smiles as she sits at her laptop. At the workstation next to her, a man sits at a computer, wearing black-rimmed glasses, a blue diamond-patterned long-sleeved shirt and black pants. Next to them, an empty workstation holds a laptop and monitor, which are open to a messaging app. Repetitive piano music plays during this segment of the video. A thin circular light with black trim hangs above them.

Another angle shows several small workstations behind them, with small red-and-white tables, a black ottoman and a red chair at each. The workstations are separated by grey dividers.

In close-up, Meaghan’s left hand hovers over the keyboard, typing, while her right hand navigates the mouse. There is a small, dotted tattoo on one of her fingers.

Meaghan: As part of my accommodations right now, I go in once a week to a low-light space that’s available at our hub location.

Sitting in her black computer chair, Meaghan smiles, speaks to an offscreen person, and then turns back to her computer.

Meaghan: It sounds like such a small thing, but simply having adjustable lighting in the room that I work in allows me to still be in the office, still connect with my colleagues, not be in a state of isolation. It makes a world of difference for those who need it.

In close-up, Meaghan’s hand presses a button on a white wall-mounted light switch. A dimmer is next to the switch.

Several thin, circular lights with black trim hang from the ceiling. The lights flicker on.

Meaghan walks past a series of small workstations. She greets a colleague, a dark-haired man with a salt-and-pepper beard, who is wearing a light-grey long-sleeved shirt. He waves at her. They approach each other and shake hands.

At her desk, Meaghan chats with her colleague, the man in the diamond-patterned shirt.

Meaghan speaks from her interview setting.

Meaghan: It’s not about, you know, wanting special treatment. It’s not about wanting to get around certain working conditions. It’s simply about being enabled, so that I can do my job, the same way anyone else can.

At the skate park, Meaghan stares into the distance. The sun shines brightly, obscuring her face. Slowly, her face comes into focus.

Meaghan: There’s always this fear, with invisible disabilities, that you won’t be believed.

In close-up, her skateboard is tucked under her arm, resting on her hip.

At the skateboard park, Meaghan stares ahead of her, the sun shining on her face.

Meaghan speaks from her interview setting.

Meaghan: And you hear these comments sometimes, "Well, you look fine.” And I think that the department sending a message of the importance of tools like the passport, and really adopting that, it’s a really great step in the direction of the social model of disability.

At the skateboard park, Meaghan pushes off with one foot and coasts along the concrete on her skateboard.

Meaghan: Don’t be afraid to get started, and really know that you have the right to be accommodated.

Meaghan sits in her yoga class, her hands clasped against her chest in prayer position and her eyes closed.

Meaghan: You have the right to be enabled in the workplace.

In an office with red-brown walls, Meaghan speaks with a colleague, who is wearing a black-and-white striped sweater. They are both holding white mugs.

Meaghan: This tool helps us be listened to in that way.

Meaghan speaks from her interview setting.

Meaghan: You’re never alone, going through this process.

White centred text appears on a black background.

Text displays: For help or support, reach out to the Employee Support Office. On Connexion, search “Accessibility at IRCC” to find practical tools and stories.

On a black background, we see the department’s logo, a small Canadian flag with the text “Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada – Immigration Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada.” We see the Canada wordmark.