Kenneth Bence

speaker

245 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 19 Jun

Kenneth Bence’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

Health Chatter · Disabilities Research & Policy with Kenneth Bence · 19 Jun 2026 podcast

Well, so I think

we want to make sure that we can continue to have this philosophy that community integration and reducing barriers to people with disabilities as much as possible so that they have the opportunities to live a life that's fulfilling for them just like everybody else.

Community-based.

So community-based, decreasing separation, decreasing segregation, decreasing discrimination in whatever form, sort of as an overriding philosophy.

Often it's called independence first.

And so how do we best approach this as a way of maximizing a person's independence and also supporting their choices that they make?

There's something called the...

dignity of risk.

Um, and so as a, as a caregiver to be supporting a person's choices, even though we, the caregiver may feel that may not be the best choice for the person, but the person has the right to make a choice, um, and so, so to support them in their choice and allow them to take risks and, and, um, to support them as much as possible and doing those kinds of things.

And so I think, um,

You know, so however we can, um, permeate that philosophy throughout our, throughout the public sphere, um, is good.

I was just having conversation the other day on somebody in municipal government talking about, you know, what, what does accessibility look like as we're doing city planning?

Um, and there's more to it than, um, you know, wheelchair ramps on sidewalks and things like that.

Um, and, um, so as we'd look at, you know, building construction parks, construction and accessibility, um, you know, how do we create as much opportunity as possible?

Um, because I'm much more aware now of the challenges that face people with disabilities.

You know, every winter as I drive around, after a snowfall, I look at the sidewalks and I say, if I was a person in a wheelchair, I couldn't get from point A to point B because of, you know, the sidewalks aren't clear, it's not safe, those kind of things.

And so, you know, there's so many things that we don't, that we take for granted that face people.

And so I think public awareness is always helpful.

And, you know,

reducing any stigma and embracing people living in our communities.

Showing 81–100 of 245 · page 5 of 13