Hi, I am Andreea Demirgian, the host of Open Mic, The Accessible Podcast. I am a journalist with over 20 years of public broadcast experience. Since 2017, I have a brand new passion: Accessibility.

When I started studying this field, one question kept coming up: Is it accessible?

What is “it” you might ask. “It” can be anything. A kiosk. A building. A menu. A textbook. A fire escape. A car. A sidewalk. A doctor’s office. A supermarket. A podcast. A book. A newspaper. A TV program. A website. A video. A movie.

I am lucky enough to live in Ontario,  one of the few Canadian provinces that have legislation in place, meant to grant people equal access to services, jobs, communication, and media.

14 years have passed since we have the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). Is Ontario really Accessible? Are our cities and towns barrier-free? Is our environment built with Universal Design in mind? Do all our students have access to education to the degree they want? What has improved? What else do we need to work on?

Open Mic – The Accessible Podcast – addresses various areas that still need attention. My guests are members of the disability community, experts, people from all walks of life that have something to say about accessibility. We point to barriers that we need to remove.  We bring forward services and companies that already comply with AODA.

By 2025, Ontario aims to become a fully accessible province. I hope my podcast will be a testament to all the effort that went into the process. I hope that by bringing forward the voices of those who need to be heard, our message will get through. Accessibility Matters.

This website is a support platform for  Open Mic – The Accessible Podcast. Here I will post all the scripts of the audio recordings so that people of all abilities have access to the information we provide.

Thank you for joining me on this journey!