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Disability Awareness Training, Life Skills, Programs, Victoria, Westshore, Saanich, Diverse Abilities

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About Gina Martin, Owner and Disability Awareness Educator, Diverse Abilities

Empowering Change Through Experience and Empathy


Diversity consultant Gina is sitting on a bench with flowers and greenery in the background. She was wearing a red top and her long brown hair is falling over her shoulders. She’s looking up to the sky and laughing.As a passionate advocate, dedicated educator, and compassionate speaker for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Language (IDEAL), Gina believes that fostering a deeper understanding of these concepts, along with practical easy-to-implement strategies, is pivotal for creating workspaces and communities that work for all. Her decades of personal lived experience, along with years of connections and work with our disability community, has solidified Gina’s commitment to inspiring everyone to learn IDEAL principles.

As an accessibility consultant, Gina’s approach combines humour, practical teaching methods, and easy-to-implement strategies with a genuine passion for making a lasting impact and creating a more inclusive world for all. Since 2019 she has developed and delivered dynamic presentations and workshops on a variety of IDEAL topics to non-profits, community and recreation centres, educators, school-age children, and seniors with up to 60 participants.

 

Gina’s Journey
As a wife, mother, and adventurer, Gina’s journey through life and vision loss has shaped her into the compassionate and resilient advocate and educator she is today. She is most passionate about delivering impactful, interactive presentations to a variety of audiences, emphasizing the importance of understanding and accepting of people living with diverse abilities. Her personal and professional experiences with disability and diverse ability advocacy make her a unique asset for speaking engagements, workshops, and consultations aimed at creating more inclusive environments for everyone from classrooms to community centres to workplaces.

I am now an Ambassador for the Rick Hansen Foundation‘s Youth Program 

 

Accessibility educator Gina is walking on a log over a small stream. She is using her long white cane to help her walk straight over the log.

Gina’s vision loss began in 1992 with a Progressive Cone Dystrophy diagnosis. It wasn't until 2015 when she met two inspiring women who are blind that she began to embrace her own blindness and started her journey to helping others facing similar challenges. In 2016, following an intensive 9-month rehabilitation program at The Louisiana Centre for the Blind, Gina transformed her life and career to focus on disability awareness, inclusion, and empowerment. In her Disability Awareness Educator role working with local disability organizations, Gina leveraged the communication skills she honed for 28 years interacting with a diverse customer base in the food service industry. Since 2019, Gina has developed and delivered numerous presentations and workshops for a wide variety of audiences to foster deeper understanding and better practices for inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility, and language. Her presentations and programs have touched people of diverse backgrounds and abilities in non-profits, community and recreation centres, schools, and seniors’ residences.

Gina is available to provide consulting services, training, and presentations to your organization either in-person or online. For more information on her service offerings, please see Programs & Services. To contact Gina, visit our contact page.