Sixty Issues of ABILITIES Magazine

When ABILITIES Magazine was first produced by founder Raymond Cohen in a small duplex in Calgary, its future was uncertain. Could the Canadian Abilities Foundation, which he was establishing as a non-profit organization in order to publish ABILITIES, survive a fitful Canadian economy?

What was certain was that ABILITIES was needed. Raymond, as head of the Department of Child Care at Alberta Children’s Hospital, had noticed the great void in resources for adults with disabilities once they reached age 18 and “graduated” from the system. There was no all-encompassing, cross-disability, cross-topic lifestyle publication available to link people with disabilities to the information, inspiration and opportunity they needed to achieve a full quality of life.

Many years later, the Canadian Abilities Foundation has expanded to include eight permanent staff, several part-time staff and consultants and 800 volunteers in the past year alone. And while the organization now operates a resource-rich website, publishes several guides and books and spearheads a variety of groundbreaking projects, all for the benefit of Canadians with disabilities, ABILITIES magazine will always be its first-born child.

With this, our 60th issue, we bring you some of the highlights from the 4,000 pages we’ve produced over the years.

TABOO TOPICS
ABILITIES has delved into issues that have been too often suppressed by mainstream media wherever they intersect with disability. Violence and abuse, neo-Nazism, euthanasia, gay/lesbian issues, sex and disability... our past issues have explored all of these topics resolutely.

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES
Canadians with disabilities have always had a vested interest in what goes on around the globe. Our stories have covered countries from Aruba to Yugoslavia, and plenty of places in between. The Canadian Abilities Foundation even participated as an agent for change in the disability community of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – reporting on the results in ABILITIES.

TAKE A FLYING LEAP!
A big part of having abilities means showing off what you can do, inspiring others in the process. In the pages of ABILITIES magazine we have seen people with disabilities mountain climbing, scuba diving, downhill skiing, whitewater rafting – and, yes, even bungee jumping!

ISSUE 50
ABILITIES magazine has been known for its striking covers. When we produced the 50th issue of ABILITIES, we were inspired to reproduce all 49 of our previous covers on the front. It engendered a hugely positive reaction among our readers – several of whom wanted to know if a poster version would be available!

INDEPENDENCE 92
The largest magazine we ever produced, our 164-page Spring 1992 issue, coincided with an enormous international congress of people with disabilities: Independence 92 in Vancouver, which hosted thousands of people with disabilities from 140 countries. It was a groundbreaking gathering – the international energy was electric.

OOPS!
After 60 issues, we can’t say they’ve all been flawless. On a couple of magazine covers, the dot above a letter “i” in the ABILITIES logo seemed to have taken a brief sabbatical. And speaking of slip-ups – can you spot the blunder in the cover on the right? Fortunately, these faux pas have been few and far between. As our organization has grown, the pages of the magazine have reflected that evolution, with a revitalized style and new departments and format.

CREATIVE ENERGY
The experience of disability when combined with an artistic spirit often has a breathtaking result. We have done many features on art in ABILITIES magazine – and last year the Canadian Abilities Foundation launched Abilities Festival, celebrating disability and the arts.

HISTORY IN THE MAKING
In the spring of 1993, the government and the community living movement joined forces in Newfoundland and Labrador to deinstitutionalize its citizens with disabilities. Months later, Canada elected a prime minister with personal disability experience. We’ve recorded disability history in the making!