Episode #144: Season 5 Kickoff: Flu Bugs and Big Changes
In this episode of Water Prairie Chronicles, Tonya returns after a two-month hiatus due to illness and discusses season five with a new audio-only format. The episode includes personal updates, such as coping with the flu and helping a son move to a new college. Tonya also shares insights on upcoming changes related to digital accessibility laws and teases a new comprehensive digital training tool aimed at helping businesses and community groups be more inclusive. Listeners are encouraged to provide feedback and subscribe for updates.
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Show Notes:
Is your favorite organization ready for the 2026 ADA deadline? We’re diving into the future of digital accessibility.
In this episode of Water Prairie Chronicles, Tonya returns after a two-month hiatus due to illness and discusses season five with a new audio-only format. The episode includes personal updates, such as coping with the flu and helping a son move to a new college. Tonya also shares insights on upcoming changes related to digital accessibility laws and teases a new comprehensive digital training tool aimed at helping businesses and community groups be more inclusive. Listeners are encouraged to provide feedback and subscribe for updates.
Work with Tonya as an IEP Coach: If you’re looking for personalized support, a trusted partner, and expert guidance through the IEP process, I would be honored to be part of your team. Find more information about my IEP coaching services here: https://waterprairie.com/iepcoach
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Tonya Wollum is an IEP Coach, podcast host, and disability advocate. She works one-on-one with parents to guide them to a peaceful partnership with their child’s IEP team, and she provides virtual mentors for special needs parents through the interviews she presents as the host of the Water Prairie Chronicles podcast. Tonya knows firsthand how difficult it is to know how to support your special needs child, and she seeks to provide knowledge to parents and caregivers as well as to those who support a family living life with a disability. She’s doing her part to help create a more inclusive world where we can celebrate what makes each person unique!
Episode #144: Season 5 Kickoff: Flu Bugs and Big Changes
Is your favorite organization ready for the 2026 ADA deadline? We’re diving into the future of digital accessibility.
(Recorded February 11, 2026)
Full Transcript of Episode 144:
Welcome Back to Water Prairie Chronicles
Tonya: Hi everyone.
Welcome to the Water Prairie Chronicles, a podcast for parents of children with disabilities. If you’re checking your podcast player and thinking, wait a minute, didn’t she go quiet around Thanksgiving? You’d be exactly right. Today is February 13th, and for the first time in over two months, I’m back in my office and sitting in front of the microphone.
Honestly, I’ve had my hands full. After a week in northern Maine, right after Thanksgiving, I brought home that nasty flu bug and shared it with my family as an early Christmas gift. The joke was on me, though, because I was the first to get it and the last to get over it. It’s one of the downsides of having an autoimmune disease like MS.
It takes my body a long time to recover from any illness or injury. Thankfully, we were all clear to celebrate Christmas with our extended family, and we didn’t pass the virus on to anyone beyond our immediate family. It did remind me, however, just how challenging our lives can get. I know many of you have had those sleepless nights of caring for your kiddos when they’ve been ill.
Between the joy of fighting the flu as a family and helping our son with a big move to a new college, the podcast and coaching had to wait. Thank you for still being here. It feels really good to reconnect again.
Season Five: New Format and Schedule
Today I’m kicking off season five for the podcast, and things are gonna look, or rather sound, a little different. This season, the podcast is going to be audio-only. I want this to be a place where we can have those heart-to-heart conversations you can take with you on a walk or in the car. If you usually listen to the episodes on YouTube, you’ll need to either go to the Water Prairie website or search for the Water Prairie Chronicles on any podcast platform.
New episodes are gonna be released on Friday mornings this season, and I’m shooting for around 6:00 ET. But give me a week or two to to get that finalized.
Engage with Us: Share Your Thoughts and Ideas
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the shift. What topics would you want me to dive into this season? I’d like to hear your thoughts on this shift.
What are some of the topics that you’d like to hear more about? Is there anything that’s really burning that you don’t know much about and you’d like to learn more about? Are there any specific guests that you’d like for me to invite to come on?
I’m talking with several guests that I’ve already lined up who will be joining me in the coming weeks, and I’d love to hear your input on what you’d like to hear more about. If you have any ideas, drop me a note. Send me an email. Um, you can send it to guest@waterprairie.com.
That way I’ll see it right on the guest input there.
Changes to Water Prairie YouTube Channel
Anyway, along with the podcast changes, I’ve decided that I’m gonna focus on some specific teaching topics for the videos that I post on the Water Prairie YouTube channel. So if you are used to going to Water Prairie for everything. There’ll be a slight adjustment here, but I think you’ll, you’ll like the streamlining a little bit better.
What I’m gonna be putting over there will be more of an education hub. I wanna focus on parent education and training, and I’ll also have some of the special guest segments there, too. Depending on who I’ve been interviewing. I’d like to highlight some of the specific areas of our conversations and not post the full podcast episode on YouTube.
What I’ve found over the last couple of years is that most of you who listen to the full podcast are listening to the audio, and the YouTube videos, you’re not watching those all the way through. So I thought, let’s make the most of what I’m putting the time into, so that I can focus on content that you want to see in video format.
So this is what’s driving the change there. So if you haven’t done so, be sure to go to youtube.com/@waterprairie and subscribe. That way, you’ll be notified, or you should get some indication on YouTube when new videos are being posted. And remember, the, the audio part will be coming out on Fridays, so you’ll have that, the newsletter, if you’re not subscribed to that yet, we’ll have the links and comments about what has come out each week.
So that’s probably your best place to go. And you can either subscribe to Water Prairie on Substack, or you can go to waterprairie.com and fill out the form to join the email list. Another thing that happened while I was away was I wasn’t just resting. I actually wasn’t resting much at all ’cause I was helping my son get adjusted to his new school and apartment.
Upcoming ADA Title II Deadline
But I was also learning, did you know that we’re sitting on the edge of some massive shifts in the law? Specifically, the Department of Justice has set a new ADA Title II deadline for digital accessibility, and for many state and local agencies, that deadline is April of 2026, so it’s coming up soon.
Imagine that you are trying to navigate a website that isn’t accessible when you’re looking for resources for your child. For example, if you are blind or visually impaired, you need to use a screen reader. If the website’s not accessible to a screen reader, that information’s not accessible to you.
If you are deaf and hard of hearing, and there’s a lot of video with auditory that’s on the website. And there’s no closed captions for it. You don’t know what they’re saying. So these are just two examples. There’s a lot of other ways that accessibility needs to happen. If you have a child who’s visually impaired, you know how frustrating it can be whenever a PDF or a document can’t be enlarged because it becomes too grainy, and then your child no longer has access to something.
So these things should be better once different organizations begin complying with the the new guidelines. So I’m excited about that. For that reason, you should be seeing more websites becoming more compliant as these changes are being made.
Personal Insights and Accessibility Efforts
And, um, on a personal side of it, I. I’ve been diving into this more.
One, I want the Water Prairie website to be more accessible, and I still have a ways to go. If you wanna send me feedback on where I’m still missing something, please do, because that’s gonna be my easiest way to figure it all out. But if you’ve listened to the podcast for a while or if you’ve. Um, gone through and seen some of the videos.
You may have met my daughter Emily already. Emily is in college right now, and she’s currently working on her certification as an accessibility analyst. And watching her go through the process has been really eye-opening for me, and not only understanding that there’s a need there, but understanding that there’s a certain way that we need to be able to comply.
And so she’s teaching me a lot as she goes and. We’ve talked a lot at home about what businesses, schools, and even government agencies are required to do to ensure that their spaces are truly open to everyone, and there’s a lot to unpack there. So this got me thinking. Beyond just what I wanna do with Water Prairie.
We have a lot of churches. We have small business, we have community groups, you know, scouting groups that are out there. They want to be welcoming. They want to be accessible to everyone, but they may not know where to start, and they don’t have someone like Emily in their office to tell them what to do.
Exciting New Project Announcement
So I’ve been quietly working on a project that I’m excited to announce. Probably a little early right now to announce it, but I’m gonna tell you a little bit about it. Um, soon I’ll be launching a comprehensive digital training tool that’s designed specifically for business teams and community volunteer groups.
Whether you’re a church greeter, a retail manager, a classroom teacher, or a community volunteer, this tool will give you the practical boots-on-the-ground training to create an environment that isn’t just compliant, but genuinely welcoming for people with disabilities. And I’m gonna share more about this as we get closer to launching it for the public, but I just wanna let you know that it’s coming.
I’m excited about it. If, if you can’t tell in, in, in my voice, I, I’ve had fun getting this put together, and I’m still working out the final pieces of it, trying to figure out whether I can actually make this a physical product that you can purchase or if it’s something that you’ll need to print out at home.
I’m figuring all of that out. But, um, together, I think this is a great way that we can foster some connections in our community.
Season Five Goals and Closing Remarks
So. I’m gonna spend this season talking about the IEP table, the church pews, and the boardroom.
Because inclusion isn’t just a checkbox, it’s a culture that we’re gonna build together. Let’s work towards creating a world where every child and family feels seen and valued. If you haven’t done so, go ahead and subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s episode.
Keep an eye on your inbox for the link to that training tool once it comes out. If you’re not already on the mailing list, you can sign up for the weekly newsletter at waterprairie.com. I’ve really missed connecting with you all, and I can’t wait for what’s ahead. Let’s make season five the best one yet, and I’ll see you next week.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
- Why is the podcast switching to audio-only? To provide a better experience for listeners on the go and to allow the YouTube channel to focus on specific educational training videos.
- What is the new ADA Title II deadline? Most state and local agencies must comply with new digital accessibility standards by April 2026.
- How can I tell if a website is accessible for my child? Look for features like screen reader compatibility, closed captions on videos, and PDFs that remain clear when enlarged.
- What kind of training is Water Prairie developing? A comprehensive digital tool for businesses, churches, and volunteer groups to move beyond compliance into true hospitality for people with disabilities.
- When do new episodes air? Every Friday morning around 6:00 AM ET.
