This week, Her Campus at UBC had the opportunity to learn about a new radio show at UBC’s CiTR 101.9FM and the woman who makes it happen each week. Mollie McAllister is a 5th year Geography student from Delta, B.C. who will be graduating this May with a major in Environment and Sustainability. In September of 2015, Mollie leapt out of her comfort zone and into the world of radio with local station CiTR 101.9FM to coordinate its new Accessibility Collective, All Access Pass. All Access Pass is a talk show that includes people of all abilities in the programming and production of the show, and that brings topics of inclusion, equity, and accessibility into the public spotlight. We sat down in the station with Mollie to learn more about her and how she came to be in her current role.
Mollie has held many titles that have allowed her the opportunity to work with people of diverse abilities. Among them, she has been a counselor with Easter Seals Camp in Shawnigan for three years, a mentor for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at UBC, and a volunteer soccer coach with an all-inclusive youth soccer team for six years. These experiences have made Mollie “really enthusiastic about making the world a more inclusive and accessible space for everyone.” When she saw the Accessibility Collective Coordinator job posting, she saw “an incredible way [to promote] diversity, equity, and accessibility and [to facilitate] the inclusion of people of all abilities in the public conversation around disability topics.” Going in, Mollie had zero radio experience, and describes her journey as a “new and exciting adventure,” noting that she had a short amount of time to learn many technical and communication skills to get the show up and running.
With supportive folks at her side, Mollie has seen the show come to fruition and has produced 11 shows at the time of this article’s publishing. With the collective only in its fifth month of development, Mollie expressed that it has “definitely been a challenge building [the] collective.” Beginning with no examples to look to, Mollie had to be confident that she could make her vision for the show a reality. Other staff at the station such as CiTR’s Spoken Word Coordinator, Madeline, and Volunteer Coordinator, Hugo Noriega, have been “incredibly supportive” and have made pulling it all off a “really incredible journey.” With a small team at her side with minimal (but growing) radio experience, Mollie hopes that All Access Pass will become a sustainable program that continues once she has graduated and left the role behind.
Mollie operates alongside the Women’s Collective and Indigenous Collective that together form “All Our Voices”, a new project aiming to amplify the voices of those traditionally underrepresented in the media. Since the project is new and funded for only one year, Mollie hopes that listeners will “connect with the topics and stories [shared], and [learn] more about accessibility” while its on air and that it continues to provide an accessible platform for people’s voices for a long time.
If you want to support the Accessibility Collective, Mollie encourages “ANYONE to come get involved! People of any ability, any experience [level], any background; if you have a positive attitude and want to continue in radio or give it a shot for the first time, you are WELCOME.” Ideally, you are available between 12:00pm and 1:00pm on Mondays for content meetings, and for the live show every Thursday at 5:00pm (CiTR 101.9FM). Alternatively, you may have great musical taste, involvement in a relevant campus or community group, or an idea for a topic on the show; whatever your interest may be, you can contact Mollie at accessibilitycollective@citr.ca to get involved.
We are grateful for the work Mollie is doing and will continue to do, and hope that our own audience will tune to CiTR on Thursdays or listen to All Access Pass podcasts online to learn more about accessibility, equity, and inclusion!