Collinda Joseph named Alumni of Distinction Changing Lives Award recipient

Posted on Tuesday, September 13th, 2022

Every year, Algonquin College celebrates the incredible achievements of its alumni through the Alumni of Distinction Awards. These awards honour the extraordinary contributions our graduates make to the community while achieving career success. Here is a closer look at the Alumni of Distinction – Changing Lives Award recipient Collinda Joseph.

Paralympic Bronze Medalist and Accessibility Advocate
Public Relations, Class of 1991

One of the biggest accomplishments in Collinda Joseph’s athletic career came when she first passed through the competitors’ tunnel at the National Stadium in Beijing. 

“It was a surreal moment. I was trying to take it all in because I felt like, if I don’t do this, I’m going to forget something,” she said. “Just looking at the whole stadium and being part of this march with all these red jackets and everybody else that’s part of Team Canada. …  That was pretty cool.” 

She and her teammates would take home the 2022 Winter Paralympics bronze medal in wheelchair curling just a few days later, continuing a streak of Canadian medal wins in the sport. She adds the medal to an ever-growing list of curling achievements, including medals and championships at the international, national and provincial levels in Canada. 

In addition to her athletic pursuits, Joseph works a day job as an accessibility standards development manager for the federal government, where she helps craft standards pertaining to issues faced by people with disabilities. Her dual life as an elite athlete and accessibility advocate — as well as her time in Algonquin College’s Public Relations program and on the College’s Board of Governors — is what makes her one of the 2022 Alumni of Distinction. 

Born and raised in Ottawa, Joseph participated in several sports from a young age. She began competing in springboard diving in high school, which she greatly enjoyed. A 1983 train accident in France caused a spinal cord injury which led Joseph, ever the competitor, to start looking for a new sport for a wheelchair user to play. She dabbled with wheelchair tennis, skiing and track and field before finding an opportunity to play basketball with a women’s team from Ottawa. 

“We had a great time playing. I really loved basketball and it wasn’t something that I could do well when I was an able-bodied person because I’m so short,” she said. 

Joseph played basketball for about 15 years, though she admitted she “wasn’t good enough” to ever compete internationally. The game eventually started to take a toll on her neck and shoulders and she realized it was time to move on and try something new. Luckily, she soon heard of an opportunity to give wheelchair curling a try at the RA Centre in Ottawa. 

“I immediately thought, ‘Oh my goodness, this is really fun. … I think I could make this a sport to compete in,’” Joseph said. “And at that time (in 2006) it had just become a Paralympic sport, so the trajectory for that potential opportunity was there.” 

She began playing with local teams and in 2011 and 2012 she decided to push for some international competition. She started receiving invitations to training camps for the Canadian national team, which improved her abilities as a player and led to her joining Team Canada in 2019. 

Joseph said her other curling career highlights include: a 2014 championship victory over Team Scotland — themselves the previous year’s Paralympic bronze medalists — at a curling competition in New York; several Ontario provincial championships; a bronze medal at the National Wheelchair Curling Championships; and a silver medal at the World Wheelchair Curling Championships. Throughout it all, she said that arguably the most impactful moment of her sporting journey was when she received her Team Canada jacket in 2019. 

“To have your name on the jacket with the Maple Leaf on it, that’s a whole other level, right?” she said. “I can remember tearing up about it and feeling all the emotions that come with it, and then all of a sudden this whole notion of, ‘Oh my god, this is Team Canada!’” 

One of the key aspects of her success has been her ability to thrive on a team — something she gives credit for to her time in the Public Relations program. 

“We were all required to work as a team, building team relationships and managing those relationships together to reach a common goal,” she said. “All of that, of course, relates to sports. As soon as you’re on a team, you have to make sure that you manage it well and make sure you’re a fit within that team environment.” 

Joseph attended the College after completing a Political Science degree at Carleton University. While she enjoyed her university days, she didn’t thrive in that system and didn’t really know what she wanted to do with her life. Thankfully, she soon found that she was much more successful in a college environment. 

“There was a vast difference between how university courses are taught and how college programs are taught. And I fit much better in the college environment because [there were] much smaller classes, 25 to 40 students, I think,” said Joseph. “You were being taught things that were being used in the sector. It was very practical.” 

Around the time she graduated from the program, Joseph was asked to become a member of the College’s Board of Governors, a position she held for six years. She brought the perspective of both a recent College graduate and person with a disability, which she said was very helpful in discussions with the Board. Her role was a significant boon in her early career, leading to additional opportunities in volunteer and community work.  

“I owe a lot of gratitude to Algonquin for being open to providing me with that opportunity,” she said. 

These experiences eventually led to Joseph joining Employment and Social Development Canada, where she worked in the Office for Disability Issues. She helped develop government policy on disability issues and managed grants and funding for organizations in Canada’s disability community. She began working as a team manager at Accessibility Standards Canada in May 2019, where she leads a team that oversees technical committees to develop standards in accessibility. Joseph hopes these standards will eventually be put into regulations for accessibility across the country. 

In addition to her plethora of awards as an athlete, Joseph’s work as an accessibility advocate has garnered her the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Celebration of People’s Community Leader Award, the Commonwealth Youth Secretariat’s Youth Service Award and Carleton University’s Honour Award for Service. 

“I’m pretty proud of [my] work and I’m still connecting with the community to broaden inclusion for people with disabilities, to get recreational opportunities, to play sports, to basically get out there and be a part of their community. It’s really important to me.” 

Click here to purchase tickets for the Alumni of Distinction event on Sept. 29, 2022. 

Click here to visit the Alumni of Distinction website.


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