Rita works as a cashier in Kelowna, and she has hearing loss making it hard to interact with customers.

When she was looking for hearing aids, she was referred to WorkBC Assistive Technology Services for financial assistance for the hearing aids she needed for work. Rita applied to WorkBC Assistive Technology Services and was quickly approved, and was able to get the much-needed hearing aids.

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These are the universal experiences that invigorate the mind and soul.

The endless joy in hearing your children laugh, noticing the first songbird mark the morning sunrise, or listening to your favourite piece of music.

But what if the freedom afforded by proper hearing was suddenly gone?

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We covered plenty of learning apps in the past, but here we are again! The truth is there are SO MANY learning apps out there, and what works best for one student may not work for the other. The learning app that we are looking at today has been around for over a decade, and it’s currently topping a lot of “must have” lists around the internet.

SplashLearn is an education app that was designed for students from pre-K to grade 5. With over 4,000 learning games that cover math, reading, and writing, your child will have lots of unique learning opportunities. But, you won’t be finding yourself struggling to figure out what’s next, because SplashLearn offers daily learning plans. The app also has users set up a “profile” for their child during the initial set up, so you’ll be properly guided through this experience from the very start.

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Amy works as a chairside assistant and sterilization tech in a dental clinic in Grand Forks.

“My hearing is impaired,” she explains. “Without hearing aids, it is very difficult to hear instructions, communicate with patients, and understand what is required of me.”

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Today we are going to look at a brand-new app that takes the traditional productivity/to-do list model to the next level. First, what do we mean by a productivity/ to-do list app? The examples are many, and we’ve talked about a few at length. If you haven’t already done so, go ahead and check out Todoist or Microsoft To Do to see an example of what those apps look like. Simply put, these apps are designed to digitize and organize your daily tasks by creating prompts, sending reminders, and connecting your tasks to your calendar.

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Joined once again by Nakia Singh, we discuss Apple’s new accessibility features, using AI as AT, advances in wearable technology, and more.

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Rob has been looking for work as a writer. However, he was having troubles in the job search process as his computer wasn’t very usable, and he didn’t have the right software to allow him to navigate his computer very easily — he is blind and needs a screen reader to use a computer.

“[The computer] was on its last legs, basically after 15 minutes it would overheat and shut down,” he explains. “Also, the fact that the screen reader program I was using called JAWS, I only had it in the demo version, so even if the computer lasted an hour before overheating, the JAWS would stop talking after 40 minutes, and I would have to restart it.”

All of this made it very difficult to browse online job boards, or to even apply to jobs.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used more and more every day to power all sorts of technology, including assistive technology (AT). And while this technology already serves as the backbone of a variety of apps and features that you already use, such as text-to-speech, speech recognition, AI assistants such as Siri, etc., there is another way of using AI that you may not be aware of. Today we are going to talk about AI chat bots, and we’re going to discuss some of the ways in which these open-ended tools could be used as assistive technology.

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September 30^th is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Today we honour the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.

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