With the advent of COVID-19, our reliance on technology has increased dramatically. Today, many of us still work from home, and some of us still rely on technology to a degree that we never did before. And although the net benefits of using these devices certainly outweighs the costs, there are downsides to being overly reliant on technology that should be acknowledged. In today’s e-bulletin we’re going to look at a few different scenarios in an attempt to explore how technology can help but also hinder a person’s mental health, as well as look at some possible solutions for mitigating these challenges.

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Chunking is a process by which individual pieces of an information set are broken down and then grouped together in a meaningful whole. This strategy can be very helpful for short-term memory recall. Let’s use the example of a phone number to demonstrate:

First, let’s assume that we can easily remember only 4 things at a time. In other words, your working memory has 4 slots.

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Watching Philippe sing his songs, you’ll notice he can be a bit of a one man band — he’ll sing, he’ll play the guitar, he’ll do the percussion all at once, sometimes he’ll even throw in a harmonizer effect to create harmonies by himself.

Born blind in Clair, New Brunswick, Philippe started his musical journey at five years old, and he can play almost any instrument you can name. He learns songs by ear and adds his own flavour to them, and is a prolific songwriter himself.

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Episode 2 of our AT Help Desk‘s podcast, “We Have Solutions” has released today.

On today’s podcast episode we are joined by Courtney Cameron. Courtney is the Atlantic Region’s Regional Coordinator of Makers Making Change, a non-profit initiative by Neil Squire.

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Brian has about 40 years of experience as a realtor. Based in Victoria, he is passionate about serving his clients needs, and as a senior, wants to keep working.

“My most important duty is understanding the needs and desires of my clients, and then translating those needs into results,” he shares.

“My problem over the last few years has been mainly communication. My hearing has been deteriorating leading to embarrassing episodes where I have misheard my clients and had to have [them] repeat [themselves], sometimes several times. That is not conducive to trust and confidence.”

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In today’s e-bulletin, we’re going to talk about the major disability funding sources in New Brunswick, as well as a couple federally funded programs that are available to any student with disabilities in Canada. Not everyone is aware of these programs, but the potential funds granted can make an enormous difference in the life of any student or individual with a disability. These programs provide funds for school, equipment, training, tutoring, and more. The goal of this guide is to be as comprehensive as possible, so if you are someone with disabilities in New Brunswick and you’re looking for financial support programs, then this guide will be a good place to start.

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Vanessa works seasonally with Community Living BC. Born with spina bifida, a left ventricular shunt, and a cognitive delay, she does workshops for high school students with disabilities looking for the next steps out of high school, as well as with families looking into their services.

Her occupational therapist referred her to the WorkBC Assistive Technology Services program.

Through WorkBC Assistive Technology Services, Vanessa received a power elevating seat lift, allowing her to reach things higher up at work. She also received the components to retrofit it into her current power wheelchair.

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If you’re new to job searching, or maybe just new to job searching online, you might be surprised or even overwhelmed by how many tools there are available. And not only that, but you may not realize how important it is to explore all of the options available in order to increase the chances of finding that perfect position. Today, we are going to briefly explore five of the best options available for independent job searching online in New Brunswick. All of these tools can be accessed from any browser on PC or Mac for free, and many of them are even available as an app which can be downloaded via Android or iOS.

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“Retirement was not for me, but I did not have necessary technology to enable me to be productive,” says Randy, who is blind.

Randy is a founding board member of the One in Spirit Healing Arts Society, a non-profit society facilitating transformative healing moments, rooted in First Nations teachings. He recently started work as the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Elder-in-Residence for the Nanaimo campus of Vancouver Island University, a job he credits WorkBC Assistive Technology Services helping him to get.

He had heard about the program on the radio and decided to apply.

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