Dana works as a real-time transcriber for post-secondary students, largely at the University of Victoria, captioning lectures for students who are hard of hearing or deaf.

However, Dana was finding she was struggling with her own hearing.

“I often work in a team with another transcriber, so I would notice they were getting things — mostly student comments that were across the room — that I wasn’t fully hearing. As you can imagine, where my job is to actually hear for someone, this became quite alarming,” she explains.

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Lisa works as a seniors program coordinator at a recreation centre in Coquitlam.

“My daily work environment varies from morning to afternoon, and from day to day. Sometimes I’m one-on-one with the seniors, other times I’m running a large group event. Some days I conduct small workshops. Some days there are staff meetings or board meetings,” she explains.

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Russell has worked as an inside sales representative for a building materials company in Chilliwack for nearly a decade.

Having “grown into” the role after having had to transition to less physical work following a hernia operation, Russell found his groove, doing everything from over the counter and phone sales to providing quotes for construction companies.

However, he was facing a significant barrier in this line of work.

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Jamie is a sales professional based in Kelowna.

It’s a job that requires him to be focused in conversations with clients and staff, something that was becoming hard to do with his hearing loss.

“The decline in my hearing made it very difficult to follow conversations — there were many times I misinterpreted a conversation only to add input that was incorrect as a result,” he admits.

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“Assistive Technology Services helped me to get a full time job,” Hao beams.

Today, Hao works as a banker in New Westminster, helping customers meet their financial needs and advising financial solutions.

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As a bank teller in Kelowna, Natasha helps hundreds of clients a week with their banking transactions. She also has hearing loss in both ears.

“This affects my ability to understand what clients and co-workers need. It is a very loud and distracting environment with a lot of background noise,” Natasha shares. “People speaking in different tones, or with accents, or over the phone can be challenging to comprehend.”

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Thomas has dealt with hearing loss for over 20 years. As a geoscientist for much of that time, his hearing loss didn’t significantly affect his work.

“I often worked in remote locations and interacted with just a handful of people,” he says.

After losing that position due to a layoff, however, he found new jobs in first aid and security, and found it much harder to get by.

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Zhi, of Vancouver, has worked at a bakery for nearly 20 years. He does a little bit of everything, from packaging to preparing the dough to applying icing to cakes, even stepping in to do delivery across the Lower Mainland when required.

He’s a dependable hard worker who likes his workplace, having “made a lot of friends along the way.” He’s also been diagnosed with hearing loss in both ears.

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Theresa is a kitchen designer and office manager for a small cabinet shop in Langley.

“I work very closely with our customers from the first time they enter our showroom through to installation and deficiency completion,” she explains.

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Mehrnoush is a bookkeeper based in Pitt Meadows. Her work involves a lot of time at a desk and on the computer.

She has cerebral palsy.

“It slows down my movements,” she explains. “For example, I use only two of my fingers while typing. In my workplace, I can’t be as active as other people. I also have back and shoulder pain while working for a long period of time.”

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