Zach is a journeyman electrician working in Squamish.

“I am mostly deaf in my left ear,” he explains. “It impacted my employment when being delegated tasks since my brains recognition to speech was slow. This increased my anxiety drastically, making it hard to focus.”

He had previously lost his hearing aid, and needed a new one. He had learned about the WorkBC Assistive Technology Services program from his mother, and decided to apply.

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Miranda works as an accounts payable administrator for an electrical company in Prince George.

“I am completely deaf on my left side and only have 30% hearing on my right,” she shares. “Not being able to hear at work was stressful.”

Her audiologist referred her to WorkBC Assistive Technology Services for funding for new hearing aids. She applied and was quickly approved for new hearing aids.

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With over 20 years of experience, Troy’s career as a chef saw him traveling the world and operating a successful catering business in Vancouver and later Ottawa, where he now lives. And there were some nice perks.

“I worked quite a bit, and I loved it,” he says. “There were so many times, where it was like, ‘Hey Troy, come up to the cottage for the weekend and you can do all the cooking,’ and I’m like, ‘Sure, why not?’ Vacation and get paid, all right.”

However, about four years ago he began having seizures, losing his balance, and eventually becoming unable to walk. After a long process, he was diagnosed with ataxia, a rare neurological degenerative disorder which affects the body’s motor skills, causing difficulty in speech and movement.

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On episode 8, we are joined once again by AT researcher and life-long assistive technology user Nakia Singh. In this episode, we talk about some of our favorite back to school apps, making friends with AI, apps for math, and Seaver’s recent experiences in joining the partially sighted community.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.

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We’ve looked at a couple math calculator and equation breakdown apps in the past, but today we are going to look at a math app that instead focuses on building mathematical foundations. Montessori Numbers is a visual math app designed for children aged 3-7, and it offers a wide range of guided math activities that are designed to conform to common core standards.

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Harry is currently looking for employment with the help of WorkBC Employment Services in Osoyoos. He has severe hearing loss.

“[It] was extremely difficult to communicate with people in many situations,” he explains.

Harry was referred to WorkBC Assistive Technology Services, where he received funding for a new set of hearing aids. The hearing aids have made a big difference in the job search process for Harry.

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Text-to-speech apps allow users to quickly absorb articles, documents, emails, and virtually anything else found online. Of course, students and professionals aren’t the only ones who benefit from text-to-speech applications. Persons with disabilities including those with dyslexia, dysgraphia, visual impairments, and more, can all benefit from this alternative approach to reading.

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Robyn works part-time as a delivery driver for a pharmacy in Surrey, delivering patients their medicine.

Robyn was a passenger in a serious car accident that broke her back and caused kyphoscoliosis of her spine and other soft tissue damage. Emergency surgery for an abdominal injury resulted in her spine healing in the wrong position. This causes her extreme difficulty standing or sitting upright for almost any length of time.

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On this episode, we are joined by our K-12 Coordinator for Assistive Technology Programs and Services, Tracy Ryan. Tracy brings with her decades of experience in the disabilities community, and almost 5 years serving as our K-12 coordinator here in New Brunswick.

We talk about what it was like to provide services and training to schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the challenges, successes, and lessons that went with it.

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