Farhad works as a security guard at a shopping centre in the Lower Mainland. He has hearing loss.

“Cons of having hearing loss includes fewer job opportunities due to impaired communication, social withdrawal due to reduced access to services, and difficulties communicating with others,” he shares.

Referred by his hearing practitioner, he applied to WorkBC Assistive Technology Services. WorkBC Assistive Technology Services helped him purchase the new set of hearing aids he needed for work by covering most of the cost.

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Darren is currently looking for employment, while also taking courses to enhance his skills.

He has a C3 spinal cord injury, as well as arthritis, which led to him leaving a previously successful career due to the pain.

“[It] severely limits the types of work that are available to me,” he shares.

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Michelle is opening her own business in February, something she’s able to do thanks to equipment she received from WorkBC Assistive Technology Services.

“Without this equipment, this wouldn’t be possible for me,” she says.

“I have osteoarthritis and no cartilage in my knees which limits my mobility and the length of time I can sit without severe pain and inflammation in my legs. At my last job, I was required to sit at a desk for extended periods of time and would often end up with swollen legs and my knees would buckle when standing up.”

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Kim is a computer programmer and math tutor. In addition to coding, her job as a programmer involves a lot of meetings with co-workers to design and debug software, while as a tutor, she works one-on-one with students in-person and over Zoom. However, her hearing loss was beginning to make many of these tasks difficult.

“I’ve slowly been going deaf in both my ears due to bone calcification. It’s gotten to the point that I cannot raise the volume on my speakers enough to hear people online,” she explains. “When in person, I am constantly having to ask students and co-workers to repeat themselves. I have to work very hard to catch what people are saying, which distracts me from my actual work.”

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Laurie works as a self-employed cleaner in Mission.

She has hearing loss and needs hearing aids for work. She found that she was needing clients to repeat themselves at work, and she needs to pay attention to her environment — for example, if she uses the washing machine at work, and doesn’t hear that it is an uneven load, it could cause damage to the machine.

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Oliver works as a customer service agent for a car rental company in an airport.

“I have hearing loss which makes my interactions and communication with customers difficult especially in a loud environment such as the airport,” he explains.

His doctor recommended he check out WorkBC Assistive Technology Services. Oliver applied and was quickly approved.

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Zhu is currently taking online English courses to improve his command of the language as he looks for bookkeeping work.

He has Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), a condition that makes it difficult for him to put in the time to study and work towards employment.

“I often lose my balance, and easily fall down. I suffer from back pain, can’t sit down long time,” he explains. “It is better for me to stand a while.”

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Thanks to new hearing aids she received with the help of funding from WorkBC Assistive Technology Services, Stephanie is excelling at her job teaching prenatal and parenting classes.

“They have made it possible for me to continue working in my field,” she says.

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Andrew is a Building Service Worker, doing custodial work, minor plumbing work, as well as miscellaneous tasks at a shelter.

“I have a moderate to moderately severe hearing loss,” he shares. “This loss has greatly affected my employment and type of employment. I’ve gravitated towards jobs in which I can be primarily left to my own devices. This often is isolating, and limiting in scope of jobs.”

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What an honour!

We are humbled to be named the Burnaby Board of Trade‘s and City of Burnaby‘s Not-For-Profit Organization of the Year at the Burnaby Business Excellence Awards Gala on November 16^th. We thank our participants, volunteers, staff, supporters, and of course, the community of Burnaby!

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