Karen works as an intake coordinator for a residential drug and alcohol treatment centre.

“I have hearing loss and was having a hard time hearing on the telephone and in busy environments with background noise,” she shares.

A friend suggested she check out WorkBC Assistive Technology Services for help funding a new pair of hearing aids. WorkBC Assistive Technology Services staff walked her through the application process, and in no time, she was approved.

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Belle works in healthcare. She has hearing loss in both ears, which can make her job difficult.

“I have a lot of interaction with co-workers, visitors and residents, and the surroundings are kind of loud,” she says. “I barely hear what people are telling me, I always asked them to repeat what they said, or sometimes pretend that I heard them.”

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Andrew helps keeps the roads safe in the winter, working in snow removal and trucking salt. Thanks to funding for hearing aids from WorkBC Assistive Technology, Andrew can stay safe on the job.

“Thank you for your assistance and support,” he says. “Without your support for the hearing aids, I may not have been able to continue my career as a Truck Driver due to safety issues and licensing requirements.”

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Gary’s job sees him wearing many hats, acting as project manager, site superintendent, and design engineer. His job involves a lot of communication, meeting with clients to discuss the project, interacting with work crews, before designing the project to be sent off to fabricators to be assembled and installed.

Gary, however, has hearing loss, and needed hearing aids to do his job. His audiologist referred him to WorkBC Assistive Technology Services for funding assistance.

“The people at Assistive Technology Services were awesome. They understood my issue, assisted me in completing forms, and the turnaround time once I completed the forms and submitted was incredible,” he shares. “[They] walked me [through] the application process and [were] extremely patient and understanding.

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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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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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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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