Jacqueline works as an on-call case manager for an immigrant-serving agency in Vancouver. She helps immigrants find employment in the same field they were employed in their home country, helping them with everything from finding positions and training to resume writing to interview prep.

She has a hearing impairment, moderate hearing loss in one ear and profound loss in the other.

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Episode 3 of our AT Help Desk‘s podcast, “We Have Solutions!” has released today.

On today’s episode they are joined by Order of Canada recipient and Neil Squire Executive Director Dr. Gary Birch.

Dr. Birch brings with him decades of experience in assistive technology, EEG signal processing, direct brain-computer interface, robotic control systems, environmental control systems, and more.

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Hunter works as a line cook at a popular pub in Vancouver. Whether he’s preparing food or relaying a ticket to other kitchen staff, the job requires effective communication to get the job done and to stay safe. He is hard of hearing and needs to use hearing aids.

“I need to be able to hear and understand instructions properly in order to ensure orders go out correctly, to ensure safety for myself and others, to avoid any potential problems with allergies, to hear timers and alarms, and more. I am unable to read lips at work as everyone is required to wear a mask,” he shares.

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For many of us, learning how to create accessible content is a fairly new concept. Of course, as we become increasingly aware of accessibility and universal design, we’ll need to dive deeper into the steps and concepts required to create content that is compliant with current accessibility standards. Let’s take a look at some helpful tools and tips that are designed to have you creating accessible content with minimal effort.

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Trina is starting a new business as an intuitive coach in Delta and throughout the Lower Mainland. In starting her own business, she has to build up her brand through social media, advertising, and finding new clients. Her line of work also involves continually learning new skills and techniques.

However, Trina lives with learning challenges in reading and writing, as well as memory retention.

“This impacts both learning new tasks, retaining information, and overall interest in any function that includes written words,” she shares. “I find I am often behind in paperwork, new updates, and learning when they are self-directed or are written.”

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There are some new scholarship opportunities for post-secondary students with disabilities in New Brunswick. These opportunities are time-sensitive, so if you or someone who know might be eligible, don’t hesitate, apply now!

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Sheryl is an administrator for a youth soccer organization in the Okanagan, handling everything from registration to scheduling to taking minutes and enacting decisions made in meetings. She has hearing loss.

“I need to be able to hear to take notes and minutes for all aspects of communication: phone calls, in-person meetings, zoom calls, training sessions, etc. I find people with accents and those calling from cars extra challenging to understand. In situations where more than one person is talking, I can only focus on one person at a time which means I miss another speaker’s input,” she shares.

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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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