Karen started a part-time job as an administrator at her church in Vancouver. She oversees office duties, like replying to emails, answering the phones, organizing weekly worship services, and coordinating the weekly newsletter. She also deals with the different rental users of the building.

However, her workday is made harder by her disability. Since birth, Karen has lived with spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy, which affects her speech, coordination, muscle dexterity, balance, and mobility.

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Zeina has operated a successful project management consulting business for over a decade. Currently working from her home in Burnaby, she spends much of her time on the computer and in conference calls with various clients.

However, the work takes a toll on Zeina.

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Sherry is working hard towards gaining employment, studying for an accounting and bookkeeping course.

But she was finding it hard to put the hours in she needed to study with the pain she was feeling.

“I have degenerative disk disease in the top seven disks of my spine, plus a damaged rotator cuff,” she says from Kelowna.

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Tony is the General Manager of Starline Windows Okanagan, a company he has been with since 1986.

Dealing with his staff, colleagues, and hundreds of customers in the construction industry, effective communication is key. However, Tony has hearing loss in both ears, with severe tinnitus in his left ear.

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Susan suffered a work-related injury at an assembly plant in 1989. As a result, she has a variety of conditions including De Quervain Syndrome, Epicondylitis, and Fibromyalgia. This affects her from the neck down — notably in the hands where her fingers will cramp while holding objects, causing her to drop them and lose feeling from the neck down.

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Marguerite is a cashier at a grocery store in 100 Mile House.

“I have to talk to a lot of people,” she explains. “I have significant hearing loss. In today’s current climate where customers are wearing masks and I’m working behind plexiglass, I was having difficulty hearing people or not hearing them at all.”

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In 2007, Min had a stroke, affecting the left side of his body — he has no function in his left arm and hand.

Min, who lives in Coquitlam, is currently looking for work, participating in the WorkBC Employment Services program.

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Jeremy often had to cut his work days short because of chronic pain.

“I was in that situation because of a chronic severe neck and back pain. I did not have an ergonomic computer station, and it was causing me pain so much I had to just stop doing what I was doing,” he shares. “[My] condition limits me from walking, lifting, sitting too long at one time.”

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