Joan works at a customer service desk in a retail store.

“My job is quite physical and involves a lot of lifting and a lot of moving around the store,” she says. “I have a spinal cord injury at the L1 level. I do not walk at all and use a wheelchair for my mobility. My shoulders, arms, wrists and hands where often in a lot of pain by the end of a shift due to overuse. Getting into my van after a shift was often very painful.”

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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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Marie works in a women’s treatment centre in Vancouver.

“My hearing ability had diminished drastically, and I was unable to function at my best. I do a lot of phone intake with women, this is one of the most difficult phone calls they make and not to be able to hear properly was unforgivable,” she explains.

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Eliezar works as a residential cleaner in Victoria, cleaning homes.

He has hearing loss, which has made his job difficult due to miscommunications that have occurred. As well, being unable to hear alarms or emergencies put Eliezar at risk of injury.

The Island Deaf and Hard Of Hearing Centre referred Eliezar to WorkBC Assistive Technology Services for funding for a pair of hearing aids. He applied and was quickly approved.

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Victoria works as a business software specialist in Port Moody managing her company’s implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) software. Her team has worked remotely since 2019 and she spends a significant amount of time conferencing through video and audio with colleagues on different continents.

She has had bilateral hearing loss since childhood, and audio-only conferences prevented her from lip reading or using other coping mechanisms to compensate for her hearing loss.

Victoria learned about WorkBC Assistive Technology Services through a family member who also has hearing loss, and decided to apply.

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Peter is a mechanical designer based in Surrey, and is currently in the YMCA self employment program. He is looking for new clients and contract work as he works towards starting his own business.

Last year, Peter experienced significant hearing loss.

“It was very difficult for me to get a job because I could not even conduct an interview,” he shares.

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Jason is the founder of a small technology company in BC.

“I’m working remotely in a home office, and my duties require me to wear just about every hat in the company,” he shares.

“I have a repetitive strain injury. It makes it progressively more challenging to perform my work tasks and be productive during the day.”

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Alice does important work as a Coordinator of the Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI) with the Disability Foundation.

The YLI is a research project that aims to identify attitudinal barriers to post-secondary youth with disabilities transitioning from studies to the workplace and produce solutions for youth and employers. Her many duties include creating marketing materials, writing funding reports, and coordinating new team members.

Alice is partially sighted and needs high contrast and good lighting to see.

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Rod runs a business with his wife in Cranbrook.

“It is very important that we communicate well with each other and with our customers,” he says.

However, his hearing aids were over five years old, and he noticed he was making mistakes.

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Mary is a manager at an interior design and cleaning company in Kelowna that works with real estate companies.

An old fracture on her left ankle causes her pain, and makes her favour her right foot, which in turn causes her pain on her right side, affecting her shoulders, neck, and leg.

“Long periods of standing on my feet or heavy lifting bending down can cause discomfort which affects my ability to work,” she explains.

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