With funds raised by our sixth annual Princess Ball, our Prairie Regional Office has donated four Assistive Technology Resource Kits — each containing upwards of $1,800 worth of specialized assistive technology — to support students with disabilities at Regina General Hospital and Ronald McDonald House Saskatchewan through our Solutions for Schools initiative.

Over the past several weeks, our Prairie Region Solutions team, Amanda LaRose and Chelsea Osiowy, have been hard at work. From researching and planning to carefully selecting tools, building kits, and delivering them into the community, their focus has been on one goal: creating meaningful, accessible learning opportunities for students who need them most.

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In this article, we’re doing something a bit different. Rather than our typical content that is normally written by a sole author (Seaver), we’ve invited our colleagues Rebekah and Louise to help us test out and give their thoughts on a variety of notetaking apps across a variety of devices.

Each of us will review three apps, and then we will give our opinions on what works, what doesn’t, where each app shines, and where each app struggles. We will be reviewing OneNote, Granola, Notability, Goodnotes, CollaNote, Mindgrasp, Genio (formerly Glean), Otter.ai, and Coconote. To test these apps, we will be using a wide variety of devices and tools, including laptops, iPads, iPhones, Microsoft Edge, and the Logitech pencil.

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Theresa works as a caregiver for a young adult with a disability, helping with personal care and daily tasks. She has hearing loss, which can make her job difficult.

She learned about WorkBC Assistive Technology Services from a friend and decided to apply for funding for the hearing aids she needs for work. “I received hearing aids that I never would have been able to afford,” she says.

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Jane works as a customer service associate for a home improvement retail store, assisting customers in-person, online, and over the phone. She has mild to moderate hearing loss, with lower hearing in higher tones, and with specific letter sounds.

“My work environment has a great deal of noise — machinery operating, multiple conversations in a close proximity to me, speaking on the phone, noisy product carts moving through and around my workstation,” she shares. “My hearing loss often required me to ask people to repeat what they said for clarity, or to speak louder or come closer to me.”

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The inq smartpen is designed to bring note taking, audio recording, and analysis into a single workflow. From my experience, it handled most of those core tasks well. However, I experienced enough hiccups along the way to say that my experience with this pen was not exactly perfect.

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Donovon works as a Web Services Manager, which involves managing web services, extensive typing while communicating with clients, and precise mouse work for digital updates. He describes the role as “technically demanding and sedentary,” working up to nine hours a day at a workstation. However, arthritis in his shoulders, as well as ADD, anxiety, and depression, were making it difficult for him to work full-time.

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Today, we are talking about accessible tools and services available to New Brunswick voters for the upcoming municipal elections! Joining us today is Karine Pitre from Elections NB. This discussion is being released in both French and English. To listen to the English version of the podcast, go to Amazon Music or Spotify.

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Mahmoud works as a logistics coordinator for a distribution company, and his duties include organizing orders, coordinating shipments, and ensuring deliveries are accurate and on time.

“I have plantar fasciitis, which sometimes causes significant foot pain and may occasionally affect my performance,” he shares.

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Clever: Homework Helper AI is an AI-powered study app designed to support students with homework completion, revision, and content creation. Available on iOS, it brings together a range of tools that aim to simplify how learners interact with course material, particularly when working independently.

The core of the app is its ability to scan or upload homework questions or notes using your device’s camera or photo library. Once captured, the app analyzes the content and generates responses along with explanations. This can be especially helpful for students who need quick clarification or support outside of the classroom.

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At Margaret’s work, she runs a filling machine which fills small vials and requires a lot of focus. She has hearing loss — particularly making it hard to distinguish ‘f’ and ‘th’ sounds — which led to her sometimes misunderstanding directions at work, and also made it difficult to hear when the machine was not operating properly.

“I was having a hard time understanding people clearly, which caused a few misinterpreted conversations,” she shares. “This became very frustrating for me and hard for me to do my job.”

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