Canadian Assistive Technology Ltd.

Canadian Assistive Technology Ltd. We provide the best technologies and the highest level of service and support for our clients Accessibility is our specialty.

At Canadian Assistive Technology, we strive to provide our clients that suffer from Low Vision or Blindness the best solutions available. With over 30 years experience in the field of Assistive Technology, we ensure that the right solution at the right price is always the priority. Visit us online at www.canasstech.com!

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with James Dykstra, Founder, Code Stack Systems | By Dr. Kirk Adams | Courtesy ...
06/11/2026

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with James Dykstra, Founder, Code Stack Systems | By Dr. Kirk Adams | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-06-09-2026/

In this forward-looking episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, host Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with James Dykstra, founder of Code Stack Systems, to unpack why so many businesses are watching their AI initiatives stall, and what it actually takes to fix that. Dykstra traces his path from a childhood spent tinkering with DOS to finance and strategy roles at Amazon and Microsoft, then to co-founding a services firm built on the conviction that technology should improve lives. The central insight: companies rush to buy powerful AI tools, but those tools only magnify the gaps in fragmented, poorly tracked data. Using the analogy of a high-performance engine that is useless until it is connected to the rest of the vehicle, and of data as crude oil that must be extracted, refined, and piped before it can power anything, Dykstra explains Code Stack's "work backwards" methodology: start with a client's three-year vision, identify the tools and data required to reach it, and consolidate that data into a single platform rather than ripping out and replacing existing systems.

The conversation closes on the future, where Dykstra is candidly optimistic. He anticipates a convergence of robotics, language models, new sensors, and cheaper energy driving steep cost declines, alongside real disruption and the rise of agentic AI, in which people task teams of AI "direct reports" much like human staff. Adams connects this to the accessibility frontier he knows firsthand, noting how rapidly AI-powered access to visual information has gone from novelty to expectation in the blindness and low-vision community, with agentic AI now emerging as the next horizon. Dykstra leaves listeners with a message of hope tempered by realism: the road will be hard, but the foundational investments made now, in the right data behind the right tools, will determine who thrives.

Living Chronic: Conversations That Changed Me, Lessons That Saved Me, Is Now Available For Pre-Order | By Brandy Schantz...
06/11/2026

Living Chronic: Conversations That Changed Me, Lessons That Saved Me, Is Now Available For Pre-Order | By Brandy Schantz | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-op
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/living-chronic-brandy-schantz/1150278345?ean=9798897472550

After years of interviews, research, setbacks, resilience, and incredible conversations with patients, caregivers, clinicians, advocates, and experts, I'm excited to share that my first book, Living Chronic: Conversations That Changed Me, Lessons That Saved Me, is now available for pre-order.

Living Chronic was born from my own experience navigating Crohn's disease, drug-induced lupus, dysautonomia, and the life-altering challenges that come with chronic illness. Along the way, I discovered that while our diagnoses may be different, many of our struggles are shared: learning to advocate for ourselves, rebuilding our identities, finding community, and creating purpose in the face of uncertainty.

This book brings together lessons from my personal journey and the powerful conversations I've had through the Living Chronic podcast. It is a book about resilience, self-advocacy, disability, hope, and the extraordinary strength people discover when life doesn't go according to plan.

Whether you live with chronic illness, care for someone who does, work in healthcare, or simply want to better understand the experiences of millions of Americans living with chronic conditions, I hope this book offers insight, encouragement, and connection.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this journey. Your stories, encouragement, and belief in this project made this moment possible.

📖 Pre-Order Your Copy Today:

Living Chronic: Conversations That Changed Me, Lessons That Saved Me

Scribe for TVIs: Free Document Accessibility for K-12 Educators | By Mike Calvo, CEO, Pneuma Solutions | Courtesy of the...
06/11/2026

Scribe for TVIs: Free Document Accessibility for K-12 Educators | By Mike Calvo, CEO, Pneuma Solutions | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
https://pneumasolutions.com/ScribeForTVIs

Here, Mike Calvo, co-founder and CEO of Pneuma Solutions and a blind Cuban-American entrepreneur who never graduated high school himself, announces the relaunch of Scribe for Education as Scribe for TVIs: a no-cost program built specifically for K-12 Teachers of the Visually Impaired. Framed as a 'for us, by us' response to a moment when funding is unpredictable and support systems are getting shaky, the program puts a fully accessible document-remediation pipeline directly in the hands of the educators most directly serving blind students through that uncertainty.

Upload any document and Scribe returns it in seconds as screen-reader-ready HTML, BRF braille (Grade 1, Grade 2, UEB, and Nemeth), large print, EPUB, DAISY (transferable to an NLS Talking Book Machine), or MP3 audio. The engine supports 140+ document languages, 30+ braille codes, math detection with MathML, and roughly 96% automated accuracy, with human remediation available on a 72-hour turnaround when a document needs a higher bar. Qualified K-12 TVIs with a valid school email can apply at https://pneumasolutions.com/ScribeForTVIs, annual re-verification keeps the program focused on the educators it was built for.

Next NW Diversity Learning Series, Workshop #3: June 17, 2026, 9-11 AM PT | Transforming Toxic Work Environments: Creat...
06/11/2026

Next NW Diversity Learning Series, Workshop #3: June 17, 2026, 9-11 AM PT | Transforming Toxic Work Environments: Creating Psychological Safety | With presenter, Eddie Pate, Ph.D. co-author of the book, Daily Practices of Inclusive Leaders: A Guide to Building a Culture of Belonging | By Dr. Kirk Adams, Executive Director, Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion (ISDI) | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
https://i4sdi.org/workshop-3-2026/

What kinds of behaviors or actions make work relationships toxic for you? What everyday behaviors signal that it's not safe—to be who you are, to ask questions, challenge ideas, or admit mistakes?

Psychological safety is one of the most significant workplace issues today. Why?

Eddie Pate, presenter for this workshop, points to Gallup's research that underscores that psychological safety is not just a nice-to-have but a necessity for modern workplaces. "It is crucial for encouraging a culture of open dialogue, innovation, and collaboration within teams," he says. "Essentially, when employees feel psychologically safe, they are more likely to contribute ideas, provide feedback, bring their whole selves to work, and engage fully in their work."

What is Psychological safety (PS)? Eddie describes it as a feeling, and a sincere belief that one can speak up with ideas, questions, concerns, feedback, or even admit mistakes without fear of retaliation, humiliation, and/or punishment. It is about the trust one has that, regardless of where we are, we can 'safely' bring our whole selves.

"PS is not a one-way street," Eddie says, "because whether we feel safe depends on our interactions with others, with messages (said and un-said), and importantly because of the environments we live and work in."

In this interactive & skill-building workshop, participants explore what psychological safety actually looks like at work and beyond at this polarized time, and how it can be strengthened through everyday simple inclusive behaviors.

When: Wed, June 17, 2026
Time: 9:00 am to 11:00 am Pacific, 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm Eastern
Where: On Zoom, register below

As Gandhi reminds us: "In a gentle way, you can shake the world." Participants will examine common barriers and learn practical, simple ways to create environments where people can contribute fully, challenge ideas, collectively learn from mistakes, and thrive.

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality." --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

So, come ready to engage and use your voice so we all can learn and grow together.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this workshop, participants will:

● Recognize behaviors and conditions that strengthen or erode psychological safety on teams

● Distinguish between physical safety and psychological safety

● Practice communication strategies that support trust, candor, and accountability

● Apply everyday actions that help sustain psychological safety for yourself and others over time, especially during change, tension, or conflict

🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #94: Who is Being Left Behind? | By Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA | Courtesy o...
06/11/2026

🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #94: Who is Being Left Behind? | By Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-06-01-2026/

In this impassioned episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan turns her attention to a question that recurs throughout the world of advocacy: who is being left behind? She identifies three groups bearing the brunt of rapid technological change, seniors who often cannot afford up-to-date devices or keep pace with shifting tools, persons with disabilities who are shut out by apps and websites built without accessibility features, and the technically challenged who never grew up with technology and now struggle to keep up. Donna argues that inaccessible apps and websites are not a neutral inconvenience but an active form of exclusion, and she presses companies to actually sit down with these communities to understand why they feel left out, reminding her audience that seniors in particular are bread-and-butter consumers too easily ignored.

She closes with her monthly highlight of a stressful life circumstance, this month focusing on the experience of losing one's home, whether through financial hardship or conflict with family or friends. Calling a home a person's dynasty, the place where one resides, thinks, feels, and lives, Donna frames its loss as among the most distressing circumstances anyone can face. She invites listeners to share their own perspectives and feedback at [email protected].

A New Website, a Redesigned Archive: 2008 to 2026: 19 Years of Access Technology News Now At Your Fingertips | By Aaron ...
06/11/2026

A New Website, a Redesigned Archive: 2008 to 2026: 19 Years of Access Technology News Now At Your Fingertips | By Aaron Di Blasi, Publisher, Top Tech Tidbits | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
https://toptechtidbits.com/ttt-archives-now-public/

Here, Aaron Di Blasi, publisher for the Top Tech Tidbits weekly newsletter, announces that the full Top Tech Tidbits newsletter archive is now publicly available on the redesigned WordPress.com website at https://toptechtidbits.com/newsletters/. Every weekly issue from January 2008 to today is live and browsable in one place, by year, a 19-year span that, until now, stopped at 2018 on the public-facing site. The newly restored 10 additional calendar years (about 520 weekly issues) cover access technology news, tips, walk-throughs, sponsor announcements, and industry coverage from 2008 through 2017.

Aaron walks readers through the two-phase migration story, beginning with the December 4, 2025 launch on WordPress.com at Volume 1044 and continuing through several months of patient work to bring the older issues forward as legacy archive pages. He explains what readers will find inside, addresses the new archive index page's WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility conformance, and speaks directly to three audiences (readers, Sponsors and Advertisers, Supporters, and the wider access technology community) about why the expanded archive matters to each. The full archive is searchable, screen-reader-friendly, and lives at https://toptechtidbits.com/newsletters/.

Top Tech Tidbits for Thursday, June 11, 2026 - Volume 1071 | By Aaron Di Blasi, Publisher | Courtesy of The PWD Media Co...
06/11/2026

Top Tech Tidbits for Thursday, June 11, 2026 - Volume 1071 | By Aaron Di Blasi, Publisher | Courtesy of The PWD Media Co-Op
https://toptechtidbits.com/newsletter-06-11-2026/

♿️ The Week's News in Access Technology
A Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd. Publication


Top Tech Tidbits. The world's #1 online resource for current news and trends in access technology.

Subscribers: 46,670 🔢️ subscribers were sent this issue via email.
Social Media: 190,416 🔢️ readers were sent this issue via social media. Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-op.

Top Tech Tidbits is the world's leading not-for-profit access technology publication that reaches over 45,000 blind, low vision, deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, neurodivergent and/or disabled professionals, educators and enthusiasts, all over the world, each week.

Attention Sponsors: Past, Present and Future: Access Information News Now Provides Verified Quarterly Audience Insight R...
06/10/2026

Attention Sponsors: Past, Present and Future: Access Information News Now Provides Verified Quarterly Audience Insight Reports via LinkedIn Matched Audiences | By Aaron Di Blasi, Publisher | Courtesy of The PWD Media Co-Op
https://accessinformationnews.com/announcing-audience-insights/

Here, Aaron Di Blasi, Publisher for the Access Information News weekly newsletter, announces the launch of independent, LinkedIn-verified Audience Insight reports, an answer to the question Sponsors have been asking him for nearly two decades across both Top Tech Tidbits (founded 2004) and its sibling publication Access Information News (spun off in November 2022): who, exactly, reads these publications each week? On May 15, 2026, the publication uploaded a hashed copy of its email list to LinkedIn Matched Audiences. LinkedIn matched 38,123 of approximately 44,851 subscribers against active member profiles, an 85% match rate well above LinkedIn's published 30-60% B2B baseline. The new Audience Insights page publishes twelve full demographic panels (top job functions, seniority, industries, employers, geography, skills, and content interests) drawn from those verified profiles, with quarterly regenerations on the calendar to give Sponsors a continuing third-party view of audience composition over time.

The article also recaps the engagement context Sponsors haven't been imagining, with a 12-month rolling 47% open rate and 34% click rate against all-industry email-marketing averages of 16.22% and 7.17%. Sponsorship now includes membership in the PWD Media Distribution Co-op (42+ partner channels reaching 189,000+ BLV/PWD readers per post), and the Audience Insights reports themselves are WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessible across the four compliance regimes that govern the underlying subscriber list (CAN-SPAM, CASL, GDPR, PECR). Aaron is explicit that the editorial voting panel that decides what runs each week is independent of the commercial relationship, by design and without exception.

Attention Sponsors: Past, Present and Future: Top Tech Tidbits Now Provides Verified Quarterly Audience Insight Reports ...
06/10/2026

Attention Sponsors: Past, Present and Future: Top Tech Tidbits Now Provides Verified Quarterly Audience Insight Reports via LinkedIn Matched Audiences | By Aaron Di Blasi, Publisher | Courtesy of The PWD Media Co-Op
https://toptechtidbits.com/announcing-audience-insights/

Here, Aaron Di Blasi, Publisher for the Top Tech Tidbits weekly newsletter, announces the launch of independent, LinkedIn-verified Audience Insight reports, an answer to the question Sponsors have been asking him for nearly two decades: who, exactly, reads Top Tech Tidbits each week? On May 15, 2026, the publication uploaded a hashed copy of its email list to LinkedIn Matched Audiences. LinkedIn matched 38,910 of 45,776 subscribers against active member profiles, an 85% match rate well above LinkedIn's published 30-60% B2B baseline. The new Audience Insights page publishes twelve full demographic panels (top job functions, seniority, industries, employers, geography, skills, and content interests) drawn from those verified profiles, with quarterly regenerations on the calendar to give Sponsors a continuing third-party view of audience composition over time.

The article also recaps the engagement context Sponsors haven't been imagining, with a 12-month rolling 46% open rate and 42% click rate against technology-sector industry averages of 9.65% and 7.68%. Sponsorship now includes membership in the PWD Media Distribution Co-op (42+ partner channels reaching 189,000+ BLV/PWD readers per post), and the Audience Insights reports themselves are WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessible across the four compliance regimes that govern the underlying subscriber list (CAN-SPAM, CASL, GDPR, PECR). Aaron is explicit that the editorial voting panel that decides what runs each week is independent of the commercial relationship, by design and without exception.

Address

106-828 W 8th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V5Z1E2

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 4pm
Tuesday 9am - 4pm
Wednesday 9am - 4pm
Thursday 9am - 4pm
Friday 9am - 4pm

Telephone

+18447958324

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