“I’m an activity worker in long-term care, and at the start of COVID-19 there was a lot of changes in protocols regarding long term care and family visitation. We had to adapt our jobs because the recreation programs shut down. Recreation programs changed to residents in their houses, and we sanitized resident’s hands regularly. The recreation team and I helped with video calls and facilitating socially distanced visits with family outside as well as designated visiting areas inside when that was allowed. I also helped the visitation staff by screening visitors when they entered the building. My job is now back to normal and I really enjoy being social with our residents.
I first got involved in the union when a shop steward at my site encouraged me to apply to an equity conference. It was impactful, and I joined the people with disabilities committee and went to my first convention.
I’ve learned that there are many ways we can share our voices through union activism and I’ve worked with others to try to make the union more accessible.
The hearing loss community is something that I am also active in. For me, the benefits of being involved is that you can educate people about the issues. There are things that are everyday activities for some people but difficult for those with hearing loss. Some of the big issues today are captioning. Close captioning isn’t at events like a hockey game. Noises at restaurants can also be difficult for people. And in terms of the acoustics, airports are very difficult too. There’s an expectation that you should be able to hear about your flight to get around.
Politics is another area I like to get involved in, because it’s great to be informed about what’s going on in the world and you get to meet lots of interesting people.“
Tasha, Activity Worker, part of the health care team