Ivan, one of our engineers, hard at work.

When Ivan, a UBC Engineering student, was looking for a job last May, the most important thing for him was making a positive impact, in some way.

“It’s above the salary, easily,” Ivan explains.

That’s when he came across the Neil Squire Society’s job posting for mechanical engineering interns to work on the LipSync.

The purpose of the project appealed to him, with the technological landscape largely shifting to smartphones and similar devices, which are difficult if not impossible to use by people who don’t have the use of their hands.

“It seems like [for] a lot of that technology, [accessibility] is an afterthought for a lot of companies and infrastructure,” Ivan notes. “I don’t want disabled people to be left in the dust, so to speak.

“I believe in trying to affect positive change and I thought the LipSync project would be an excellent opportunity to do so.”

When he got the job, he soon found a workplace that he truly enjoyed coming to everyday. Having been diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety, a flexible schedule really helps him.

“Everyone from management to accounting to the occupational therapists to the information technologies people, they are all very pleasant and easy to work with. I would never work in a place where the people are cold, unappreciative, and demeaning — the Neil Squire Society is the complete opposite and I love it.”

Ivan helping students build LipSyncs at the Burnaby South Secondary Buildathon.

Initially hired for the Summer of 2016, Ivan had found a good fit with the Society and stayed on. He became one of the initial members of the Makers Making Change team, which continues their work and outreach on the LipSync, and developing other open source assistive technologies.

During his time on the team, he has been able to learn and develop a wide range of skills. While he studied mechanical engineering, he has found himself working a lot more on the electronics and software side of things — skillsets more typical of electrical engineering and computer science.

“It’s not what I studied, per se,” he explains. “[But] I really enjoy [it].”

He now sees that area as his specialty.

Having graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Applied Science this month, and with status as an Engineer-In-Training, Ivan continues to work hard as the team works toward their goal of having 150 LipSyncs ready before moving on to the next phase of the project.