Lorin MacDonald has advanced diversity, inclusion, and accessibility issues as a long-time community advocate and a human rights lawyer supporting people living with disabilities. But for years, Lorin has been shut out of live events because no captioning was available to make them accessible to her as an individual living with a profound hearing loss. Her personal and professional experience have taught her that many join her in not having equal access to communication. As a fervent believer that all Canadians have this right, to be consistently excluded does not sit well.
So in the fall of 2019, Lorin decided to do something about it and created HearVue, an incorporated Canadian social enterprise proudly powered by women. HearVue’s mission is to educate everyone about communication accessibility for in-person/online events and content through the use of captioning and subtitles.
At heart, HearVue is a movement that is gaining momentum. Armed with research demonstrating that the benefits of captioning reach far beyond those living with hearing loss, it became clear the need was there. Everyone has the right to equal access to information, and HearVue is dedicated to spreading the word. The time has come!
HearVue launched its movement in September 2019, which was completed in March 2020 with the introduction of captioning to dozens of live events that had never experienced it before. Thousands of attendees were wowed, buzz was generated, and the culture was shifting.
HearVue remains a resource for communication inclusion.