2025: A Year of Connection, Rights, and Innovation

By: Narada Thomas, Social Media and Website Coordinator

As we close out 2025, it is a perfect time to reflect on a year of meaningful progress. For our community in Canada and across the globe, 2025 was a turning point: bringing us closer to a world where hearing loss is no longer a barrier to participation. From “smart” glasses to historic legal precedents, here are the highlights that shaped our year.

Technology:

Auracast Logo

• The Auracast Revolution: 2025 was officially the “Year of Auracast”. This Bluetooth technology allows public venues like airports, theaters, and lecture halls and your personal devices to broadcast high-quality audio directly to your hearing aids or Auracast-enabled earbuds.
• Neural Processing Units (NPUs) and AI-Powered Hearing Aids: We saw a major shift in how devices handle noise. Several new hearing aids released in 2025 can mimic the human brain with 13.5 million sound samples. These NPUs inside AI-powered hearing aids can identify speech 30% more accurately in “babble” environments such as a busy family dinner or a loud restaurant.


A Captioning Glass (Pic: Xander)

• Real-Time Captions: XRAI Glass, XanderGlasses, Meta Glasses (Gen 2) and similar Augmented Reality (AR) glasses matured this year. These glasses allow you to see real-time subtitles of a conversation floating right in your field of vision with the real world “closed captioning.” Real-time captioning technology on both Android and Apple devices also continued to improve with on-device AI systems. Captions are now more accurate and usable in public spaces, workplaces, and virtual meetings.

Politics and Law:

• The Canada Disability Benefit (CDB): A historic moment arrived on June 20, 2025, when applications officially opened for the CDB. This benefit provides much-needed financial support for working-age Canadians. If you haven’t yet checked your eligibility through the Disability Tax Credit (DTC), now is the time. CHHA BC and CHHA Vancouver hosted a joint webinar with valuable information on personal finances including some benefits such as the Canada Disability Benefit and the Registered Disability Savings Plan.
• Accessible Canada Act (ACA) Deadlines: As of June 2025, federal organizations must now comply with strict new accessibility standards for digital documents and websites, making it easier for us to navigate government services independently.
• 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline: Following advocacy from the Canada Deaf Grassroots Movement and the Canadian Administrator of VRS, the CRTC worked this year to improve the 9-8-8 line. Improvements include better text-based routing and enhanced access through Video Relay Services (VRS), ensuring support is available to everyone in their preferred language of choice.
• A Precedent for Justice: The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal completed a landmark hearing regarding Timothy Lidkea, a Deaf Métis man who was denied interpreters in federal prison. This case is expected to set a major precedent for accommodation rights across all federal facilities in Canada.

While 2025 was a year of progress, it also highlighted where work remains. We still face a shortage of qualified CART captioners and ASL interpreters and challenges to access assistive technologies.

As we look toward 2026, our mission is clear: continued advocacy. We will keep pushing for the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and expanded access to the latest assistive tech for British Columbians with hearing loss.

We invite you to join this vital mission! Your voice and support can help shape a more accessible and inclusive future. Together, we can ensure that the rights, needs, and aspirations of our Hard-of-Hearing and Deaf communities are heard, respected, and fulfilled.