Zip Solutions | About Us

About Us

Our History

Zip Solutions was born when Chris taught a number of students with hearing loss, and auditory processing disorders. Seeing that there had to be a better way to get information to students who have a hard time accessing sound, he started to explore live captioning as a possible solution. He approached his friend James who offered to help build a Chrome Extension called "Slides Captions".

When Chris got the opportunity to take part in an innovation project with Dell, he jumped at the opportunity, encouraged by Tracey to continue to explore the power of captions, he enlisted James to help build a prototype and ZipCaptions was born.

The need to have accessibility forward company led to the creation of Zip Solutions, the merger of ZipCaptions and Listening Accessability.

Why Zip Solutions?

We focus on hearing accessibility, with 1 in 5 people experiencing some form of hearing loss, hearing accessibility is vitally important. As educators, Chris and James have seen this first hand in the classroom, and as a Teacher of the Deaf, Tracey works with students who have hearing loss everyday.

Providing our students, whether they be those with hearing loss, or the ones at the back of the room experiencing poor classroom acoustics, proper access to information became our priority. Along the way we have discovered that our products benefit many more people, including live streamers, church services, and foreign language learners.

Meet our Team

Chris

Chris is a High School Teacher born in the UK, he has experience of teaching both in the UK and Canada, at the Kindergarten to Grade 13 level. Chris' background in Computer Science sees him always looking for ways to integrate technology in the classroom and looking for alternative solutions to problems. He's a Google for Education Certified Innovator and Trainer, and is often seen at Educational Technology conferences. Chris has presented to the Ministry for Education on making schools more inclusive for those with hearing loss, and has had his articles published on blogs, in magazines, featured on websites and was the focus of the Google for Education Global Accessibility Day blog post.

He was the inspiration for behind bringing ZipCaptions to life, through a project led with Dell Education Canada. Through working with members of the d/Deaf community and teaching a number of students with hearing loss, Chris realised that there was a huge need for a well designed live captioning tool. Chris lives in Quebec with his family and two cats.

James

James is a full-stack software developer with a decade of cloud development experience. As a former teacher, he's passionate about using technology to empower learners to seek, find and use information to improve learning. He is an advocate for free and open technology, and believes that community-building is the true power of the internet.

When he's not working on ZipCaptions, he spends his free time tinkering with hobby electronics in the smart home area of interest, usually involving 3D printing and lots of blinking lights. He also enjoy spending time outdoors, taking his dog for a walk among the fields of rural Quebec, paddling his canoe in one of Canada's many beautiful lakes and rivers, or working on some home improvement project, indoors or out.

Tracey

Tracey is a certified Teacher of the Deaf (LSLS cert AVed) with years of experience teaching children with hearing loss to listen, speak and develop self-determination and competence in the mainstream classroom. Tracey has a MA in Child Studies and Education and has taught in the elementary classroom. She is a Google for Education Certified Teacher and holds graduate certificates in Auditory-Verbal Studies and Educational Leadership.