Best's Recommended Expert Service Providers - Vocational Rehabilitation

Dan Thompson, RRP, RVP, CLCP

President & CEO

Dan has worked on hundreds of cases that required Life Care Plans, Vocational Reports, Case Management Services, Rehabilitation Plans and Housing. That has taken him across North America, and he has helped individuals who sustained burns, amputations, brain injuries, orthopaedic injuries, spinal cord injuries and congenital disabilities.

When Dan acquired C4-C5-C6 quadriplegia from an automobile accident in 1980, it changed his life forever. Dan was walked from the vehicle to the ambulance by the attendants; and unfortunately, protocols were not followed, so when Dan went into shock and thrashed about, he awoke in the hospital to find himself permanently "disabled."

Before his accident, Dan had some prior knowledge of what life was like for the disabled. He had worked for an individual who had severe polio, and yet, managed to run a 500-acre farm near Watford, Ontario. He had also been aware of a high school classmate with muscular dystrophy who ended up being a great inspiration after his accident as she helped him understand and accept his injury. But acceptance didn’t mean becoming a victim.

Dan set about dedicating his life to improving the quality of life of others with disability. During his hospitalization, he got to know many people with spinal cord injuries. When he was finally discharged, he founded the London & District Sports Association. Dan played wheelchair rugby and eventually became the coach of the Ontario Wheelchair Rugby Team. During Dan's tenure, Ontario won the Canadian Championship.

Coaching and playing wheelchair rugby gave Dan the opportunity to travel throughout North America where he was exposed to all the logistics of traveling with a disability.

After coaching wheelchair rugby, Dan became a Disabilities Initiative Job Broker for the Ontario Provincial Government’s two largest ministries, Community and Social Services and Health. He handled over 450 candidates, 20 with PhDs, 20 with Master's degrees. In the 1990s, Dan co-founded Kolvox Communications, at that time Canada’s sole developer of voice recognition software, to enhance the productivity for the able-bodied, as well as for individuals with disabilities. Eventually Kolvox went public, merged with Pure Data and became Wild Card Technologies Incorporated.

Dan has worked on hundreds of cases that required Life Care Plans, Vocational Reports, Case Management Services, Rehabilitation Plans and Housing. That has taken him across North America, and he has helped individuals who sustained burns, amputations, brain injuries, orthopaedic injuries, spinal cord injuries and congenital disabilities.