Hi, nice to meet you! 👋🏻
Bridget Chase is a technologist, linguist and development manager working in language revitalization technology with nearly a decade of experience in digital mobilization for Indigenous languages. They are committed to building relationships in order to develop projects that suit specific community needs, engaging with issues that relate to language, technology and social justice. They have been privileged to work with and learn from Indigenous language champions both locally and globally, while managing the development of digital tools for language documentation, learning and teaching.
Who am I?
I am a queer settler living in so-called ‘Vancouver, British Columbia’ on unceded, ancestral xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ territory. My professional background is a unique hybrid of linguistics, technology design, and management. I have a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from the University of British Columbia, and a master’s degree in business management from the UBC Sauder School of Business. I have been working professionally in web-based technologies since I was 15 years old, when I taught myself basic code. Combining this technical background with my academic experience, I have spent the last (almost!) decade managing language revitalization technology projects and teams.
Through this time, I’ve macgyvered together cheap & cheerful language lesson websites, managed the internationally-recognized FirstVoices.com suite of tools, consulted for the provincial government on technical requirements for Indigenous orthographies, and most recently have worked on barriers to digital language inclusion due to a lack of adequate keyboards, accurate font rendering support and glyph representation. I mostly think of myself as a strategist these days, looking at issues or gaps when it comes to language revitalization efforts and finding ways that technology can help.
Outside of work, I spend my time writing, reading, kayaking and taking my dog Cider on adventures. 🐕