TLA Tech

Stefan Rochfort has over 25 years of information technology experience as a software developer, analyst, consultant, DBA, project manager, and head of the software development department for a large multinational. With an additional 11+ years across a variety of technical and creative roles in film and digital media production (winning international awards with festival and broadcast releases across 5 continents), he keeps his hands dirty as a digital media creative as well. He's engaged the full range of his diverse skillset to create Talking Mimes VR (https://www.talkingmimes.com) a virtual reality experience drawn from true stories of people with profound physical disabilities. Created in partnership with people with the lived-experience, Talking Mimes better informs our behaviour towards people with complex needs; starts practical conversations around safety and respect; actively rejects the soft bigotry of low expectations; peels back the layers of alienation and teaches us how to be less accidentally condescending assholes, and more on purpose good humans. The experience and companion workshops have been deployed in commercial, private, and university contexts with results ranging from the practical enlightenment of industry professionals, to cry-your-face-off beautiful personal feedback from people with disabilities and their families.