Remi Poliquin
Counsel
Communication Stations Unveiled in Pointe-Claire Parks
by Julie Liebman
As part of their accessibility initiatives to better support children and families, the City of Pointe-Claire unveiled Communication Stations at Northview Park and at Tony-Proudfoot Park, where the unveiling was held, a park featuring fully accessible play structures.
The large Communication Station boards, which were created by the Lester B. Pearson School Board’s Centre of Excellence for Autism Spectrum Disorder, are the result of a partnership between the school board and Pointe-Claire.
In recent years, the LBPSB was the first and only school board in Canada to implement this initiative in all elementary school playgrounds. Verdun Elementary School and Beechwood Elementary School were the first to welcome the boards.
This special unveiling took place in the presence of Mayor John Belvedere, Judy Kelley, Chair of the LBPSB, and Cindy Finn, the LBPSB’s Director General.
“At the Lester B. Pearson School Board, we strive to build environments that are safe and secure. Communication Stations provide universal accessibility to children with challenges by helping them express a multitude of feelings, emotions, needs, and ideas. I am extremely proud of our professionals at the Centre of Excellence and Autism. The communications boards have been expanded and in cities like Pointe-Claire who also value inclusion and accessibility,” said Judy Kelley.
“This project is simple but deeply important,” said Mayor Belvedere. “These boards will provide children with autism concrete tools to help them be understood and interact with others. These communication boards remind us that communication is not only verbal but can also occur via gestures and images and that we must continue to promote universal accessibility. I would like to thank the Lester B. Pearson School Board for their partnership and for making this special project possible,” said the mayor.
A Communication Station is a form of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). AAC includes all forms of communication that are used to express needs, wants, thoughts, feelings, and ideas. AAC includes facial expressions, gestures, symbols, pictures, and written language, as well as specialized communication apps and devices that provide speech output.
In 2022, the Lester B. Pearson School Board Centre of Excellence for Autism Spectrum Disorder undertook an initiative to make every LBPSB school more inclusive by installing permanent Communication Stations in all elementary school playgrounds.
