A virtual exchange event in December
Members of the Deafblind Community of Practice, join us for a virtual exchange event on December 2, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. (Montreal time) entitled: Building connections – exploring the correlations between auditory processing disorders and cortical/cerebral visual impairment
The generous presenters will be Christine Sauvé-Guindon and Pascal Lachance.
Christine has been working as a consultant in deafblindness for 25 years. Passionate and determined, she is known for her expertise in assessing and teaching students with multisensory loss.
Specializing in cortical visual impairment (CVI), she holds Perkins-Roman CVI Range certification and is also accredited in child-guided assessment (Child-Guided Strategies: The Van Dijk Approach), training she received from Dr. Jan van Dijk himself.
In 2022, she qualified to use the Tactile Working Memory Scale, under the auspices of the Nordic Welfare Center. She is currently collaborating on the creation of a functional assessment tool for students with Brain-Based Auditory and Visual Impairment (BAVI), in partnership with researchers from Norway and the Netherlands.
An international speaker and published author, Christine has contributed to several articles, including in Deafblind International Review and Idello TFO. Since 2003, she has been teaching the additional qualification in deafblindness at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Education.
Pascal has over 15 years of varied experience in the field of education, including nine years teaching and supporting students with deafblindness. His career has taken him to elementary and secondary schools, specialized classrooms, and consulting positions in Northern Ontario and Ottawa.
His interest in the education of students with deafblindness has deepened through his personal experience as the father of a 15-year-old teenager living with deafblindness, which has fueled his commitment and understanding of the realities experienced by families.
Today, Pascal brings his expertise to the Consortium Centre Jules-Léger, where he serves as a consultant on deafblindness. In this role, he supports school teams across the province, promotes the development of inclusive teaching practices, and helps to spread knowledge and understanding of deafblindness within Ontario’s French-speaking educational community.
Attend the online meeting for free to expand your knowledge!
Register: https://santemonteregie.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Kp_x4RrnS_G03tE7nDFrng
Information: cdp.surdicecite.inlb@ssss.gouv.qc.ca
Subscription: cdpsurdicecite.org
A community of practice that listens to its members
At the end of the summer, we reached out to you. Twenty-six of you shared your experiences, opinions, needs, and suggestions for ensuring the vitality of the community by responding to the Vitality Survey. The results speak for themselves, and your voices will be heard.
A strong trend emerged from the responses: respondents perceive the CoP as a valuable space for collaboration. A majority (84%) emphasized that the activities offered promote knowledge acquisition and sharing. In addition, CoP membership would enable:
1) organizations to benefit from the knowledge exchanged at the CoP (81%);
2) members to develop their professional network (66%).
These figures tell a story of mutual support, knowledge exchange, and enriched practices.
As in all stories, challenges remain. More than a third of participants expressed obstacles to their involvement in the proposed activities, including lack of availability and lack of recognition from their professional community (39% in total).
These very real obstacles remind us that a CoP can only flourish if its members are actively and sustainably involved, sharing and learning from each other. The other results will be published in the News by December. Stay tuned!
Improvements are already being made to the way the community of practice operates, based on the information obtained through the survey (65%): the Newsletter will now be sent by email.
The survey report compiling the detailed results can be shared upon request: cdp.surdicecite.inlb@ssss.gouv.qc.ca
Improving the lives of people with deafblindness—an ambitious mission!
- This summer, the Ministry of Solidarity, Autonomy, and People with Disabilities, in partnership with the National Group for Cooperation on Rare Disabilities (GNCHR), published a hopeful report: Ministerial Mission: Improving the Lives of People with Deafblindness.
This collaborative effort, carried out with experts and people living with deafblindness, has a clear objective: to make concrete improvements in the daily lives of these individuals. To this end, seven key recommendations were identified:
- Officially recognize deafblindness as a rare disability in its own right.
- Conduct a census to better understand people’s needs.
- Guarantee access to education, from kindergarten to university.
- Facilitate access to appropriate and specialized care.
- Promote technical aids for greater independence.
- Support self-determination.
- Strengthen support throughout the life cycle.
Find out how the recommendations will be implemented by reading the full report: https://gnchr.fr/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2025/07/Mission-Ministerielle_Ameliorer-la-vie-des-personnes-sourdaveugles.pdf
For more information (GNCHR website): https://gnchr.fr/publication-du-rapport-pour-ameliorer-la-vie-des-personnes-sourdaveugles-une-etape-franchie-de-nouvelles-perspectives-ouvertes
You can view several publications from this event in the New Publications section of the Nouvelles-Vision newsletter from the Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille. Subscribe today!
Translated by DeepL