On Tuesday, September 26, the culmination of a project between the City of Huntington Beach and California State University, Long Beach, was unveiled at Eader Park. As a fully accessible park located next to Eader School and Banning Library, Eader Park was the perfect location for a new communication tool called an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) board. For those unfamiliar with AAC, it is a transformative tool that can either supplement or serve as an alternative to speech for individuals with disabilities.

Heather Smoll, a graduate student in Speech Language Pathology at CSU Long Beach, and a member of the CSU Long Beach National Student Speech Language Association introduced the concept to the City in 2021. The AAC board serves as a visual representation of language and brings tremendous benefits in the park setting. It facilitates and embraces every form of communication, increases accessibility, and gives equal access to play as well as dismantling barriers and challenging preconceptions.

This project was made possible due to the efforts of CSU Long Beach, the Community and Library Services Department, and Public Works. A huge thank you to Heather Smoll for championing this project, Justin Torres for the installation of the AAC Board, and the Huntington Beach City School District for supporting the efforts through their presence and outreach to students regarding this event.