Snoezelen Rooms

Article by Marc Rocheleau
Retrieved from windsorite.

For those with severe physical and developmental disabilities, two rooms are offering new hope.

After an open house back in early February at Canadian National Institute for the Blind’s (CNIB) Windsor office, two Snoezelen rooms are in business.

“Snoezelen is a registered name for a type of philosophy,” said Jody Lowrie, CNIB’s Early Childhood Vision Consultant/Early Intervention Specialist for the Blind-Low Vision Program. “It’s used with specially designed equipment or a room that promotes sensation, relaxation and leisure driven by the individual it’s intended for.”


Lowrie is familiar with severe disabilities; her son is autistic and blind. Until 1998, when a Snoezelen room opened at Hospice, people had to travel to Kitchener to use one. The sensory stimulation therapy gave her son a chance to relax and stopped him from biting himself.

Due to lack of funding, the Hospice location was recently forced to close. Realizing there was available space at CNIB, Lowrie made the pitch to host two rooms there.

“I had seen that we had extra office space in our local office that wasn’t always being utilized and asked if we could transform it into Snoezelen rooms,” she said. “Approval came from Sherry Malcho, Regional Manager for Southwestern CNIB. I had been using the room in Windsor with the young clients I work with and was aware of its closure due to lack of funding so I proposed to the Windsor-Essex Sensory Community Centre that ‘if CNIB kept it as a Community Room would they donate the equipment to us?’”

The group approved the donation, thanks in large part to Marlene Crawford. Being involved with the room at Hospice since its inception, keeping it in the community meant a lot to her.

One room contains two vibrating bubble tubes, a shimmering light-curtain, line light that glows in black light, mirrors, a bean bag and rocking chair, evening breeze, a falling leaf interactive wall panel, soothing music and can accommodate a wheelchair. The other room, geared towards younger users, contains a bubble wall panel, solar projector, mirrorball, waterbed, interactive sensory busy and glow boards, sparkles the clown and a traffic light.