Communication Intermediary Services in Nova Scotia
When someone has a communication disability, the barrier is rarely that they have nothing to say. It is that the setting is not built to receive it. A communication intermediary makes the exchange work — accurately, impartially, and without putting words in anyone's mouth. This is a service we are building alongside our speech-language service; this page is what it will involve.
What a communication intermediary does
A communication intermediary is a trained professional who assists communication between a person with a communication disability and someone who needs accurate information from them — a police officer, a lawyer, a court, a doctor, a caseworker, an investigator, a tribunal.
The role is impartial and facilitative, not representative. An intermediary does not advocate for either side, does not answer on anyone's behalf, and does not decide what is true. What an intermediary does is make sure the question is understood as it was asked, and the answer is understood as it was given.
In practice, that means:
- assessing how this particular person communicates best, before the meeting
- advising professionals on how to ask questions this person can actually answer — pace, phrasing, question type, breaks
- supplying or preparing communication tools where they help: pictures, written choices, yes/no supports, alphabet or letter boards, the person's own AAC device
- being present during the interview, meeting or testimony to clarify in both directions
- flagging, out loud and on the record, when a response is unclear rather than guessing at it
This is a recognised accessibility support, not a favour. People with communication disabilities have the same right to be interviewed, to give evidence, to consent to treatment, and to be heard in decisions about their own lives as anyone else.
Who benefits from an intermediary
Anyone whose speech, language, or comprehension makes high-stakes conversations unreliable — whether that is lifelong or recent.
People with lifelong communication disabilities
Cerebral palsy, autism, intellectual disability, Down syndrome, developmental language disorder, and anyone who uses AAC to communicate.
People with acquired communication disabilities
Aphasia after stroke, brain injury, ALS, Parkinson's, dementia, hearing loss combined with language difficulty, or the effects of medication and fatigue on speech.
Professionals who need accurate information
Police, Crown and defence counsel, victim services, healthcare teams, tribunals, DSP caseworkers and investigators — all of whom carry the risk of a misread answer.
Settings we support
Police interviews & the justice system
Statements, interviews, meetings with counsel, and preparation for testimony. This is the setting where the consequences of a misunderstood answer are highest — for a complainant, a witness or an accused. An intermediary helps ensure that what is recorded is what the person meant, and that the process is not the reason evidence is weak.
Healthcare & consent conversations
Consent to treatment, symptom reporting, discharge planning, and goals-of-care conversations. A person who cannot reliably report pain or side effects is a person who receives worse care. Support here is often the difference between a decision made with someone and one made about them.
Government, DSP & benefits meetings
Disability Support Program planning meetings, income assistance interviews, housing assessments, and appeals. These meetings decide what support someone receives; being unable to explain your own needs in one is expensive in a very literal sense. See also our DSP clinical consultation.
Legal capacity, guardianship & decision-making
Meetings about representation agreements, supported decision-making and guardianship. Communication support matters enormously here, because capacity assessments can mistake a communication barrier for an absence of understanding. Making the communication work first is the only fair way to ask the question.
Education & workplace meetings
Program planning meetings, accommodation discussions, disciplinary or grievance processes, and return-to-work meetings where the person at the centre needs to be heard rather than spoken for.
How an intermediary engagement will run
Request & scoping
Contact us with the setting, the date, and what is needed. Either the person themselves, a family member, a lawyer, a caseworker or an agency can make the request.
Communication assessment
We meet the person first — separately from the interview or meeting — to establish how they communicate best, what supports help, and what to avoid.
Guidance for the professionals involved
A short written summary of how to ask questions this person can answer, delivered before the meeting so it can be planned rather than improvised.
Attendance & facilitation
We attend the interview, meeting or proceeding, facilitate impartially, and say so clearly whenever a response is ambiguous rather than allowing a guess to stand.
Written record
Where it is wanted, a written account of the supports used and any communication limitations that should be weighed when the record is read.
Not yet available. Register your interest and we will contact you when the service opens — and if your matter is urgent, tell us and we will point you at Communication Disabilities Access Canada, who maintain the national picture on intermediary availability.
Communication intermediary — common questions
Can I request an intermediary now?
Not yet. This service arrives with our speech-language service, which is still being recruited for — an intermediary must be a trained speech-language professional, so we cannot deliver it before then, and we will not pretend otherwise to a lawyer, a police officer or a family with a court date. Register your interest and we will contact you when it opens. If you have an urgent matter, Communication Disabilities Access Canada is the national body for intermediary and communication access in the justice system and is the right first call.
Is an intermediary the same as an interpreter or an advocate?
No. An interpreter converts between two languages. An advocate argues for one side's interests. An intermediary does neither — the role is to make communication between the two parties accurate, and it is impartial by design. The person's own words remain their own words.
Does having an intermediary make someone's evidence weaker?
The opposite. Unsupported communication is what produces unreliable evidence — leading questions answered agreeably, yes/no answers to questions the person did not follow, and long pauses read as evasion. Documented, impartial communication support makes a record more reliable, not less, and the supports used are disclosed openly.
Who can request one?
The person themselves, a family member or substitute decision-maker, a lawyer, police, victim services, a healthcare team, a school, an employer or a DSP caseworker. Requests from professionals are common and welcome — bring us in early rather than the morning of.
How much notice do you need?
Once the service is running: as much as you can give. The communication assessment has to happen before the meeting, so a same-day request cannot be met properly. A week or more will be comfortable. Right now the answer is that we cannot take a booking at all — please do not plan a hearing date around us.
What does it cost, and who pays?
Fees will depend on the assessment, preparation and attendance time involved, and will always be quoted before anything is booked. Depending on the setting, the cost may be carried by the requesting agency, by legal aid or counsel, by a DSP or care budget, or privately. We have not set a fee schedule yet, because the service is not open.
Register your interest
Tell us the setting you need this for and we will contact you when the service opens. If your matter is urgent, say so — we would rather point you somewhere useful today than add you to a list.