Alex Smyth previews the CPC LEGO expansion pack

By Alex Smyth

For most people, the focus on Olympic and Paralympic sport starts and stops with the competitions every two years (with Winter and Summer games rotating during their four-year cycles). While the attention paid during those global events is great, when those games are over, people often stop following the sports and athletes who gave it all they had. 

This is an issue that sports bodies and national sport organizations have been trying to change for a long time, sometimes utilizing some really creative approaches to solve the problem. The Canadian Paralympic Committee (or CPC for short), has unleashed their imagination and hope to inspire people to build a more inclusive world. How, might you ask? By designing a para-sport-focused line of figures that are compatible with LEGO sets!

Providing new designs on the iconic toy allows people to include characters with limb differences, wheelchairs, white canes and more. Providing the open-source designs for free, the CPC hopes this Para Expansion Pack not only reminds people that our para-athletes are still training and working hard to compete but also helps those with disabilities see themselves when playing with LEGO. 

As someone who still has a huge tub of LEGO in my basement, I love this idea. LEGO was always about letting your imagination run free and creating the world as you wanted. Sure, there were plenty of designed sets and instructions you could follow but building a house, spaceship, or whatever else your imagination could drum up, your way always felt more satisfying. Throwing into the mix the adaptive pieces and interchangeability of these designs allows people young and old to integrate disability and accessibility into their play. 

The best part about this set is that the CPC did not set out to make this into something that would generate money. This is about starting a conversation, highlighting disability, and promoting inclusion. By providing the open-source plans and instructions for 3D printing the pieces really send that message home. 

LEGO is a company that believes in the power of play and have produced sets that showcase accessibility in the past (Braille LEGO sets), so I hope that they see what the CPC has done with its Para Expansion Pack and looks for ways that they can further build inclusion and support for people with disabilities with their products. At the end of the day, everyone deserves a chance to play, and play with toys that represent and reflect themselves. 

Learn more about these packs by tuning in to AMI This Week next Monday, November 8, at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv. 

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