Roxie Johnson was a speech therapist who served special needs children and adults. Working at schools and hospitals in the 1970s, she saw the need for a set of picture symbols that people with limited or no speech could use for communication.  

Roxie developed a book called The Picture Communication Symbols (PCS) that included 700 picture symbols. She gave the symbols thick lines so they could be photocopied to support multiple users.  

In 1980, Roxie and her husband Terry Johnson, a former special education teacher, started the Mayer-Johnson company. They printed 100 copies of the book along with an advertising mailer, which they sent to 300 potential customers.

In 1985 Mayer-Johnson printed a second book of symbols and added many coordinating special education products to its catalog. Terry became more and more involved, and eventually began running the company. He inspired the well-loved Mayer-Johnson “silly man” logo.  

In 1989, the company celebrated a major milestone: PCS appeared in a computer software program called Boardmaker.  

The original Boardmaker program was developed by staff at the Erinoak Hospital in Canada. Over time, the Boardmaker line of software expanded to include Speaking Dynamically and Writing with Symbols, but always featured a growing collection of PCS.  

Many of the products sold by Mayer-Johnson were printed materials developed by teachers and parents using PCS.

Roxie and Terry moved the company out of their home in 1991.

Between 1990 and 2004, Boardmaker and PCS became the leading AAC software and symbol set in the world. PCS was licensed by dozens of competing companies as the symbol set of choice for their AAC software.                                                                                                  

In 2008, Boardmaker launched a free activity sharing site called AdaptedLearning.com. The site, now called myBoardmaker.com, was an overnight success: 1600 people signed up before the site went live. Today membership is near half a million.

2010 saw the introduction of Boardmaker Studio which made creating interactive activities easier and faster. That same year, the company responded to the demand for a more mature graphic style. A new style of PCS called PCS ThinLine was born. The collection featured subtle coloring, texture, and shadows, with people and animals represented as full figures rather than sticks.

Boardmaker Online launched in 2015 as a subscription service level on top of the massive sharing community. A year later, Boardmaker released a series of powerful curriculum programs under the Instructional Solutions umbrella.

Released in 2021, Boardmaker 7 is the most powerful software of its kind.

With over 40,000 symbols in a variety of graphic styles, this flexible tool lets users tailor learning materials based on the age, personality, and needs of their students.

Boardmaker 7 offers subscribers a massive collection of ready-to-print communication boards, activities, and lesson plans as well as interactive games and quizzes. Parents and teachers can customize these supports to craft the most engaging and relevant content for their students.

A Boardmaker 7 subscription is the gateway to a community of over 500,000 educators, parents and Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) with ideas for getting the most out of this incredible tool.