Accessibility Plan

Our office aims to deepen our connections with British Columbians with disabilities. People with disabilities who may need our services – to make a complaint of unfairness, or a disclosure of wrongdoing – can experience a range of barriers in accessing our office, including barriers related to our communications practices and technologies. We aim to use clear, inclusive and accessible language, formats and approaches in our communications, outreach and reporting, so that people with disabilities know about and are able to access our services when needed.

Accessibility Priorities:

1.1 Outreach and engagement to develop a more robust understanding: Through implementation of our outreach plan, we will engage with members of the disability community and community serving organizations to understand where barriers to accessing our services exist. We will combine this feedback with input from people who have used our services, public authorities and our staff to identify opportunities for improvement.

1.2 Improve the accessibility of our website: we will continue to implement recommendations from a 2022 accessibility audit of our website, with the aim of ensuring compliance with WCAG 2.1 standards. This means that we will embed accessibility considerations throughout our website, including in our reports and webforms.

1.3 Collect and analyse data to inform our service delivery: in consultation with the disability community, we will begin collecting socio-demographic data about people who make complaints to our office to better understand how well our office is serving people with disabilities.

1.4 Apply best practices in accessible communications: we will develop a revised writing and style guide and accessibility guidelines for email communications to support written communications that are clear, accessible and consider the needs of the intended audience.

We want to provide fair, high quality and accessible services when people with disabilities seek our assistance. This means working towards low barrier, safe and accessible services.

Accessibility Priorities:

2.1 Provide ongoing training to staff: we will support staff in providing equitable service to people with disabilities by offering ongoing training, information and resources to increase their knowledge and understanding. We will ensure that this includes training on intersectional dimensions of disability so that staff are supported and prepared to take an intersectional approach in their work.

2.2 Apply an accessibility lens to policy development to support equitable service delivery: consistent with our commitment to apply GBA+ to all our policy development, our policy framework will include accessibility as a key principle. We will integrate accessibility into all our policies so that we can better serve a diverse public.

2.3 Ensure accessibility of in-person meetings and events:
– We are available to meet with the public at our offices in Victoria. We will work with the other offices of the legislature with which we share our Victoria office accomodation to implement priority recommendations from a building accessibility audit in the publicly-accessible spaces in our building.
– When conducting community complaints clinics or other public in-person engagement we will ensure those spaces are accessible to all.

We seek collaborative engagement with Indigenous organizations, leaders, and individuals working on accessibility with a goal of providing culturally safe and accessible services for Indigenous people with disabilities.

Accessibility Priorities:

3.1 Engage with Indigenous organizations, leaders and individuals: we will initiate outreach to and invite engagement with Indigenous partners working on accessibility to identify accessibility barriers and priorities for improvement.

We aim for our work to result in meaningful and demonstrable improvements in government programs and services for people with disabilities.

Accessibility Priorities:

4.1 Identify accessibility and inclusion as components of fairness:
In our investigations into the actions and decisions of local and provincial public bodies, we will apply an intersectional lens to identify and address systemic inequity and disproportionate impacts for people with disabilities, and make meaningful recommendations for change.

In our training and consultation work with public bodies, we will work to increase their awareness of accessibility and inclusion as key components of fairness.

4.2 Understand our impact: through improved tracking of settlements and recommendations we make to public bodies, we will better understand the impact of our work for people with disabilities in BC.

We seek to create a culture of accessibility and inclusion for staff with disabilities, through policies and practices that remove barriers to recruiting, training, promoting and retaining employees with disabilities. We also aim to remove barriers to full participation of contractors with disabilities and others working with our office in a professional capacity.

Accessibility Priorities:

5.1 Review our policies and practices: we will apply a GBA+ lens to our existing and future human resources policies, including our work arrangements policy, to ensure that they support recruiting and retaining employees with disabilities.

5.2 Improve the accessibility of our workplace: we will work to implement priority actions from an accessibility audit of our building to improve the accessibility of our workplace for employees and contractors with disabilities. We will also promote the use of accessible technology and software to remove barriers to collaboration and participation experienced by employees with disabilities, whether they are working in-office or remotely.