After you have completed the steps in the Establishing a Committee Guide, you are ready to start working on your plan. While the Guide lays out the steps in a linear fashion, it is more likely that you will go back-and-forth through these Steps. We suggest you keep track of the decisions you have made and how you have made them so that you can include this int the plan itself. This encourages transparency with the public and promotes a learning process. There are additional Appendices offer a toolkit of templates referred to in the Guide.
Plans must be reviewed and updated, at least once every three years. However, you may want to do this more frequently, if required.
Download the Toolkit & Guide
Who is this Guide For?
Developing Your First Accessibility Plan: A Guide for BC Prescribed Organizations will help staff who have been assigned the task of coordinating or acting as project manager to prepare the organization’s first accessibility plan. This guide focuses on preparing and writing your plan. There will be some general guidance on how to set up a committee and a feedback mechanism, including several templates we have provided in the appendices.
How to use this Guide
- The guide will help you fill in the Accessibility template found in Appendix 1.
- The accessibility plan template summarizes the heading sections you may wish to include.
- This guide explains more about what you must include and offers suggested areas to cover in your plan based on promising practices emerging from early adopters of the legislation, as well as examples from other jurisdictions. The content was co-developed by delegates from a range of sectors, and also reflects elements from existing accessibility plans found during our research.
- Additional templates are provided to help you develop Terms of Reference, Committee Membership Agreements, and Recruiting announcements.
As the legislation is flexible on the content in the accessibility plan, the template provided is intended to offer a general starting point. You are able to scale up and down depending on your organization’s approach and level of ambition.
Why you might wish to keep it small the first time
It’s worth remembering that 750+ Organizations in BC are doing this work for the first time, and we expect that there will be much to learn for all. Setting your expectations to be realistic for your Organization’s current capacity and knowledge level can help you feel more confident that the plan will be manageable. Starting small might allow you to have some early successes and build momentum for your next plan. Consider keeping an ongoing log of what you will expand or change in your next plan.
Why you might want to aim high
If your Organization has a track record for successful community engagement work or if inclusion is a key marker of your brand, you may want to be more ambitious in your approach. As an example, if your Organization has a long-standing accessibility committee or a reputation for providing good service to the disability community, it could make sense to use the plan’s development to further your work as a great partner to the disability community.
On the other hand, if your Organization has had challenges delivering effective programs or services to those with disabilities, you may feel that your plan’s visibility will be high so a very thorough plan with more extensive community involvement may be required.
Legal Disclaimer
This guide provides general information only as a reference to support Prescribed Organizations in meeting the requirements of Accessible BC Act. Each organization is responsible for understanding and complying with its legal obligations and developing its own accessibility plan, committee, and feedback mechanism based on its particular situation.