In 2023, LABC’s first Accessibility Committee developed the 2023-2025 Accessibility Plan (PDF) reflective of the Accessible British Columbia Act to identify, remove, and prevent barriers to individuals in, or interacting with, the organization. Over the past three years, LABC engaged subject matter experts with lived experience of disabilities, collaborated with community organizations and engaged LABC clients and employees to assess where we are and where we need to go to improve accessibility at LABC.
Our accessibility progress
Six of the ten priority actions recommended in the plan have been fully implemented, and the remaining four are in progress. Work continues to advance accessibility in our organization to benefit employees and clients. To learn more about LABC’s accessibility progress, challenges, and lessons learned, see our Legal Aid BC Accessibility Plan: Report on Progress 2023-2025 (PDF).
The following are some highlights of the meaningful steps forward in LABC’s accessibility journey:
- Enhanced website accessibility by addressing 98% of website accessibility audit findings (2024), improving navigation, readability, and content design for users with various disabilities,
- Bought hearing devices to better support clients and employees experiencing hearing loss to participate in conversations with our staff,
- Established voluntary ways to share disabilities and safer options to share accessibility experiences through our anonymous feedback form, and
- Identified invisible and environmental barriers to accessing LABC offices for a range of disabilities from Rick Hansen Foundation’s (RHF) building site audit findings.
Looking forward
LABC is now investing in the creation of a new Accessibility Plan to take us forward on our accessibility journey. To take our accessibility plan further, LABC is engaging those with lived experience of disability, accessibility expertise, guidance from impacted parties, and accounting for how disabilities are uniquely experienced by Indigenous people, women, racialized, 2SLGBTQIA-plus and gender-diverse people.
We want to hear from you!
We invite you to support us and inform LABC’s accessibility work through our feedback form.