For BC Independent Schools:

Accessible Resource Centre - British Columbia

Providing BC Educators with Alternate Format Materials for their Students with Perceptual Disabilities

The Accessible Resource Centre – British Columbia is a BC Ministry of Education funded response to the increasing demand for digital or alternate format alternatives to print in BC classrooms. The goal of ARC-BC is to provide BC students with perceptual disabilities and the educators supporting them with high quality digital alternate format materials based on the BC K-12 curriculum.

ARC-BC is managed by PRCVI (Provincial Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired) and works in consultation and partnership with BC school districts, other alternate format producers, and publishers to provide recommended and requested materials in a timely manner.

Current News

April 27, 2012

Hello from the ARC-BC Team!

It is hard to believe it is May already! We have three news items to share with you.

  1. In order to improve the alternate format collection and to fulfill our copyright maintenance responsibilities, ARC-BC is collecting access information from all registered users at this time. We recognize it is a very busy time of year, but ask that you complete the short on line survey that will provide us with valuable information. Please log into ARC-BC in order to be directed to the 3 minute survey. Full access to our resources will once again be available upon your completion of the survey. The survey will run from May 3rd until June 1st 2012. We really appreciate your feedback.
  2. New Requests for the 2012/13 School Year: We encourage you to verify the titles your students will require from ARC-BC as soon as possible. Follow the steps below:
    • Search the ARC-BC repository for the title in the format you require
    • If the title is available but NOT in the format you require send an email request to arc@setbc.org with the book title, ISBN, and format. (Please note that high school science and math texts are only produced in kes level 1 format due to time and production software constraints)
    • If the required title is in the ARC-BC repository but the notation indicates that it is [In Production] please contact arc@setbc.org to have it added to the high priority production list.
    • If the title is not currently available in the repository send an email request to arc@setbc.org with the book title, ISBN, and format. If ARC-BC has an available print copy we will initiate the production process.
    • We will notify you if we do not have a copy of the book. You will need to donate the book in order to initiate the production process. The book must be relatively new with crisp, clean pages and no markings, folds or tears. Your donated book will be catalogued, have the spine cut off and sent through a high speed scanner to capture the images necessary to produce the alternate format(s). The book will not be returned to you.
      • Send the book(s) to: ARC-BC
        Attn: Susan Hannigan
        106-1750 West 75th Avenue
        Vancouver, BC V6P 6G2
    • Once the book is posted on the ARC-BC repository and ready for download, we will notify you by email that files are available to download.
  3. Finally, if you are retiring at the end of June, please inform your ARC District Contact in the coming weeks. Your District Contact's email information can be found on the ARC Contact page http://www.arc-bc.org/help/contact.aspx

Have a wonderful spring!

The ARC-BC Provincial Team