What is ARC-BC?
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 jointly managed by SET-BC (Special Education Technology – British Columbia) and PRCVI (Provincial 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.
What types of alternate format materials are available through ARC-BC?
The ARC-BC collection focuses on BC Ministry of Education recommended resources for the K-12 curriculum. The materials are available in a range of electronic formats including electronic text (e.g. .txt, .rtf, .kes), talking books (e.g. .ppt), Braille, and tactile graphics.
Who has access to the ARC-BC collection?
Access to ARC-BC is limited to registered users only. Registration is available to those individuals in participating BC school districts who are:
- students with a perceptual disability who are currently enrolled in a BC public or independent K-12 school, or
- educators supporting such students
Which school districts are currently participating in ARC-BC?
The following BC school districts are currently participating in the ARC-BC Pilot Project. Specific individuals in these districts will be accessing ARC-BC from September – December 2008 as the trial phase is conducted. If you are a student with perceptual disability or an educator providing support to such students in these eight school districts, please contact your ARC-BC District Contact for information about registration.
Other BC school districts are invited to begin participating in ARC-BC in January 2009.
Applications to join the ARC-BC Community are now available!
Where can I go for more information on ARC-BC?
If you would like more information on ARC-BC, please consider attending an online informational meeting. These are open to anyone and are scheduled throughout the 2008-2009 school year. View schedule
In addition, specific information on the various aspects of ARC-BC can be found on the ARC-BC Support Resources page located in the SET-BC Learning Centre
If you have other questions not addressed in these resources, please contact the ARC-BC team at .