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About Us

Welcome to the Accessible Resource Centre – British Columbia (ARC-BC) – an online repository of learning materials in digital accessible formats for students with perceptual (print) disabilities in the BC K-12 education community.

Overview

ARC-BC Provincial Team

  • ARC-BC is funded by the BC Ministry of Education and Child Care and hosted by the Vancouver School Board via PRCVI. ARC-BC works in consultation and partnership with BC school districts and independent schools, other alternate format producers, and publishers to provide requested materials in a timely manner.

School District Contact

  • Thorough understanding of service delivery in inclusive education
  • Provides information and advice to educators on ARC-BC materials and services

Students

  • Supporting British Columbia K-12 students who require timely and equal access to curriculum materials in formats that meet their learning needs.

Context

In recent years there has been a significant increase in the demand for alternate format materials for students with perceptual disabilities.  This has allowed more students, who previously struggled to read conventional textbooks and novels, to complete their educational programs along with their peers. Before ARC-BC started, educators battled to provide the necessary electronic resources, spending a tremendous amount of time locating them or creating them on their own.  The same conventional print textbook may have been scanned many, many times across the province and very likely would remain with that one educator or, in some cases, have been circulated without observing Canadian Copyright Act. ARC-BC offers solutions to several of these challenges. By providing alternate format versions of the standard print materials used in the BC curriculum in a centralized, coordinated and secure manner, BC educators are able to quickly locate and acquire the alternate versions needed, without having to scan and edit the materials while ensuring they adhere to copyright legislation.

All BC students are entitled to timely and equitable access to learning materials in formats that meet their access requirements. ARC-BC produces digital alternate format versions of primary learning materials (e.g., textbooks, workbooks, novels) on behalf of students with perceptual (or print) disabilities when an accessible version of the material is not available. Work is ongoing to promote inclusion and to ensure that digital format learning materials are more responsive to a diverse range of user profiles - for more information on accessibility in educational publishing, visit AccessiblePublishing.ca For more information on how educational teams can design learning materials for inclusion, visit the ARC-BC Universal Design for Learning Materials portal or schedule a virtual workshop with the ARC-BC team

Mission

The goal of ARC-BC is to provide BC educators with access to high-quality digital and alternate format materials for their students with print or perceptual disabilities in a timely manner.  Production and distribution of the alternate format materials is centrally coordinated and duplication of effort in resource creation greatly reduced.  These activities support equitable and timely access to K-12 curricular resources for students who cannot access standard print materials due to a visual impairment, physical disability or comprehension disability.

Mandate

ARC-BC collects, produces and distributes high quality digital and alternate format materials for use by students with perceptual disabilities as a service to BC school districts.  Educators in all school districts are able to search this online repository or "digital library" to find and download alternate format resources related to the BC curriculum.

ARC-BC Promotional Posters

ARC-BC Junior Poster

ARC-BC Senior Poster

Designing For Inclusion Junior Poster

Designing for Inclusion Senior Poster