Case study: Law Foundation of British Columbia accessibility plan

The client

The Law Foundation of British Columbia (the Foundation) is an independent non-profit foundation established in 1969 under the Legal Profession Act. They distribute grants to fund law-related projects and programs that benefit people in British Columbia.

The organization’s mandate is to distribute grant funding in five areas:

1. Legal education
2. Legal research
3. Legal aid
4. Law reform
5. Law libraries

Within these areas, the Foundation supports projects and programs that reflect the diversity of British Columbia.

A major focus of their work is to invest in projects that empower people and strengthen communities. Driven by their values, they work towards a future where legal systems support all people to live and thrive with dignity.

The challenge

The Foundation was focused on building the capacity of their staff to meet the requirements of the Accessible BC Act in a good way. They prioritized a thoughtful, gradual, and sustainable approach to accessibility that supported meaningful and manageable change across the organization.

As a key part of this change, they wanted their accessibility plan to be intentional and impactful. Their goal was to create a plan that fostered a culture of accessibility and inclusion.  

They hired Untapped Accessibility to support them through this process.

Our approach

During an initial discovery session and regular project check-ins, we worked closely with the Foundation to help them:

• Understand foundational accessibility concepts, including legislation requirements
• Examine and understand their current state of accessibility
• Set up accountability mechanisms, like a barrier tracking system and accessibility feedback mechanism
• Prioritize meaningful and manageable actions that would set them up for lasting change

An internal focus

For a sustainable approach, we helped the Foundation focus their initial efforts internally – on accessibility for their staff, Governors, and Advisors. The goal was to ensure these team members get what they need to thrive in their roles.

Accessibility training

To support internal barrier identification efforts, we provided training on foundational accessibility concepts, including:

• Key requirements of the Accessible BC Act
• The link between the Accessible BC Act and the social model of disability
• The difference between the medical and social models of disability
• Current language and out of date terms for disability
• How to identify and address barriers

Barrier identification

Then we developed and distributed targeted barrier identification surveys for staff, Governors, and Advisors. We collected and analyzed survey feedback and identified common themes of barriers that impacted each group.

Engaging the accessibility committee

We engaged the Foundation’s internal accessibility committee to review the barrier themes we identified in the survey data. With their approval of themes, we worked with the Foundation to use the themes to identify specific commitments for their accessibility plan.

With a rough idea of internal accessibility actions, we facilitated another session with the committee to ensure they were in support of the specified commitments.

Drafting the plan

With the committee’s endorsement on commitments, we worked with staff to draft a clear and actionable accessibility plan that:

• Linked the Foundation’s mission, vision, and values to their accessibility efforts
• Outlined their initial internal focus for accessibility and their plan for future improvements
• Identified manageable, actionable commitments that support a sustainable approach to accessibility

Impact

With this inaugural accessibility plan, the Foundation has created a strong foundation of accessibility to build upon in the years to come.