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Accessibility Plan

Process

The Accessibility Plan includes guiding principles and existing resources. It summarizes consultations, barriers, and priorities for the next three years to address those barriers.

Framework guiding our work

We aim to create a community that goes beyond identifying individual barriers to basic inclusion on campus. We envision a community that actively welcomes and values a diversity of abilities and experiences. In other words, a community that is able to adapt to meet the needs of its members, rather than making its members adapt to fit into existing standards.

Principles

UVic’s Accessibility Plan is a positive and meaningful complement to our existing plans, principles and values.

As per the Accessible BC Act, the following principles underpin our plan:

  • Inclusion
  • Adaptability
  • Diversity
  • Collaboration
  • Self-determination
  • Universal design

The Accessibility Plan also reflects the principles outlined in the new Strategic Plan, including:

Operating with excellence. We will pursue excellence in the way we teach, research, engage with the community and operate.

Create a welcoming space. We will cultivate an environment that is inclusive, equitable and supportive. UVic will be a place where each person feels like they belong.

Lifting each other up. We will commit to helping people succeed in their endeavours, because we know that purpose and fulfillment are foundational to the fullest expression of human well-being.

Consultations

We began campus-wide consultations on accessibility in 2022, through the campus-wide Equity Action Plan process. Specific to the Accessibility Plan, we have consulted faculty, staff and students through a combination of meetings, emails and online surveys.

Groups and units consulted

  • Associate Deans, Chairs and Directors
  • Centre for Accessible Students
  • Co-op and Career Services
  • Deans’ Council and Academic Leadership
  • Division of Learning and Teaching Support and Innovation
  • Equity and Human Rights
  • Executive Council
  • Faculty Association, PEA and CUPE unions
  • Graduate Students’ Society (GSS)
  • International Centre for Students
  • Office of Indigenous Academic and Community Engagement
  • Society for Students with a Disability
  • University of Victoria Students’ Society (UVSS)
Thank you to members of our community who generously shared their experiences and stories with us to help shape this plan. This input was crucial in creating a framework that represents the voices of our diverse community and in supporting an intersectional approach to this work.

Key discussion themes

Feedback was collected and themed as followed:

  • Culture
  • Education and resources
  • Student supports
  • Teaching, learning and research
  • Communication and information

During consultations, we heard a call for:

  • Improving the campus culture and attitudes towards people with disabilities
  • Making accessibility tools, information and resources easier to find
  • Recognizing that accessibility is a shared responsibility
  • Improving the accessibility of the built environment
  • Continuing to make our processes and systems more accessible
  • Supporting instructors in universal course design

Our three-year plan reflects how we intend to respond to and address feedback gathered through consultations.

Barriers identified

Through Equity Action Plan consultations, we identified several barriers specific to accessibility. For example:

  • Equity-centred culture
  • Recruitment and retention
  • Access and support

Additionally, the Accessibility Committee identified barriers related to:

  • UVic’s built environment
  • Digital accessibility
  • Lack of understanding
  • Terminology

Many decision makers have not experienced systemic oppression or inequity. They may lack the skills and knowledge to consider how their decisions impact systemically and historically marginalized groups.

Employment practices do not adequately consider retention of faculty, librarians and/or staff from systemically and historically marginalized groups.

Academic accommodations for students with disabilities (including visible and invisible) are inconsistent and not specific to individual needs. As well, the availability of and access to support services for students participating in experiential learning (i.e., co-ops, field schools or placements) is inconsistent.

Obstacles such as non-automatic doors, steps and uneven floors make access difficult or impossible for people with physical disabilities. Wayfinding on campus can also be challenging.

UVic has websites, documents and databases that are not accessible for people with disabilities. For example, screen readers cannot read improperly formatted PDFs, or describe charts or graphics lacking descriptive text.

Many people simply do not know all the potential barriers to access. For example, sensory factors such as lighting, sounds and smells may prevent participation.

There is an inconsistency with language across campus. For example, not everyone understands the difference between accommodation and accessibility.
View progress

Accountability

At the direction of the co-chairs of the Accessibility Committee, UVic staff will regularly monitor, respond to, and/or forward feedback received. Feedback will be brought forward to the Accessibility Committee as appropriate for discussion and to inform future versions of the Accessibility Plan.

We will also continue to report to Senate and the Board of Governors as required and specific to their purview.

The Accessibility Committee will conduct a review and evaluation of our Accessibility Plan at least every three years. The mandated review deadline is September 1, 2026 but we plan to take a more iterative approach to better respond to the immediate needs of the UVic community.

We endeavour to regularly update the Accessibility Plan in response to initiatives, progress towards our goals and feedback. We will conduct an annual review and refresh of this website.

Share your accessibility progress

If you know of any projects, events or initiatives led by UVic employees or students, email us at accessibility@uvic.ca.

Let’s work together to ensure that UVic is more accessible and inclusive.