Vernon Matters file photo

By Liam Verster

Making Schools More Accessible

SD22 creating committee to address accessibility issues

Jun 21, 2023 | 6:48 AM

The school district that serves Greater Vernon and Lumby will be looking at improving accessibility to area schools and facilities.

As per the Accessibility Regulation of the Accessible British Columbia Act, School District 22 must assemble an accessibility committee, create an accessibility plan, and offer a tool to receive feedback on accessibility.

A report to the SD22 Board of Education stated the committee is being created by Christine Love, the district’s director of instruction – inclusion.

It will include Love, an Indigenous community representative, a member of the SD22 accessibility working group, two CUPE representatives, two Vernon Teacher Association (VTA) reps, one student, one parent/guardian/caregiver of a student, and the district principal of inclusion. Individuals have already been selected to fill the roles on the committee.

After officially assembling, the next step for the committee will be to create an accessibility plan to state how the school district will identify, remove and prevent barriers.

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Consultations will be required to consider specific principles that include adaptability, collaboration, diversity, inclusion, self-determination and universal design.

As part of the feedback tool SD22 staff will distribute a survey to children, youth, families and staff to gather information on the current accessibility needs or barriers and collect feedback on how to address their concerns.

Timelines for collecting feedback and developing plans were not outlined in the report to the Board of Education.