British Columbia Institute of Technology
IN-50: Innovation D

At BCIT, we are striving to create a fair, equitable, and welcoming community culture that will include, engage, and connect all members of our community. This culture must permeate all aspects of BCIT and everyday interactions with one another. Our goal is to create a holistic environment in which everyone can engage with the highest degree of confidence, security, and agency.

We are committed to ongoing identification and removal of all barriers that prevent full and meaningful participation in all facets of campus life. BCIT introduced its first Accessibility Plan in 2023 which identifies barriers to accessibility at BCIT and proposes actions to prevent and remove these barriers. We view this Plan as a first step; we will be consulting further with our community and will be updating our plan as a living document. The plan exceeds all requirements of the Accessible British Columbia Act (ABCA) and centers on the perspectives of people with lived experience of accessibility barriers, namely people with disabilities.

In the fall of 2022, the newly formed BCIT Accessibility Steering Committee began the discussion by considering the social model of disability. This model views barriers in society as the limitation to people with disabilities, rather than the disability or impairment itself being the limitation. This model was used as the basis for our exploration of the barriers to accessibility that affect people with disabilities in our organization. The medical model is the traditional model of disability that excludes people with disabilities due to their limitations and creates biases and barriers in society.

Through the Accessibility Plan and the action items outlined within, we strive to make the shift from the medical model of disability to the social model, removing barriers so that our students and employees with disabilities have equal access in all aspects of their involvement at BCIT.

This Plan is a direct reflection of our vision and values – particularly our commitment to Empowering People; Shaping BC; and aligning with our values of Championing Diversity and Inclusion, Engaging with Respect, and Pursuing Collaboration.

The BCIT Accessibility Plan provides:

• An overview of the Accessible British Columbia Act


• Our framework for viewing disability considering the legislation and modernized approaches


• The feedback strategy used to collect valuable feedback from our community


• Our early findings about accessibility barriers at BCIT


• Actions we will consider to make BCIT campuses barrier-free environments

Accessibility is a shared responsibility, and BCIT welcomes ongoing input from all members of BCIT and the broader community.

Download the PDF version of the plan from the BCIT Accessibility Hub at the link below. If you require the Accessibility Plan in an alternative format, please email respect@bcit.ca.