For one of our Education 405 classes, we had the pleasure of hosting a zoom presentation by Victoria Woelders from ARC – BC. ARC stands for Accessible Resource Centre, and Victoria works as an Outreach coordinator. The ARC – BC website states that ARC – BC is a “BC Ministry of Education and Child Care funded response to the growing demand for digital accessible format alternatives to hard-copy print learning materials.”
The purpose of ARC – BC is to address the need for alternative learning materials for disabled students. Their goal is to provide students and their educational support teams with digital resources that are high in quality and still align with BC’s k-12 curriculum. They provide these resources to students with physical disabilities like visual impairment, and learning disabilities like Dyslexia. This is a great resource for teachers to help students learn in a more accessible way.
Before this presentation, I didn’t know about ARC – BC or its great resources to help students with disabilities be able to learn in a more accommodating way. Using ARC – BC not only provides learning tools for students, but it can also facilitate a connection between the student and their support team. A teacher providing a students with accessible resources shows the student that they care and they want the student to achieve their educational goals. This ensures that the classroom is seen as a community, where everyone is able to learn at their own pace and feel accepted by their peers.
