As part of the Province’s goal to improve accessibility for people with disabilities in BC, Disability Alliance BC was selected by the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction (MSDPR) to distribute funding to community-based “Accessibility Projects” beginning in 2018. Since then, over 80 projects have been funded throughout BC.

The Province has now announced that the grants will be available again in 2024/25. A total of $450,000 will be made available to BC-based not-for-profit organizations. Successful applicants will receive up to a $40,000 grant to implement a year-long project in 2025.

May 26th-June 1st is AccessAbility Week in BC and Canada and this year’s #NAAW theme is “Forward Together: Accessibility and Inclusion for All.” DABC is pleased to be able to once again distribute funds that will improve access and inclusion for people with disabilities in BC.

Applications will open on Friday, August 2^nd, 2024.

These grants are for projects focusing on one of the following objectives to increase accessibility for people with disabilities:

• Accessible employment;
• Accessible emergency planning and response;
• Accessible arts, culture and tourism;
• Accessible sports and recreation;
• Accessible education and learning;
• Accessible community participation.

To apply:

• Projects must be focused on community engagement rather than large capital costs such as accessibility improvements to buildings.
• Eligible organizations must be not-for-profit organizations with a volunteer Board chosen by its membership, based in BC or with a base of operations in and sufficient capacity to deliver services in BC. They must operate primarily for community benefit and have services open to the public rather than restricted to their membership.
• If an organization has received a grant in the past, they can reapply 5 years after their application was submitted (for example, if an organization applied in 2019 for a grant and did their project in 2020, they can reapply in 2024 to do a project in 2025).

Applications will be due on Friday September 13^th at noon Pacific Time. Granting decisions are made by a Committee of representatives from DABC and other disability and community organizations from around BC. Successful applicants will receive funding in December, and implement their accessibility project in January 2025.

To learn more about the grants please see: https://disabilityalliancebc.org/program/accessibility-projects/.

At the bottom of this page (in the website’s footer) you can also click on “sign up for updates” and enter your email to be notified of when the CFP and applications are posted, when online information sessions will be held, and other announcements related to the grants and DABC’s work in general.

If you have any questions, please contact the Accessibility Projects Grants Coordinator, Danielle Gauld, at ap@dabc.ca

Today, DABC celebrates the 13th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)! GAAD highlights and brings awareness to the importance of digital accessibility for people with all disabilities.

At DABC, we are constantly striving to make our services and resources more accessible to our clients and anyone else who may access them.

We recently began providing our flagship magazine, Transition, in both PDF and accessible text formats. Check out the magazine here:
https://disabilityalliancebc.org/category/publications/transition/

We’re also working toward revamping our website to make it more streamlined and accessible! Early stages of this process involved asking the disability community for their input through an online survey, and direct discussions with people with various disabilities.

For more information about GAAD, visit: https://accessibility.day/.